Hellbent (2004)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Nice effects though.

As Good As It Gets

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Having an interest to see a Slasher movie perhaps take a different route from the norm,I was surprised to recently find out that 2004 had been the year when the first ever Gay Slasher film had been made.Intriged by seeing the genre's supreme producer Joseph Wolf connected to the film,I decided to take a look at a movie which would hopefully look at the Slasher genre from a refreshingly different point of view.The plot:With the famous West Hollywood Carnival only a day away,the local police start to suspect that a serial killer is planning to turn the Carnival into a bloody mess,when the bodies of two men are found beheaded in a park.Not wanting to ruin his friends plans for the carnival,officer Eddie decides that he will keep his eyes wide open for the serial killer during the celebration,who will end up getting Eddie and his friends to paint the West Hollywood Carnival blood red.View on the film:Whilst the characters of Slasher films are seen (sometimes wrongly) as being a bit stupid,writer/director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts sadly makes Eddie and his pals some of the dumbest characters that I have seen in any film!.Despite the best efforts from the charismatic cast,Ouzts makes it almost impossible for any emotional involvement with the characters,due to their level of stupidity being miles away from the normal behaviour of having a serial killer constantly trying to chop your head off,with a number of Eddie's friends seriously asking the masked knife welding psycho if he wants a date for the night!.Although his screenplay is a disappointing,first time director Outzts keeps the movie moving at a quick pace and also shows a real flair for the set-piece murder scenes,with a brutal murder taking place in a toilet featuring an impressively done final shot,and a savage killing at a disco being extremely distinctive thanks to Ouzts wonderfully stylised directing.

I caught this title a while ago as I became quickly intrigued for obvious reasons namely an all male cast and the fact that it's the first gay slasher movie, I caught the trailers online and became quickly interested, even though "Hell-bent" offers nothing new or original to the genre, a pretty much by numbers a routine slasher movie, but with a fresh approach. Although there have been gay characters in other horror movies, this is the first time that a movie centres round a group of gay men. For the movie itself, it's very well made nothing groundbreaking though and plus it's full of classic clichés and an interesting group of characters and a decent cast.The beginning we have the cliché couple making out in the car and then quickly killed off, quite violently but fun none the less and as the movie goes on its a pretty simple straight forward movie that never gets over complicated . But the fact that the killer's motive is never revealed seems rather lazy and uninspired, and the dialogue at times seems inane, and plus it lacks tension in certain places and the killer wasn't scary looked more like a gay porn star, I was more like falling in love than fearing his presence, but he did do some pretty decent kills, quite slick. But I just thought that this movie could have pushed the boundaries a bit more, as it doesn't feature any sex scenes which did kind of disappoint me in a way, but I still found this movie really fun and entertaining and the set pieces were shot brilliantly, like the carnival, the nightclubs and the final chase were all made decent good use off.Another factor that I liked about this movie was the decent cast that could have easily been one dimensional typical gay characters that feature in TV shows but gladly they weren't they were well rounded and well written firstly there was Dylan Fergus who plays the obvious final boy Eddie was just heart-warming and lovable, well at ease in his role and someone to root for in the end. Bryan Kirkwood who plays the love interest to Eddie was rugged and cool in his leather jacket and made the romance sub plot interesting and wanting more. Hank Harris who plays the shy boy Joey whose in love with the football player was very likable and gave a quite touching performance, definitely one of those characters that you'll miss. Andrew Levitas who plays the slutty character Chaz was a definite stand out for me, he oozed charm and worked well with the material he was given. And finally Matt Phillips as the drag queen Tobey, who to be honest annoyed me at first, I dunno maybe it's the fact that we never see him out of the drag costume, but I warmed to him as the movie went on, okay his acting wasn't perfect but he still had great chemistry with the other cast members.All in all "Hell-Bent" is a fun enjoyable movie that although doesn't offer new (apart from the gay angle) to the slasher genre or change your life in any way, it's still entertaining.

I had heard good reviews before finally seeing this movie and am already a fan of the horror genre.For a gay slasher film it was done tastefully.I like a movie like this that is more realistic instead of being b-rated and campy.I am glad the gay characters were more normal instead of showing all the negative stereotypes that a lot of TV shows and movies show.It's refreshing to see a regular gay movie about ordinary(but pretty)people in realistic circumstances.In some ways it's just eye candy since every character was cute and sexy,but no different then a lot of other movies.This movie has a good story,good actors,and nice effects with the right amount of suspense,gore and humor.It is very well directed,produced as well as acted.I hope a sequel is made to understand the motive to the killings and to see who is behind that demonic mask. The music was fantastic and I wish there was a soundtrack.I have never heard of most of the artists but like their music.I really like how it has a Halloween theme.The costumes were outrageous and the party blew me away and looked like a lot of fun.This is a nice alternative to watching Halloween on Halloween night(even though i'm a huge fan of J.Carpenter's film)because it gives you a choice between them.Of course I will watch them both personally.

I had some trepidation watching HellBent, as I'd not seen a slasher film before. Fortunately, the film didn't prove realistic enough to provoke anything more than a startled gasp or two from me. But worst than that is the absolute unbelievability of the four leads in their roles. If writer-director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts had cast more talented actors willing to imbue their characters with the slightest bit of believability as WeHo gay guys, this movie might have had some credibility as the "first gay slasher" movie. I can't help wondering if any of these actors been around 20something West Hollywood gays in their lives? I defy anyone with an ounce of "gaydar" to detect anything queer about any of the lead characters (the drag queen least of all). Yes, there are "straight acting" gay guys, and there are straight guys. It seems that the four lead actors were doing their best to send out signals to the audience, "We're just pretending. We wouldn't want anyone to think we might possibly be gay." Try again, Mr. Etheredge-Ouzts, only this time respect your audience's intelligence and perceptiveness.