Hellbent
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Movie Reviews of Hellbent
Movie Review: Suspenseful
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been a while since I watched this movie. I had watched it with a friend of mine and I really enjoyed it. I love scary movies and gory ones, too! This one is not really gory but it is scary. You never know what is going to happen next. Anyway, I had to have it for my collection. I liked it very much so I bought it. I buy movies that I like.Movie Review: Gay Halloween!
Summary: 3 Stars
"Hellbent" is a nifty little thriller with a good personality. It does what it is supposed to do--chills and thrills--and still manages to make its small cast of characters endearing before subjecting them to the razor sharp sickle of a stalker in a devil costume. Set amidst the sexually charged, funky glamor of the annual Halloween Carnival in tres gay West Hollywood, the film has been touted as the first gay slasher movie. I don't know if that's true, or if there has been a general outcry over gays being underrepresented in filmdom's slasher genre, but whatever the case, "Hellbent" is here, and it's done with a certain amount of flair. Director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts knows how to wring a maximum amount of tension from a scene, and he brings a sense of visual excitement to the film, in spite of the occasional clunky dialogue and plot contrivances necessary for any slasher film (i.e., getting characters to go off into dark, isolated areas when they know that there's a murderer on the loose). To be sure, the killer's targets, four friends out for a Halloween night on the town, are not rocket scientists, but each has his own set of quirks and foibles that separate one character from the other, and each one is likeable.
Dylan Fergus makes a handsome, appealing lead, a wannabe cop with one glass eye and the other eye on heartfelt romance; he's a sweet-natured, virginal dreamer, about as far from a tough guy as you can imagine. Andrew Levitas is also convincing as the wild, anything-goes, best friend whose motto seems to be "anyone, anyplace, anytime". Whether it's male or female, he's on it, and he's always ready for action. Hank Harris, playing the naive youngster of the bunch, and Matt Phillips, as a muscular underwear model doing drag for the first time, do nice turns rounding out the group, while Bryan Kirkwood alternates between creepy/sexy and outright annoying as an edgy biker being wooed by our hero.
True, "Hellbent" is bloody, although not egregiously so. Compared to any of the films in the "Saw" franchise, for instance, it's pretty tame. There's one murder committed on a crowded dance floor that is particularly creative and stylishly filmed--it belies the film's budgetary restrictions. The climax of "Hellbent", which finds one of the friends handcuffed to a bed (courtesy of edgy biker-boy) while the killer lurks nearby is effective and scary, even if it is predictable. And the film's final shot is set up so that you don't know whether to laugh or scream.
There have been worse slasher films than "Hellbent", and there have been better. But, there hasn't been a better gay slasher film, so I guess that's saying something. If you're weary of the endlessly cliched and tired parade of gay coming-of-age films, and those god-awful gay "comedies" that have been churned out in recent years ("Slutty Summer", "Another Gay Movie"), then you might want to check out "Hellbent".
Movie Review: But why?
Summary: 2 Stars
Decent production values, some fun gore, handsome guys but little beyond that. There is no background, no history, no big reveal of the killer. Without a preset motive or potential villians, it's just a bunch of pretty boys taking turns being beheaded. Whatever.Movie Review: Surprisingly good
Summary: 3 Stars
Beautiful eye candy. Nice twists. Not the best acting you've seen, but keeps you on the edge of your seat. Somewhat gruesome, but again, not the grossest.Movie Review: All together different horror
Summary: 4 Stars
Okay, the first time I watched Hellbent I wasn't totally sold on it but when I saw it again I really liked it a lot. One of the best parts is that it takes a normal Slasher-film formula and gives it the gay theme. I've oftne commented to my friends how gay people never appear in Horror films and now there's an entire movie of them. It was really cool to see how just guys dealt with a psycho slasher as opposed to the iconic top heavy blonde bombshells who always have to run upstairs or out into the woods in heels (who the hell does that?). The other great thing was the killer. (Spoiler alert)-You never find out the killer's motive. How cool is that! It makes him even more terrifying because you can't humanize him. He is really just this psycho out for blood for no other reason than because he likes to do it. That's what horror is all about. The boogie man that comes for you just because he can...and he does.