'Hell Fest' is about a group of college students who arrive at the traveling horror-themed carnival, only for a masked intruder to begin stalking and eventually pick them off. Really, it's a slasher film so the story is naturally paper-thin but it usually doesn't matter when it comes to a cheap thrill film such as 'Hell Fest'. Sadly, the film doesn't even reach that so bad it's good of many others of its type. It lacks any creativity in its killer, it's kills, or its scares and horror fans suffer for it. Me and my friend were sitting there coming up with more creative kill scenes than this film and when you're talking to your friend in a near empty theater instead of paying attention to the movie, you know it's a clunker for sure.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I do dig slasher movies, even the very cheapest and worst stuff you can imagine, but what elevates many of those films above 'Hell Fest' is their delivery of the material. You have to give the audience the goods in a movie like this, but instead we're treated to the majority of the kills being a simple knife to the gut. This is a horror carnival, with many creative costumes and mechanisms throughout on full display to the audience. How could they have missed such a big opportunity to go really crazy with the death scenes, but this flick could have fooled me for a PG-13. The main killer seen above is also a bore, with no motivation given whatsoever, a stupid and really uninspired mask, and no resolution whatsoever which results in one of the worst movie endings I've seen this year.
'Hell Fest' is merely a hollow body of a film that takes from better slasher movies and brings nothing new to the table. It wastes it's vast potential and will quickly fade into your local bargain bin soon enough. I don't recommend it unless you are a really hardcore horror fan that has to see everything, but for the rest of you wait until something better comes along.
2/5
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