I had a goddamn blast with this movie. As I’ve mentioned before, I love slasher movies and this is the first real slasher movie that I’ve seen since….I don’t even fucking know. And by “real” slasher movie, I mean R-rated so Happy Death Day can get the fuck out of here. I’m also probably grading this on a curve for that reason. Honestly, there is nothing particularly special about this movie. If it came out in the 80s, when this kind of thing was a dime a dozen, I probably wouldn’t think much of it. But for 2018, this is really unique. It’s a good old-fashioned movie about stupid young people being stalked and slaughtered by a masked maniac and that just makes me fucking happy.
The premise is solid, too. A group of 20-somethings go to a Halloween theme park and find themselves stalked by a real psycho. It’s not much of a plot, but it works and reminds me of The Funhouse from 1981 (this movie’s tagline is even a knockoff of the tagline from The Funhouse). The movie does do a good job of playing with that premise, as it’s easy for a killer to blend in in a place where everything is horror-themed. Several of the most effective and genuinely suspenseful scenes involve the killer operating in plain sight as onlookers watch people being killed under the assumption that its all part of the show. Honestly, with the increasing popularity of such haunted mazes/theme parks, I’m surprised that more movies haven’t taken advantage of this setup.
Regardless of the premise, this movie delivers on what really sells tickets to slasher flicks: seeing stupid young people being gruesomely killed. The characters in this movie are nothing special, but they aren’t particularly annoying and are perfectly serviceable. You’re not going to find someone like Laurie Strode (Halloween) or Nancy Thompson (A Nightmare on Elm Street) in this movie, but that’s fine. If you can’t like a slasher movie because the characters are uninspired, then you are even more of a cynical asshole than I am. I just ask that they not be irritating douchebags, and this meets that requirement. But the best thing is that these characters are actually killed in bloody ways. Blood in a horror movie in 2018! Can you fucking believe it? People are stabbed, a head is smashed and there is even an eye-stabbing scene that would make Lucio Fulci proud (and if you get that reference, then I’m pretty sure that we just became best friends). Again, this is still fairly tame compared to your average slasher flick of the 80s, but is not a slice of bread a meal for a starving man? I haven’t seen a movie like this in fucking years, so it’s enough for me.
The movie also looks great. The sets and props were borrowed from a real Halloween park while they had their gear in storage, so all of the mazes and costumes look authentic and effective. I would absolutely go to this park if it wasn’t for all the murder and whatnot. Because of the setting, it’s also one of the few horror movies that I will give a pass for all of the jump scares, as they are logically inevitable as that’s kind of the entire point of the setting. The performances, much like the characters themselves, are nothing to write home about, but they are fine. I don’t recognize any of the main actors, but none of them annoyed me like the performances in many recent horror films (I’m looking at you, cast of Truth or Dare). The one person that I did recognize is Candyman himself, Tony Todd, in a small role. I was disappointed that Todd’s role is just a glorified cameo, but its nice to see him in something. The villain is your typical silent killer in a mask, so there isn’t much to talk about there. However, the villain looks cool enough and they thankfully refrain from giving him some elaborate, inane background (you only learn a bit about him at the very end, and its effective).
I have no specific complaints about this. If you like slasher films and long for the days when new Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers movies came out every year, I strongly recommend that you check this out. If you don’t like slasher films, then nothing here will change your mind. It doesn’t stand with the greats of the genre like Halloween or Black Christmas, but it’s a good example of a fun knockoff of those classics. Unfortunately, this tanked at the box office, so you likely missed your chance to see it on the big screen. But when Halloween season, comes around next year, check this out for some mindless fun.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Fest#/media/File:HellFestPoster.jpg
