A slasher movie like any other, except that all the people are gay.

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Bryan Siepert found out about the screening through a mailing list he was on and we went up to SF to see it with him. All I knew is what Bryan said: "It's a low-budget horror movie where the lead characters are gay." My verdict: Hilarious, not too gory, and decently directed.

As some people know, one of my guiltly pleasures is horror/slasher films. I have decently high standards, but my sister and I used to have a blast watching really bad horror films. In 1994 (I think), I even had a bit on an afternoon Top40/AC radio show called "bad movie reviews". Things like "The Video Dead", "The Stuff", and similar schlock. Recently I watched the utterly horrid "Children of the Corn 3", which I didn't subject Geoff to. That being said, Geoff has watched all of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween movies with me :)

What usually makes these movies unenjoyable is if they try to take themselves too seriously (or, seriously at all). This is where Halloween eventually went horribly wrong, and what made Children of the Corn 3 so retardedly bad. HellBent doesn't have this problem -- there's just some hot guy in leather pants with a devil mask and a sikcle that murders people. There's no back story, no real explanation, and this works out great. It's easy to enjoy the film because it's not asking you to take it seriously, so suspending disbelief if not an issue.

The directing is pretty decent, though in some scenes the focus is way off. Besides this, the effects are really excellent and the acting is decent also. As I said above, the film balances the urgency and scares with extremely funny situations. You will both jump in your seat, wring your hands in anticipation, and laugh out loud. The moments scripted are just brilliant. I hope they include storyboards and commentary on the DVD.

Fair warning: When we sat down, the theatre manager said "I watched the movie last night and let me just say that you should stick with it." I immediately thought it was going to be horrible, but now I understand what he meant. The movie does start slowly, even though it isn't long, and it might seem too "gay" for some people. Hang in there, the slashing you probably came is well worth it.

If you've seen it, write your comments below!

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2005-09-21

by matt:

[edit]

Forgot to include the URL for the official web site: http://www.hellbent-movie.com/

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