Rent Hell Fest (2018)

Hell Fest review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

There’s a certain gumption that had me rooting for Hell Fest to be more than just the usual runaround of terror in the theme park. How I wished I could distance myself from the likes of the superior Funhouse or the lukewarm The House That October Built to appreciate the premise of a serial killer loose in a Halloween theme park, where the patrons are unaware of him not being part of the frights. It’s a concept so ripe for scares and subversion that it’s a bit depressing this film gets all dolled up with great shots and solid kills but ultimately has nowhere new to go.

On Halloween night, a group of friends venture to the horror theme park of Hell Fest, hoping to have some excitement on Halloween night. Let’s face it: That night is usually more fun for the kids than anyone. Thankfully, yearning young adults can get their bloodflowing at a park of...mazes and carnival games? Wait, there’s a guillotine activity? Quite the range of fun at this park.

Anyway, the friends expect the park may be a bit too scary when they’re pursued by a masked killer referred to only as The Other. Somethink he is part of the show while others are a bit skeptical. And then the people start missing and bodies start piling up. And, of course, the masked killer is killing people because we’re shown it at the beginning of the movie, thus removing any doubt about whether or not our collective of young people are being targeted and slaughtered in one night.

The kills have their moments of uniqueness. I dug the subversion of using the guillotine and there’s just something so fitting about a killer at a carnival using a mallet to crush someone’s skull. But all this leads up to is a slasher chase sequence where the cops are one step behind and our heroes must try to save the day. Even worse, the film ends with the killer not only still at large but reveals a backstory so unimportant and uninteresting it feels as last-minute desparate sequel-baiting.

Hell Fest just never really goes for it. For being a theme park of horrors, it really pails in this sub-genre where it should be going out of its way to get the most creative kills as possible. Think about how much the killer has to work with in this park. The director tries to use some of this material well, but in a picture where the script is severely lacking and needs to rely on a lot of theatrics to pull in the crowd, more could be done. I can’t get too mad at the film for coming as advertised, but, like a lukewarm carnival haunted house of rickety effects, it can do better.