6 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
A masked serial killer turns a horror themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show.
Starring: Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Tony Todd, Roby AttalHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS:X
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
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).
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.
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.
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.
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