Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Hell Fest Blu-ray Movie Review

At least it's not a musical.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 2, 2019

Chances are very few if any of you coming to this review have heard of, let alone actually seen, a couple of films I reviewed over the past couple of years, but I couldn’t help but think that someone associated with Hell Fest may have stumbled across either The Devil's Carnival or its kinda sorta follow up Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival somewhere along the line, since Hell Fest has more than a few elements in common with those two films. All three films feature what amount to theme parks inhabited by what appear to be denizens of “down under” (not that one, the place with the big horned guy), and all three feature a somewhat lurid lighting design that tends to bathe things in weird, almost hallucinogenic, tones of orange, blue, green and red. All three films also offer a glut of characters in outlandish makeup and/or costumes, often as "employees" of their respective parks. Hell Fest is more in the “slasher” mode (rut?) than either of The Devil’s Carnival films, but for those who are fans of this particular film, I suggest checking out the two previous outings to see if you can see the same similarities that I did. Hell Fest has some undeniable scares, and it’s frequently kind of unsettlingly moodly, but it’s also awfully formulaic a lot of the time, including its proffering of a masked slayer whose real face is never seen and who is known as The Other (not this one, and, yes, I’m joking).

Both of The Devil’s Carnival films admittedly offer a more literal interpretation of “good vs. evil”, including the longstanding struggle between the ruler of heaven and his recalcitrant fallen angel far, far below, but in terms of presentational style and even some of the interchanges between theme park visitors and employees, Hell Fest is surprisingly in league with that particular devil. The film begins with a brief vignette documenting some girls making (or attempting to make) their way through some kind of scary labyrinth at a theme park, with one of the girls mentioning how freaked out she is that some guy has been following her the entire time they’ve been there. Unless you’ve never seen a horror film before in your entire life, you can probably guess what happens next — that particular female is separated from her friends and is almost immediately accosted by the masked culprit, who summarily stabs her and then hangs her from the ceiling in what almost appears to be a “trophy room” of his previous victims— or are the other hanging bodies merely dummy props? Oooh — scary! .

The film then predictably segues to a brightly lit outdoor moment where Natalie (Amy Forsyth) is shown arriving at the apartment of her BFF Brooke (Reign Edwards). Stabs (sorry) at character development are offered here, with Natalie being presented as someone in the throes of uncertainty, and furthermore distressed to find out that she may be the third wheel in this get together, since Brooke is rooming with Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus), a kind of abrasive girl whom Natalie definitely does not consider a BFF. Add in three males as partners for these women, and you have your basic teen sextet (emphasis kind of surprisingly not on the sex in this horror outing, but I digress) who decide to visit Hell Fest and some of whom of course are going to be picked off one by one as the film progresses.

Now one place where Hell Fest actually achieves some viscerally frightening aspects is in one of the first kills, which (again, kind of surprisingly) is not one of the six focal characters. Instead, Natalie, Brooke and Taylor do indeed run across The Other (Stephen Conroy), but almost tangentially, as he’s already on the hunt for another girl. That unfortunate victim is slain right before Natalie’s eyes, but she thinks it’s just an extremely realistic part of the theme park experience. Hell Fest repeatedly tries to play off of this “what is really threatening and what isn’t” ambience, but unfortunately it falls victim to the law of diminishing returns.

Probably needless to say, there are ultimately victims among the six main characters, and admittedly the kill scenes will probably satisfy gore hounds who like things violent and bloody. There seems to be genuine camaraderie among the cast (as also evidenced by the brief EPK included as a supplement), and the film is generally well staged and stylishly shot, but this is one theme park that many will probably feel like they’ve visited before, whether or not they’ve seen either of The Devil’s Carnival films.

Hell Fest Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hell Fest is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini as the camera of choice, but fails to state what resolution the DI was, though I see a member has uploaded data to the 4K UHD spec page stating it was a 2K DI. I haven't been able to independently confirm that, however, as I'll state again when I post the review for that version. One way or the other, though, aside from just a few kind of odd looking moments, this is a rather impressive transfer for a film that relies on a number of stylistic gambits, including askew framings and lots of lighting and/or grading choices, all of which can hopefully be made out in at least some of the screenshots accompanying this review. The palette is kind of lurid, as stated above, but it's really nicely suffused throughout this presentation. There are some minor issues with banding (kind of weirdly mostly toward the edges of the frame), and what almost look like chroma anomalies where splotches of blue or purple will appear on clothing, something that may be attributable to how tweaked the palette is to begin with. When lighting conditions allow, fine detail is consistently excellent, and even in pretty dark moments, it's often well above average.

Hell Fest Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Even before the visual part of the film actually begins, Hell Fest's DTS:X track is a neatly immersive experience, as a glut of voices kind of overlap and hover in an almost dreamlike way. Once the film begins, and especially once the characters get to Hell Fest, things perk up considerably, with the raucous sounds of the carnival almost never ceasing to spill into the surround channels, and with some nicely goofy sound effects like a guillotine offing one character delivering considerable vertical punch as it travels downward. There are some pretty rote uses of both score and LFE accompanying jump cuts to up the angst ante, but even how hackneyed some of these elements are, from a purely sonic perspective they're forceful and impeccably rendered. Dialogue is also delivered cleanly and clearly on this enjoyable if arguably pretty trite sounding track.

Hell Fest Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Thrills and Kills: Making Hell Fest (1080p; 16:28) is a kind of fun EPK with a lot of backstage material, including cell phone video of the cast goofing off.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:09)

Hell Fest Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One thing I didn't mention about either of The Devil's Carnival films is that they both are ostensibly musicals, though my hunch is very few are going to come away from either film humming any tunes from them. While Hell Fest obviously doesn't go that particular route, I couldn't help but wonder if it had featured a little bit more of a winking attitude, especially since it wants to play on the whole dialectic between "real" and "fake" scares, it might have achieved a little bit more distinction. It's obvious the filmmakers are attempting to create a new franchise villain with The Other. He's seen in one mask in the opening vignette, and another one for the bulk of the film, and toward the end a little cabinet containing a whole host of other Other masks is displayed, but unless you're instinctively frightened by a menacing guy in a blue hoody, The Other may not have horror film legs, as they say. This is an okay enough time killer (slashed or otherwise), but it never really amounts to more than a passable diversion. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.