Five years have passed and Hell Fest for me still remains as underrated as ever as this haunt horror movie packs a punch every Halloween season.
Not a year goes by where I don’t check out Hell Fest and Haunt, they’re my go to Halloween horror movies and there’s a reason for that, they’re damn good and both severely underrated films.
My love of haunts slightly overshadows some of the films flaws but Hell Fest for me, stands entire on its own out of the two with a great cast, a great premise and an ending that will chill your very soul.
Hellfest’s chilling premise lies in the fact that killers walk amongst us in our everyday lives and the film simply uses Halloween as a way for those killers to hide even more in plain sight (behind a mask) to exact their revenge.
A chilling concept that is even more prominent as the credits roll as our masked killer simply returns to his family home and hugs his daughter before the film ends.
Hell Fest was released in the fall of 2018 but skipped the Halloween launch release period so already it was at a disadvantage of releasing too early and quickly vanished without trace.
The movie follows the standard slasher tropes but with two final girls and some extra twists along the way the setting of the feature amplifies the quality of the film as it oozes that class and polished look.
A film where the location lends a big helping hand to production such as the theme park in Final Destination 3 for example.
We find out zero motives, zero reason for the random killings and the killer is never revealed as this mysterious approach to the killer makes it all the more chilling.
An opening dialogue sequence mentions that ‘They Walk Among us’ and that idea is explored throughout whilst using the backdrop of a Halloween haunt environment to give the audience something to enjoy and be wrapped up within.
Cast performances are solid and the kills are pretty gnarly, he’s human after all. It’s not Jason Voorhees, it’s not Michael Myers or any supernatural being our killer is human and that makes it all the scarier, it’s a realistic possibility and a grimly high possibility of you passing many real-life killers simply on the street in your lifetime.
Hell Fest set the bar without being seen by a large audience and that’s a real shame, it’s a tidy package all wrapped up in bloody red tape and was served on a plate for horror fans to indulge in yet it never really found its place in horror cult history.
Five years later and I, for one, appreciate it very much!
So much so that I got a prop from the movie specifically to put on display at our Museum of Horrors in Stoke on Trent so come on down and check it out along with a whole load of other horror goodies for you to sink your nerdy little teeth into!
