IN many respects, hell festival an unremarkable horror film. Released in 2018, it did well at the box office but didn’t make a splash on the stage. This is one of those movies that can be very accurately described in one sentence: a killer wanders through a creepy carnival, but no one notices because it’s a creepy carnival. This is roughly in the same vein as houses built in october And LLC “Hell House”, as it centers its action around environments that are intentionally designed to be frightening, that blur the boundaries of reality and play with the characters’ instincts. It’s a great concept and has been made into some very effective films. But for now hell festival enjoys the idea, it’s an unexpectedly gripping and humanistic final scene that sparks the audience’s imagination and hints at a much more interesting film than what preceded it.
Natalie (Amy Forsyth) is a hard-working student whose high school life and possibly some personal issues have strained her relationship with her best friend Brooke (Rain Edwards). She visits Brooke for the weekend and discovers that her friend has received highly coveted tickets to Hell Fest, an event attended by many itinerant people. However, the opening credits sequence reveals that there is a masked killer who uses attractions such as his playground, and has been doing so for several years. When Natalie and Brooke arrive at Hell Fest with a group of friends, they have no idea that the same crazy person is there, ready to have fun with a lot of unsuspecting attendees. Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus) and her boyfriend Asher (Matt Mercurio), boyfriend of Brooke Quinn (Christian James) and potential love interest Natalie Gavin (Roby Attal) make up a doomed gang of young friends.
“Hell Fest Killer - Mystery”
The way the film handles its antagonist shows a keen grasp of visual storytelling and suggests admiration for old classics like Hitchcock. Under the strict guidance of an editor-turned-director Grigory Plotkin, the killer is completely mysterious and remains so. His big introduction begins when he steps into Hell Fest and the security scans him with a metal detector. All the chaotic sound of the carnival is suddenly muffled, the world seems to slow down. The usual figure in boots, jeans and a sweatshirt is filmed from behind as they are admitted to the ride, and the camera pans sharply as they put on an unassumingly ugly rubber mask. Whoever this man is, the film tells us a lot about him. Slow-motion visuals and stifled audio suggest they see the world in a distorted way, and revealing the mask as their only face may speak to their inner personality or even that they don’t stand out at all in an ugly world. The most compelling aspect of choosing the killer’s anonymous representation is that it persists throughout the duration of the execution. There’s never a grand reveal here, no B-plot in which jaded detectives piece together the identity of the assailant. It’s just a person and we never know them.
To be honest, very little can be said about the main part of the film. It looks amazing, full of smoke, light and color, like an eerie mix. Michael JacksonX rock with you videos and the viewing booth section of the adult video store. It conveys the fun and fever of the festival very well and lingers on everything that happens. But because it’s so focused on the carnival vibe and sticks to a fairly realistic time frame with the action it’s showing, there’s a bit of a pacing issue. At a reasonable 90 minutes, it feels like it’s taking longer than it actually does, with sequences lasting 10 minutes at a time. Sure, friends die here and there, but nothing really happens. There is no real sense of momentum. That’s not to say the movie isn’t fun - it’s visually appealing with a really fun vibe, and there are some very sweet performances, especially from Bex Taylor-Klaus, whose wild-child portrayal is completely authentic. And the aforementioned ending is so provocative that it makes viewers think not only about the story they were told, but also about the world around them and how the movie looks to reflect that.
Hell Fest Masters “Show, Don’t Tell”
By the end of the night, there was a lot of chaos, and several friends from the group were killed. But the antagonist fled the scene, and the police are at a loss. When the local radio station reports on the murders at Hell Fest, a car pulls up to a beautiful middle-class house in a pleasant middle-class neighborhood. A hooded figure enters the house and places the mask and several mementos of the night’s carnage in a locked cabinet where a number of other masks hang. Then he enters the cozy living room, where a child is sleeping on the couch. Short pause; this innocent child is his next victim? The little girl moves, sits down: “Dad!” she beams and jumps into his arms. He gives her a soft toy from the carnival. Cut out the title card.
What an incredibly impressive ending. The audience spends the entire film knowing nothing about this person, to the point where they almost cease to appear human. They are just an entity that kills. But then a harsh reminder is issued: all killers are people with lives. When it comes to horror movies, and sometimes in real life, such criminals take on their strange omnipotence and become more like Bigfoot or Mothman than real people with parents, houses and social security numbers. But in fact, even the most elusive vagrant has a story. They don’t just appear and then disappear again.
What does it mean to be terrified
Horror films have humanized villains for a long time. But often this means that the villains are sympathetic, or at least given some insight into their psyches and motives. hell festival makes an interesting departure from this approach by keeping the humanization completely impersonal. It’s not about this particular killer character, but about people in general - he is an ordinary person. All we need to know is that despite a series of murders he has apparently been committing over the course of several years, he lives a very normal life, with a nice home and a child, so apparently well. paid work. Perhaps even an unsuspecting wife. The killer walks in society unnoticed for years and secretly harbors a propensity for violence.
His lack of motive is another compelling factor. He does not retaliate for anything and seems resilient enough to exist in society and get away with his crimes. He just kills because he feels compelled to do so, like many criminals in the real world. It just works for him. And that’s what makes an ending hell festival not only the interesting part, but the really scary part. Quite unexpectedly, the movie is basically about dead teenagers and reminds you of the real horrors of life. That’s all very well for Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees walking around young people, but what if the same figure comes home after the night of the murder and goes to the office the next day, as usual? What if it turns out that all along, the person you’ve been working with, drinking beer, perhaps inviting into their own home, has been capable of mindless violence? This perspective brings horror closer to everyday life and gives this little old slasher a lot more meaning than you might think. The film dares to make you question such figures and their place in the world. How many such people, masked by a veil of respectability? When we base so much of our perceptions on how someone presents themselves, how much violence and cruelty goes unnoticed? What evil can’t we recognize because it doesn’t look out of place?
The funny thing is that this sharp turn does not need further development. There are already plenty of horror films that treat the killer as a person, and they certainly have their place, but a detailed description of this knockout punch would spoil the anonymous nature of the character. We don’t need to know all the ins and outs of his life because it’s not about him. He is a symbol of how evil merges with society, and to personify him would mean to dilute him. While the ending fits the mold of a sequel bait, it doesn’t need it. It works great on its own: like an edgy, intriguing little nightcap that will make you hell festival a memorable film that has more to say than it deserves.
Source: Collider
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