Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Hell Fest (Lionsgate Entertainment) 4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Review
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Hell Fest (Lionsgate Entertainment) 4k UHD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Review
Released by: Lionsgate Entertainment
Released on: January 8th, 2018.
Director: Gregory Plotkin
Cast: Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Christian James, Roby Attal, Matt Mercurio, Tony Todd
Year: 2018
Purchase From Amazon
Hell Fest - Movie Review:
Natalie (Amy Forsyth) has been away at college but has taken a break to visit her old friend Brooke (Reign Edwards) only to find out that she's rooming with Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus), a girl she didn't really get along with in her younger years. Not to worry, however, as Gavin (Roby Attal), a nice guy with a bit of a crush on Natalie, has arranged for them all to head over to Hell Fest. In fact, he's even arranged VIP tickets for everyone, including Brooke's boyfriend Quinn (Christian James) and Taylor's beau Asher (Matt Mercurio).
So, what is Hell Fest exactly? It's a travelling horror show of sorts, involving different haunted house-style attractions and scary mazes to wander through. Despite the fact that it seems a little ravey in spots, it looks like a lot of fun. The group of six meet up at the gates and head inside for what they assume will be a night of spooky fun, and that's exactly what they get… at first. Soon enough, a creepy guy in a creepy mask is stalking Natalie through one of the mazes and then stealing the photos that she and Gavin took in the photo booth. Brooke tries to chase him down and get the pictures back but it's no use. Eventually the group decides to head to the more intense area of the park, the Dead Lands, but Gavin has his heart set on winning Natalie a stuffed animal and so he stays back. When he doesn't return, Natalie starts to worry and soon enough, the group realizes that the creepy guy who was stalking them wasn't just an actor or employee…
Hell Fest doesn't bother much with character development, and honestly, that's okay. We spend literally about ten-minutes at the beginning of the movie to establish the different character types and then from there, it's straight into the park where director Gregory Plotkin (who directed Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension) starts to build tension pretty much immediately. Sure, at first, it's playful stuff - the Hell Fest employees jumping out and scaring people, monster-ish creatures poking about, but it works. It sets the tone effectively for what's to come. We don't really need to know the six main characters any better than we do.
The performances are fine, the cast made up entirely of younger actors with more experience in television work than film. Amy Forsyth (of Channel Zero) and Roby Attal are both likeable enough to compensate for and Taylor-Klaus (of Arrow and Scream: The TV Series) and Matt Mercurio's more obnoxious characters. That's not to slam either actor, they play their parts well, they're just written as over-the-top and goofy. Reign Edwards (of the MacGuyver reboot) is good as the 'middle ground' between her two very different friends, and Christian James (of Freefall) is fine as her boyfriend. A cameo from Candyman's Tony Todd as a ringleader of sorts is noteworthy - he looks cool in the part, even if it is a small one.
Really though, it's the pacing and the set decoration that makes this one work. The movie might not be deep but it does have some effectively creepy imagery and move at a very quick pace. The use of color is fantastic and the sets that were created for this, meant to replicate different rooms in the various mazes and exhibits that the characters wander through, are wonderfully morbid and frequently grotesque. The end result is a very entertaining watch, a movie that puts the fun back into the genre in a big way.
Hell Fest - Blu-ray Review:
Hell Fest arrives on 4k UHD from Lionsgate framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and presented in 2160p with Dolby Vision and HDR in an HEVC / H.265 encoded transfer. Shot digitally, there's clearly no grain or print damage to discuss. Detail is quite strong here, depth and texture as well, but it's the colors that really stand out. This is a beautifully lit film that makes use of a lot of different primary colored lighting and it is reproduced really, really well here. Reds, greens, yellows and purples often bathe the characters and the sets and it helps to create a really interesting look for the film. Black levels are very strong as well, there's no crush to complain about and shadow detail remains impressive. Skin tones look nice and lifelike and the picture is free of compression artifacts.
The English language DTS-X track on this disc is also really strong. There's frequent surround activity used throughout the movie to help build suspense and give a bit of punch to some of the film's well-timed jump scares. Dialogue stays clean, clear and easy to understand throughout while the score and sound effects show nice depth and range.
Optional subtitles are provided in English, English SDH and Spanish. Optional English 2.0 Dolby Audioâ„¢ Optimized for Late-Night Listening, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Audio and English Descriptive Audio options are also included.
Aside from a trailer for the feature, the only extra on the disc is a seventeen-minute behind the scenes segment made up of cast and crew interviews, behind the scenes footage and footage shot by the cast members on set using their cell phones. The six main cast members are interviewed here and all speak quite highly of their experiences while Plotkin talks about the importance of creating likeable characters for the audience to latch onto and some of the maze set pieces. We also hear about how the production avoided CGI in favor of practical effects, how they used a real amusement park for some scenes and sound stages for others and how Plotkin tried to keep the cast engaged and frightened during the shooting of certain scenes. It's a bit of a fluff piece but worth checking out once.
Menus and chapter selection are also included on the disc. As this is a combo pack release, we also get a Blu-ray disc containing the same extras as are found on the UHD, and an insert card for a digital download of the film. This release comes packaged with a slipcover.
Hell Fest - The Final Word:
Hell Fest is a blast, a visually impressive and creative looking picture that moves at a brisk pace and that features some solid scenes of suspense. Lionsgate's UHD/Blu-ray combo pack is light on the extra features fans might have wanted, but it looks fantastic and sounds really good too. Lots of fun to be had with this one - recommended!
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (270)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4133)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (293)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -
-
Released by: MVD Rewind Collection
Released on: January 8th, 2019.
Director: Albert Pyun
Cast: Olivier Gruner, Jennifer Gatti, Tim Thomerson
Year: 1992
Purchase From Amazon
Nemesis – Movie Review:
Albert Pyun's 1992 film Nemesis takes place in the future of 2027. Here it's common for criminals and cops alike to ‘upgrade' themselves using cybernetic bits and pieces in an effort to make themselves more than human. In this world...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:22 AM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: February 1st, 2024.
Director: Alec Mills
Cast: Leon Lissek, Christine Amor, Helen Thomson, Ian Williams
Year: 1990
Purchase From Amazon
Bloodmoon – Movie Review:
The directorial debut of Alec Mills, the cinematographer on such films as Polanski’s MacBeth and Return Of The Jedi, 1990’s Bloodmoon, a later period slasher film, is set around St. Elizabeth’s, an all-girls Catholic School...-
Channel: Movies
03-07-2024, 03:55 PM -
-
Released by: Scream Factory
Released on: March 12th, 2024.
Director: Mick Garris
Cast: Steven Weber, Rebecca De Mornay, Melvin Van Peebles, Courtland Mead
Year: 1997
Purchase From Amazon
The Shining – Movie Review:
Stephen King somewhat famously didn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his novel, The Shining, so he signed on to work with Director Mick Garris on this three-part TV mini-series take which hit the airwaves...-
Channel: Movies
03-07-2024, 03:50 PM -
-
Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: February 13th, 2024.
Director: Liam Lynch
Cast: Jack Black, Kyle Gass
Year: 2006
Purchase From Amazon
Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny – Movie Review:
Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny opens with a prologue where we meet a young man named Jables (JB, played by Jack Black) who, despite his strict religious upbringing, only wants to rock n roll. When his father tears down all of his posters...-
Channel: Movies
02-29-2024, 06:17 PM -