Released: June 26, 2004
Director: Paul Etheredge-Ouzts
Screenplay: Paul Etheredge-Ouzts
Tagline: "When the night belongs to the devil, the party goes to hell"
Cast:
Dylan Fergus as Eddie
Bryan Kirkwood as Jake
Andrew Levitas as Chaz
Hank Harris as Joey
Matt Phillips as Tobey
Kent Bradley James as Nick Name
Nina Landey as Maria
Two gay men parked in a lovers lane are interrupted by a bare-chested, iron-muscled man wearing a devil mask and carrying a sickle. Within moments, he's decapitated both of them. Cut to several days later, it's Halloween, and Eddie and his friends are on their way to a massive Halloween carnival in West Hollywood where they find themselves being followed by the same chiseled, Satanic killer. Thinking he's cruising them, the friends taunt and tease their demonic stalker before going their separate ways in pursuit of their individual goals for the night (drugs, sex, fun, romance, etc.). One by one, the scythe-wielding devil hunts them down, and it's up to Eddie to stop the bloodbath before his new crush Jake becomes the next victim.
Hellbent is a slasher film with gay characters and a generic premise, and that's exactly why it works. Unlike most LGBTQ+ cinema, the characters' queerness isn't the focus of the film or the defining part of their characters. This has a great effect on the film as it allows us to view it as we would any other slasher, and in that lens, the film succeeds where many other films in the sub-genre fail. The characters, too, rise above their stereotypes to become fully fleshed personalities while also still embodying different issues within the gay community. Their deaths become surprisingly sad and poignant when taken in the context of what they symbolize for the larger queer community; homely Joey is dispatched after finally achieving an inkling of the romantic bliss he craves among the sex-obsessed Halloween crowd, Chaz is killed while strung out on ecstasy and unable to tell if the stab wounds on his torso are real or figments of his drug-addled mind, and Tobey is sliced up after revealing to the killer that beneath his drag costume, he's all man. In his death, in particular, we might read into the damaging obsession with masculinity in gay culture.There's a protracted sense of dread throughout the film that mixes well with the beautiful eroticism at play among the attractive cast and their sensual endeavors. Everything plays out on distinguished, realized sets that capture the surrealness of Halloween night and the sanctioned lewdness of an adult carnival. Etheredge-Ouzts has a great eye for his camera throughout the movie, and some choice framing throughout the film highlights themes of perception, presentation, and blindness, both literal and figurative. Eddie struggles with seeing the world as it is and perceiving situations correctly, as symbolized by his glass eye, an object of obsession for the killer. It's a commentary about self-obsession, perhaps as a danger to the queer community at large, and so as much as Hellbent is a traditional, sexy-looking slice'n'dice, it's also a subversive, intelligent queer horror film with something different to say. And either way, it's one hell of an eye-opener.
Hellbent
5 - Totally Terrifying
4 - Crazy Creepy
3 - Fairly Frightening
2 - Slightly Scary
1 - Hardly Horror
No comments:
Post a Comment