Hell Fest

"Fun going in. Hell getting out."

Director: Gregory Plotkin Year: 2018 Runtime: 89 min IMDb: ⭐ 5.7

Movie Poster

Synopsis

On Halloween night at a horror theme park, a costumed killer begins slaying innocent patrons who believe that it's all part of the festivities.

At Hell Fest, a traveling horror theme park, a masked man known as "The Other" kills a woman and hangs her corpse in the maze so it blends in with the props. On Halloween night, Natalie goes to the theme park with her best friend Brooke, Brooke's boyfriend Quinn, Brooke's roommate Taylor and her boyfriend Asher, and Brooke's friend Gavin, who likes Natalie. Natalie and Brooke's friendship has been strained due to living far apart and Natalie's distaste for Taylor. On arriving at the festival, the girls run into a terrified woman trying to hide from the Other. Natalie, thinking this is part of the park experience, points out her hiding place. The Other kills the woman in front of Natalie. Natalie thinks the murder seemed too real to be a normal attraction. The group dismisses her fears until Brooke catches the Other stealing Natalie and Gavin's pictures from a photo booth. While the others are gone, The Other kills Gavin first, crushing his skull with a mallet. Natalie goes on a ride alone while the rest of her friends pair up. The ride breaks down, and she is approached by a man who appears to be the Other. This is part of the ride, however, and the group discovers that park employees wear a mask similar to the Other's. The group splits up and The Other finds Natalie but she escapes. Asher is killed when the Other stabs him in the eye. The friends regroup, but the Other traps Natalie in the bathroom stall. She escapes and tries to warn park security but they dismiss the attack as part of the park experience. Natalie, Brooke and Quinn find Taylor has volunteered to take part in an attraction where she will be beheaded by a guillotine in front of a live audience. Park security prevents Natalie from stopping the show when she recognizes the Other's boots on the executioner. The stage curtains close and the Other approaches Taylor who, assuming he's an employee, asks to be let out. As she becomes increasingly alarmed, the Other straps her in tighter and raises the guillotine. After pausing to silently stare at her, he releases the guillotine, only for it to be revealed that the drop was done to a dummy, as would be originally intended for the show. Immediately afterwards, the Other sets the blade up for real to cut off Taylor's head. However, Taylor escapes when the blade fails to fully cut through. Freeing her hands, she escapes, and begins running through the festival screaming for help. The Other catches up with her and slashes her face while surrounded by festivalgoers. Quinn, hearing her screams, runs towards the two. Just as he reaches them, the Other stabs Taylor in the stomach, but she survives. Before Quinn can react, the Other turns around and fatally stabs him. As panic ensues in the park, The Other traps Natalie and Brooke in a maze. The girls are separated, and the Other corners Brooke. Natalie stabs the Other in the gut before he can kill Brooke. Police barge into the maze to save them and capture the killer. The Other, however, has escaped, and drives to his suburban home. He places his mask and the pictures of Natalie and Gavin that he stole into a cabinet with other masks and trophies from his previous kills. The Other's young daughter wakes up to greet her father, and he gives her a stuffed animal from the park.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

🎄 Holiday Cheer Breakdown

☠️ Takes place on or around a holiday —
☠️ Features holiday symbols and decorations —
☠️ Features a traditional holiday activity —
☠️ Features an iconic holiday character —
☠️ Someone is killed in a festive or holiday-specific way —

Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

an animal dies

spoiler There are no animals in this movie

there's a dead animal

spoiler There’s a scene where two characters are walking through a maze. It’s set up like a butcher shop sorta? Some of it has skinned animals and people that are dead (possibly actors). It’s quite a gruesome scene.

there are spiders

spoiler Large fake prop spiders are used in the haunted house areas and a jump scare

there are bugs

spoiler Multiple incidents of fly buzzing noises, fake spider

there's child abuse

spoiler ***SPOILER*** To add onto the comment above mine,yeah no child is abused in the movie. But the killer does come home to their daughter at the end. And it also shows that they keep things from people they kill. All of that can be triggering for some.

a woman is brutalized for spectacle

Yes

someone gets gaslighted

spoiler Characters try to report the killer to park staff but given the extreme nature of the park the staff think they're overreacting. It's not gaslighting but may still be uncomfortable

someone is stalked

spoiler Stalking makes up a major part of the plot, as a masked man follows the main characters around for the entire film

there's addiction

spoiler References to an overdose including an actor pretending to be dead in one of the sections of the horror park.

alcohol abuse

spoiler No alcohol abuse but there is a lot of liquor present

someone uses drugs

spoiler no one actually uses drugs but one of the fake bodies in the haunted house is a drug overdose

sexual assault on men is a joke

Yes

someone is restrained

spoiler A character is also restrained in a guillotine

a woman gets slapped

Yes

someone's mouth is covered

Yes

there's eye mutilation

spoiler The eye is punctured by a syringe.

there's excessive gore

Yes

there's torture

spoiler one character is strapped into a prop guillotine and cut multiple times while awake, she escapes though. all of the other deaths can be seen as torturous as well. the final girls are also subjected to being chased by the killer through a horror maze, with the killer attacking and stalking them.

there's body horror

Yes

heads get squashed

spoiler a character is killed with an oversized mallet used for a strength test carnival game.

there's decapitation

spoiler There’s a fake out but it doesn’t actually happen

there are hangings

spoiler In the opening scene a girl is hung from the ceiling after being stabbed

someone's throat is mutilated

Yes

there's shaving/cutting

spoiler Not self-inflicted cutting and no shaving. But several people are stabbed and knives are common

someone is crushed to death

Yes

there's amputation

spoiler But one character is nearly decapitated, and many props in the horror mazes feature amputations

someone struggles to breathe

spoiler A character is hit in the throat and is seen struggling to breathe afterwards

someone breaks a bone

spoiler You hear ribs cracking when a guy is hit with a huge wooden hammer

somebody is choked

Yes

someone is stabbed

Yes

Someone becomes unconscious

Yes

a major character dies

Yes

someone dies

Yes

someone overdoses

spoiler However, one of the scares in a haunt looks like someone OD-ed intravenously.

A child's dear toy is destroyed

spoiler There are multiple stuffed animals, some get thrown but not destroyed.

someone cheats

spoiler There is actually a very cute relationship developing and two other solid-seeming relationships in the group. Up until the killing starts. Then things are less cute.

there are jump scares

Yes

there are clowns

spoiler There are three clowns only for a couple of minutes, the clowns don't hurt anyone

there's ghosts

Yes

there are mannequins

spoiler Part of one of the mazes, there’s several dummy figures in masks

someone vomits

spoiler A scare actor "vomits" on a character.

There's audio gore

Yes

someone defecates

spoiler No, but we do see a girl use the bathroom

there's spitting

spoiler Someone coughs up blood after being hit with a huge hammer

needles/syringes are used

spoiler The syringe is not used to inject drugs, instead syringe imagery is used for delivering alcohol shots in one scene, used as a prop implying a mannequin had been stabbed with a syringe, and used as a murder weapon to puncture an eye in another scene.

there's a mental institution scene

spoiler One themed haunted area resembles a school but that's the closest the movie comes to it.

there's a hospital scene

spoiler There are several themed mazes throughout the film. One of them is hospital-themed.

there's a claustrophobic scene

spoiler There are scenes where victims are trapped in tight confinement/spaces while the killer approaches them, which can trigger feelings of claustrophobia. Several of these scenes happen in very dark spaces, which can add to an enclosed perspective.

someone has an anxiety attack

spoiler Genre-typical panicking/hyperventilating/sobbing which could be upsetting to those sensitive to depictions of anxiety attacks.

someone has a meltdown

spoiler In a manner of speaking, yes. There is a lot of panicking

shaky cam is used

Yes

there's flashing lights or images

spoiler Several scenes are set in a haunted house

there's screaming

Yes

there is obscene language/gestures

spoiler Some swearing and one character flips off another

there are sudden loud noises

Yes

a baby cries

spoiler In the doll/baby room in the hell maze, a track loop of a baby crying and laughing is playing. It's distorted to be spooky so it didn't trigger the response in me personally

someone is watched without knowing

Yes

there are homophobic slurs

spoiler There’s no homophobic slurs in the movie. They ask to touch their beard. That’s it.

someone is misgendered

spoiler No one is misgendered in the movie. To give more context to the comment above,here’s this. **SPOILER** Two characters were walking through a maze together and they were trying to figure out who were actors and who were mannequins. I say that since the scene is dark and there is a lot of people in it. But they are solely looking at their hands. That’s why they call them neutral. They couldn’t tell in the dark who is male or female. So they called them neutral. I personally didn’t find it offensive.

there are "Man in a dress" jokes

spoiler But bearded lady trope as part of horror maze

there's ableist language or behavior

Yes

an LGBT person dies

spoiler yes taylor was fruity as hell

the black guy dies first

spoiler There's a tense moment where the audience is led to believe that the only black character will die first but the moment passes.

there's demons or Hell

spoiler Depictions of hell in the haunted attractions

there is sexual content

spoiler No explicit sexual content or nudity, although significant sexual references / gestures and a fairly steamy clothed scene in a photo booth.

someone is sexually objectified

spoiler A character sexualizes a scare actor.

a male character is ridiculed for crying

spoiler They laugh at each other for being scared

the ending is sad

Yes

a person is hit by a car

spoiler But as part of a horror maze two characters are nearly hit by a fake train

a car honks or tires screech

Yes

there's blood/gore

Yes

someone drowns

spoiler One themed maze makes it appear that the participants are underwater using colored lights and smoke machines. Nobody is distressed by this but it may still be upsetting.

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