Hell Fest is a 2018 American slasher film directed by Gregory Plotkin. The film stars Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Bex Taylor-Klaus, and Tony Todd, and follows a group of teens who are stalked by a serial killer while visiting a traveling Halloween carnival. It was released by CBS Films via Lionsgate.
Hell Fest was released on September 28, 2018, and grossed $18.2 million at the box office on a budget of $5.5 million. It received generally mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
At Hell Fest, a travelling horror theme park, a masked man known as “The Other” kills a young woman when she is separated from her friends in a maze. The Other hangs her corpse in the maze so it blends in with the props.
On Halloween night, Natalie goes to Hell Fest with her best friend Brooke, Brooke’s roommate Taylor, their boyfriends Quinn and Asher, and their friend Gavin, who is interested in Natalie. The girls run into a terrified woman in one of the park’s mazes 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 after Taylor and Brooke leave. Natalie thinks the murder seemed too real to be a normal attraction, and once she reunites with the rest of her group notices the Other is stalking them. The group dismisses Natalie’s fears until Brooke catches the Other stealing Natalie and Gavin’s pictures from a photo booth.
While the rest of the group enters another area of the park, Gavin tries to steal a prize for Natalie when he fails to win one in a carnival game. The Other corners Gavin, and crushes his skull with a mallet. Because Gavin is still gone, Natalie goes on a ride alone while the rest of her friends pair up. The ride breaks down, and Natalie is approached by a man who appears to be the Other. This is part of the ride, however, and the group discovers park employees wear a mask similar to the Other’s.
A park employee grabs Taylor and takes her away. The rest of the group splits up to find her, with the girls going in one maze while the boys go into another. The Other corners Natalie in a maze, but she escapes. Asher gets separated from Quinn, and is killed when the Other stabs him in the eye. The friends regroup, but they do not have much time to think about Asher’s disappearance before an employee sprays Natalie with ooze. She goes into a bathroom to clean up, where the Other uses Gavin’s phone to trap her in a stall. Natalie escapes and tries to warn park security about the Other, but a security guard dismisses 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 blade appears to come down on Taylor’s neck, but it only beheads a dummy that looks like her. The Other tries to kill Taylor, still restrained in the guillotine, when he is left alone with her after the show. Taylor escapes when the blade fails to cut through her neck on the first blow. She runs away, but the Other catches up to her, kills her, and then kills Quinn when he tries to intervene.
As panic ensues in the park, security restrains a park employee they confuse for the killer. The Other traps Natalie and Brooke in a maze they mistake for the park exit. The girls are separated, and the Other corners Brooke. Natalie jumps out of a hidden door and stabs the Other in the gut before he can kill Brooke. As the girls make their way towards the maze’s exit, 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 what appear to be 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.
Cast
Amy Forsyth as Natalie
Reign Edwards as Brooke
Bex Taylor-Klaus as Taylor Ann Smythe
Christian James as Quinn
Matt Mercurio as Asher
Roby Attal as Gavin
Tony Todd as The Barker
Michael Tourek as Security Guard
Courtney Dietz as Britney
Elle Graham as The Other’s Daughter
Stephen Conroy as The Other
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.