The film starts with a woman being pursued and killed by someone wearing a devil mask inside a haunted house attraction at an amusement park. The killer then hangs her body inside a room so it blends with the props. Sometime later on Halloween night Natalie (Amy Forsyth) goes back to her hometown to have fun with her friend Brooke (Reign Edwards). Brooke has moved in with Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus) a party animal type whom Natalie doesn't like. They start to develop more of a friendship throughout the film though. Brooke and Taylor have gotten Natalie a date with Gavin (Roby Attal) Brooke's roommate who likes Natalie. Brooke and Taylor go with their boyfriends Quinn (Christian James) and Asher (Matt Mercurio) respectively.
Upon arriving at the park they go into some haunted houses where Natalie is able to tell when certain people will come out of doors to scare them. Meanwhile the killer shows up, this time in a burned face mask of sorts. He runs into one woman who says she isn't scared of him. While Taylor, Brooke, and Natalie are in one room of the haunted house that same woman comes in and says that there is someone following her trying to kill her. The trio think that it is part of the park's gimmick. They give up the woman's hiding place. Brooke and Taylor leave. Natalie also says she isn't scared of the killer because she thinks it is part of the park's gimmick. The killer stabs the woman with a knife in front of Natalie and sets his sights on her and her friends...
The visuals in this movie are great. While I would normally fault darker films for being too scared to show practical effects or trying to disguise CGI this movie doesn't do that. There are uses of red, blue, green, and magenta colored strobe lights that help set the atmosphere and make you feel like you are in a horror themed amusement park. Certain people will just run up and scare them and instead of feeling like cheap jump scares it sets the atmosphere. There are other things I enjoyed. Any of the morgue and dead body rooms in the haunted houses. The practical effects looked primitive enough to be in a real haunted house but also good enough for a movie. There are other gimmicks I enjoyed. For example to get maps of the park one of them has to reach into a performer's stomach that has a hole in it. When Quinn does that the man jumps him. So little things like that make this just as fun of a movie about people in a horror-themed amusement park as it does a slasher. There is some clever writing as well. The killer is able to get ahold of a character's cellphone and through texting that is where he finds out that the group has moved to another part of the park.
Spoiler Section
Natalie starts to see the killer follow the group around. Her and Gavin split off and have some cute conversations. He tries, but fails to win her a stuffed animal while playing ring toss. They go to a photo booth and make out. The killer shows up and takes the photos. That is when the group starts taking Natalie seriously and Brooke goes to try to follow the killer but finds nothing. As the group prepare to go to the next level of the park where the performers can physically touch people, Gavin stays behind. Gavin goes to pay the ring toss employee to get a stuffed animal but he refuses. Gavin goes to steal one from a locker and does. The killer shows up though and smashes his head with a high-striker-mallet. The highlight kill of the movie. It happens fast so my favorite thing to do is play it in 1/4 speed.
The group go to the "dead lands." On a tram ride Natalie rides alone and while strapped in her car comes to a halt. This is one of the best suspense scenes in the movie as a red strobe light keeps blinking and a person in the same mask as the killer keeps getting closer every time the light comes back on. Her cart moves to the end of the ride and it is revealed that many people are wearing the same mask. A random person in the park dressed as someone infected "vomits" on her clothes. She goes to the bathroom and after Brooke leaves there is a suspenseful scene where she texts Gavin and he says he is close. She hears his phone go off and knows the killer has his phone. Brooke and Natalie tell a security guard but without proof he thinks it is someone in the park or Gavin playing a prank. That and the ride sequence from earlier are the most suspenseful scenes of the movie. While in another haunted house Asher is stabbed in the eye with a long needle by the killer. Fulci-esque and the other best kill of the movie.
While Natalie is in the bathroom Taylor volunteers as part of a fake demonstration of getting decapitated with a guillotine. This is when we get the cameo by Tony Todd as the announcer. While it seems like it could be the killer actually trying to chop her head off it is a good fake out as it is actually a fake head. When the curtains shut though the killer straps her in and she manages to escape. Quinn finds her but the killer stabs both of them. Double kill!
The park goes into pandemonium. Another great writing moment happens when the guards trap someone with the same mask but we see he is wearing red boots. The killer's boots were highlighted earlier in the scene in the stall as black boots. After going to an area they think is the exit Natalie and Brooke actually end up in a maze with the killer in pursuit. He manages to slash Brooke's knee at one point. While in a room full of people wearing masks they both hide and Natalie surprises the killer and gives Brooke time to get away. As Brooke is cornered Natalie shows up and stabs the killer and they exit the maze as police come to arrest the killer. He gets away. We see the killer go home and take off his mask and reveals several more masks in a cabinet including the devil mask from the beginning. He goes into his living room and his young daughter is happy to see him. We never see his face.
Hell Fest combines the fun of a horror theme park with a slasher and has a couple highlight kills and some clever writing. Bear McCreary adds a repetitive theme that vaguely reminds me of Ennio Morricone's theme for The Stendhal Syndrome. The shyness of Natalie as the final girl combined with the more outgoing attitude of her friends reminds me of an 80s slasher more than modern day. The movie takes its time too to establish the setting and characters. Another thing that reminds me of an 80s slasher. While the actors are good looking none of them look like CW level pretty and that adds to the 80s feel. I hope we see another movie at some point. It would be cool to see Natalie and Brooke trying to go to different theme parks near Halloween trying to catch the killer. That would be my idea for a sequel.
Rating: 8/10
SLASHER MOVIE ANATOMY:
- Prior Evil: Unknown, the killer's gimmick seems to be offing anyone who says they aren't scared of him. I love his modus operandi of going to theme parks to avoid getting caught.
- Body Count: 6
- Whodunit: Yes, but more like who cares as we never find anything out about the killer
- Mask or outfit: Black outfit with a brown burned face mask
- Locale or organizer: Hell Fest, a traveling horror amusement park
- Best Kill: High-strike mallet to the face
INSTRUMENTS OF DEATH
High-strike mallet: 1
Knife: 4
Syringe needle: 1
SLASHER MOVIE TAXONOMY
- Kingdom: Post-Scream and 2010s, well past the heyday for this kind of movie
- Phylum: Serious, with some levity provided by the characters and some pathos provided by them as well. While the men could have been developed further you don't dislike any of these characters
- Class: Slasher set at an amusement park
- Order: 2018
- Family: No nudity. Reign Edwards looks smoking hot in that crop top though.
- Genus: Just as much of a fun setting and location as the slasher elements
- Species: Two great kills, one gory though a really quick cut, and one very bloody. Some decent FX work
Trivia: Tony Gardner, the designer of the Ghostface mask from Scream and Babyface from Happy Death Day created the mask for the Other in this movie
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zNAtmmWSJY
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