HellBent

This movie puts the “queen” in scream queen, but despite its marketing campaign HellBent has a lot more going for it than the cachet of being “the first-ever gay slasher film.” Besides, homicidal homosexuals and homophobes aren’t exactly new in cinema (see High Tension, Basic Instinct, Scary Monsters, Cruising, et al) — what makes HellBent so damn much fun is that its heart is in the right place (even if it does get brutally ripped out of its chest!).

In a pitch-perfect homage to old school horror, HellBent opens on a hot and bothered couple copulating in a car at night in a secluded spot. As the young men grapple and pant, we’re shown a shadowy figure skulking ever closer. The figure emerges in the moonlight, showing us a glint of scythe, a Mephisto-style devil mask, and some wicked six-pack abs before he strikes a fatal, tryst-ending blow.

Cut to a quartet of L.A. roomies preparing for a rip-roaring Halloween night. Earnest Eddie (Dylan Fergus) is going to don his departed dad’s cop uniform; shy Joey (Hank Harris) is the reluctant wearer of a BDSM leather number; brazen Chaz (Andrew Levitas) is a ride’em cowboy; and masculine Tobey (Matt Phillips) decides to go glitter as a drop-dead drag queen. Eddie hears tell of the gruesome, possibly homosexually motivated crime that took place the night before from his sister, who’s carrying on the family tradition to protect and serve. (Eddie wanted to be a cop too, but a defect in his vision kept him from passing the physical.) This being a horror movie, the horny, drunken characters all disregard the warning and head out for the killer’s happiest hunting grounds: West Hollywood’s Annual Halloween Carnival.

The fab four decide to cut through the woods from their apartment, where they unwittingly play a prank on the devilish dispatcher (they think he’s just another hottie in costume). They moon him, and before long their asses are grass. Scythe sharpened, the faceless killer reaps in delightfully disgusting ways — decapitation is his preferred method of dispatch, and since it’s Halloween he’s got just the right bags to tote the heads in! (And in case you’re wondering, the theatrical poster showing a blade-tip a hairsbreadth from a widened eyeball isn’t just a tease.)

Writer/director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts clearly knows the coveted conventions of the slasher genre and he does a brilliant job of balancing black comedy, concern for our imperiled leads, and full-on gasping-for-breath horror moments. He gives us what we want, and then some. Furthermore, he’s cast likeable and relatable actors to portray the young men — while each is dressed in corny Village People garb, the characters beneath the cartoony exteriors are worthy of caring about… at least until it looks like they’re going to satisfy our bloodlust. The unnamed and ostensibly motiveless murderer is appropriately dark, shadowy, merciless and perfunctory in his killing — he makes for a memorable monster despite his familiar trappings.

Take away the gay, and HellBent is still a funky-fab standalone in the Slasher 101 genre.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson