It’s Halloween and Natalie and her friends just want to have some fun. They’ve got VIP passes to Hell Fest, the macabre makeover of the local amusement park. Early in the night, Natalie catches the eye of a masked figure that stalks her and her friends through the park eventually killing them.
If you’ve ever attended a Halloween event like Hell Fest such as the Knott’s Berry Farm Halloween Haunt in California, the 13th Gate in Louisiana or hundreds of similar attractions across the county, you’ve probably contemplated the seeming ease with which a would be killer could blend in the costumed and masked staff and take people out unnoticed. This is what plays out in CBS Film’s Hell Fest.
This event serves as a triple date for the group with 2 established couples and Natalie and Gavin awkwardly, sweetly getting to know each other.
Through most of the film, the groups sees the figure as an over zealous park employee. He’s entirely mysterious though he seems to have a thing for young girls with long dark hair. We do get a bit of insight into his life in the final scenes of the film.
Natalie and best friend Brooke run, hide and work to outsmart the figure to survive. Not everyone is so lucky.
Hell Fest works best because it feels like a frighteningly plausible situation most of us as been in while having the fear that what happens in Hell Fest will happen to us.
What I like: It’s fun. It’s simple but not boring. It’s an homage to the slasher flicks of the 70s and 80s, The sets and scares are great.
What I didn’t: There’s no depth to the story. Perhaps the moral to the story is that terrible things can be done by everyday people, but there’s so little investigation into that very interesting idea as to say there’s no moral at all. I will acknowledge that its all right to have some fun without commentary sometimes.
Go see it, and then hit up your local maze or haunted house.
