‘Hell Fest’ | Film Review: Afraid or Not Afraid?

Hell Fest just made me had to the realization that I’m never going to attend any horror theme events for the rest of my life. Maybe Universal’s annual Halloween Horror Nights just to see what the fuss is about, but there’s this sense I will get killed just like those being picked off one by one here.

What’s the Story: On Halloween night at a horror theme park where three friends and their boyfriends are attending look to seek some thrill, a costumed killer begins slaying innocent patrons who believe that it’s all part of the festivities.

While slasher flicks aren’t particularly the kinds of horror movies I like, this does protamin an interesting premise when I first heard anything about Hell Fest. That most likely means it won’t be well thought out and just be another typical horror movie that doesn’t try to be anything amazing but to be generic for teenagers to sneak into. But what did I expect from the director of Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, which I smartly stayed away from, Gregory Plotkin. Not the greatest direction at all since it felt like a low-budget movie meant to be shown on SyFy on Halloween night.

This also doesn’t help when the acting isn’t exactly anything to be Oscar-worthy. At moments where the three main actresses Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Bex Taylor-Klaus try all they can with being scared and having fun inside their core group, it was hard knowing that I couldn’t care about any of them if they were to get killed all of a sudden. This script, which was written six people, is also pretty mediocre where it doesn’t even try to make any of these characters to root for.

But is it scary for 90 minutes, though? Not really. You will feel the suspense when you think the killer will pop out somewhere and it doesn’t four out of ten times when the killer is moving at the same pace as Michael Myers. Most of the scares just use to basic jump scares that are being relayed on too many times throughout.

I will give Hell Fest a bit of credit for its theme park setting since it doesn’t come to mind that any horror movie has the entire runtime taken place there. Safe to say it gives its a good enough atmosphere with the haunted houses and the people dressed up in costumes. Overall, this is the kind of horror movie that isn’t worth the time to check out. Maybe this will get an unnecessary sequel like the rest of them out there.