Full disclosure: I'm a huge fan of dark rides/ fun-houses/scare-houses, so I tend to enjoy movies that revolve or prominently feature any of the above, particularly of the horror variety, which would also, by design, include movies set in amusement parks, carnivals, and even, to a certain extent, circuses- though I have to take a hard pass on musicals more often than not, so no The Greatest Showman for me, thanks.
Think instead of movies like Freaks, Carnival of Souls, Circus of Horrors, Psycho-Circus, Berserk, Night Screams, Carny, The Funhouse, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and, of course, the immortal The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, among others.
Hell Fest features literally all of the main things I mentioned at the top of the article, which is to say, it has a dark ride, a fun-house, and a scare-house, plus several mazes for good measure. As you might have guessed, it's set at one of those Halloween Horror Nights-type parks, like the ones they do at Universal Studios in L.A. and Orlando every year around October.
In this case, like many TV shows and films as of late, it was shot in Georgia- specifically in Atlanta, giving the production crew access to the Six Flags amusement park, including leftover decorations from their annual Fright Fest, as well as some of the characters and creatures from the near-by Netherworld haunted house, so if some of the stuff you see looks familiar to you, that's probably why.
In addition, in a neat tie-in, several of the Six Flags parks featured a walk-through haunted house attraction inspired by the film, including in their locations in LA, St. Louis and Chicago. I didn't have the pleasure of getting to go to any of them, but I have been to both Six Flags Fright Fest and Netherworld in Georgia, so it was a kick seeing some things I'd seen IRL in a movie.
All of that said, though I basically enjoyed the film, it was essentially just a throwback slasher movie inspired in large part by the Golden Age of Slashers back in the early 80's. This is to say, all the tropes of the sub-genre are in full effect here: a group of disposable young people clueless about what's going on in plain sight all around them until it's too late, a masked killer using whatever he finds in his immediate surroundings to take people out, a variety of gory deaths, lots of fake-outs and jump-scares and a spooky location tied-in to a holiday, in this case, Halloween.
On the plus side, because it takes place in a horror-themed amusement park, it can sometimes be tricky figuring out who the killer is, as he is dressed in a similar fashion as others in the park- which is, of course, the point. We see, at one point, evidence that he's done this sort of thing elsewhere, donning alternate appropriate costumes for his other venues as required.
What's more, because people are being terrorized in general all around our main group, it's both hard to tell when it's "real" or just people doing their jobs. As such, it's hard for the main characters to convince the management that something is going on when they inevitably seek out help after some of the group goes missing.
The plot, such as it is, is simplicity itself, in honored slasher movie tradition. You've got a group of college-age young adults who gather together to attend the titular Hell Fest, a traveling theme park that is in their area for a few days.
In the opening scenes, we see a girl in Cincinnati gets killed and hung up within one of the walk-through haunted houses in plain sight, which goes completely unnoticed at first because people think it's just part of the attraction.
Word of this gets around, of course, and one of the characters mentions it after the group has entered the park, but everyone sort of laughs it off as an urban legend-type thing. Of course, as we saw in the opening, it's not.
The killer, known as "The Other" in the credits, and played by professional stuntman Stephen Conroy (The Walking Dead), is never seen, except from behind in a few brief moments, as he enters the park. No sooner does he enter than he dons a mask, and we soon see that other people in the park have the exact same outfit.
At first, the group dismisses the guy as someone a little too into their job, as he skulks around, stalking some of them, but once he starts directly interacting with them, they change their tune and worry that he might be dangerous.
Sure enough, he later on starts taking out members of the group one by one, as well as a few others within the park, once again, in plain sight of most everyone more often than not, with many thinking it's just an act meant to scare them.
This goes on until the inevitable conclusion, as the last ones standing do their best to stay alive, as the killer closes in on them. Will any of them survive? Will "The Other" live to kill another day?
I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself, but rest assured, it plays out just about how one would expect, if you've seen your fair share of this sort of movie, down to leaving the door open for a potential sequel, but of course.
It's too bad, as there was an opportunity here to have thrown viewers for a loop that the film toys with but never quite commits to, unfortunately. For instance, the first person of the main group to get killed isn't necessarily who one might suspect would go first, and it looks like, for a hot minute that the second one is even more of a shock, before it turns out to be a fake-out.
Had the film followed its instinct to keep audiences guessing to that end, killing the last ones we'd expect, it might have offered up at least a few surprises, but after that first kill, things basically go the way you think they will, more or less, and one of the people you think will be the last one standing is indeed the patented Final Girl, so no shocker there.
Likewise, as I mentioned, after the killer is "killed" by said Final Girl, when the authorities go to retrieve his body, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that, he's not there anymore.
About the only thing that passes for a surprise is the ending, in which we get a sense of who the killer is IRL, which is to say, who he is as a human being under normal circumstances, at least to a certain extent.
I don't think it's really giving anything away to say that he just seems like a regular guy, as opposed to a lone wolf nut-job whose living conditions resemble something off the set of Seven. (Or, if you prefer, Se7en.)
While most horror movies tend to go the latter route, in this one, the killer comes off more as the guy next door who just happens to be a serial killer, not some weirdo loner living in squalor. Perhaps if they do another one, they could mine something unique from that approach, but as it stands, it's just a sort of tossed-in thing at the end.
The cast is made up mostly of unknowns, though Tony "Candyman" Todd does put in a brief appearance as a carnival barker type. Although vocally, his voice appears throughout the film, as the one doing the whole voice-over thing at the park. In other words, he's the one saying things like "Welcome to Hell Fest" and, on the dark ride: "Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times" and the like.
Beyond that, I did recognize Bex Taylor-Klaus, from MTV's adaptation of Scream and the CW's Arrow, as Taylor, the most annoying of the female contingent- and you know what that gets you in a horror movie. I do like her under normal circumstances, but her character leaves something to be desired here, unfortunately.
Other potential victims include: Amy Forsyth (The Path, Channel Zero: No-End House, which also featured a scare-house) as Natalie, the patented "good girl"; the cooly-named Reign Edwards (MacGyver, Snowfall) as Brooke, Natalie's feisty bestie; Christian James (Freefall) as Quinn, Brooke's BF; Matt Mecurio (The Resident, Black Lightning) as Taylor's BF; and Roby Atall (The Long Road Home) as Gavin, the guy Brooke tries to set Natalie up with.
I will say that, Taylor notwithstanding, the characters are reasonably likable for this sort of thing, though we don't get to know much about them beyond Natalie being on fall break from college and in town visiting Brooke, with whom she's lost touch a bit since moving.
The two went to high school with Taylor, so those three go back a ways, but we don't get much about the guys at all. So, basically, they're just placeholders of death across the board, save Natalie, who we have an idea might survive the night because of her "good girl" status.
The writing then, is nothing spectacular, and pretty by the numbers. Remarkably, it took three people to write this thing, and two more to concoct the story in the first place, which is pretty crazy, as we're not exactly dealing with, say, a superhero movie or whatever.
One of the writers is Blair Butler, who some of you might remember from G4's Attack of the Show, while Seth M. Sherwood wrote the Leatherface movie and Akela Cooper has written for American Horror Story, Grimm and Luke Cage.
The director is Gregory Plotkin, who edited Happy Death Day and Get Out and previously directed Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, a series in which he also edited many of the films (2-4 and The Marked Ones).
His work here is perfectly fine, aided and abetted to great effect by cinematographer José David Montero (What Happened to Monday?) and the colorful set design.
The film was produced by the legendary Gale Anne Hurd, best-known for her work with director James Cameron, notably The Terminator (and the first two sequels), Aliens and The Abyss, as well as for producing The Walking Dead and Lore. TWD's resident composer Bear McCreary does the honors on the score as well.
Finally, the film's admittedly creepy mask that the killer wears was designed by Tony Gardner's Alterian, Inc., which some of you may be familiar with as being the same company behind the famed "Ghostface" mask for Scream and the "Babyface" killer mask for Happy Death Day. The mask here is pitched somewhere in between Leatherface and The Wicker Man.
All in all, I'd have to say that Hell Fest is an acceptable enough slasher movie that is a decent time-waster, but not much else. If, like me, you enjoy a good horror flick set in a carnival-type setting with lots of footage of haunted houses, fun-houses and dark rides, then you'll probably enjoy it for the visuals, if nothing else.
But, TBH, it doesn't really add much to the sub-genre beyond the unique setting, and even that I've seen done better in The Funhouse, though I suppose it is a step up from the movie Dark Ride, at least. The fact that the cast is reasonably likable is something to celebrate as well, I suppose.
But beyond that, it's pretty predictable, I'm sad to say. There are some solid kills, and the film did do reasonably well at the box office, grossing over $17 million on a $5.5 million budget, which isn't too bad of a return investment.
Also, the director mentioned some ideas for a sequel that would explore more of Tony Todd's character, as well as the killer's motivations, so that could be interesting. But going by this film alone, it just didn't really bring anything new to the table, beyond the setting itself.
Though it makes good use of its surroundings, the events that transpire are just too predictable to elicit any rave reviews from yours truly, as much as I enjoy a good, silly 80's-style slasher. But why mess with a by-the-numbers new one when you can just re-watch one of the classics?
I suppose Hell Fest does just enough to justify its existence, but if it is lucky enough to score a sequel- which I would admittedly still watch- it's going to have to step things up considerably for the second entry to make it worth my time- or anyone else's, for that matter.
If any of this sounds appealing to you, I suppose the film is worth at least a one-time watch. Just know that there aren't any real surprises here, unfortunately. 😒
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