It’s not uncommon to see movies about almost the exact same
thing come out at almost the exact same time. Whether we’re talking
Armageddon/Deep Impact, Dante’s
Peak/Volcano, or White House Down/Olympus Has Fallen, this sort of thing happens all the time. And the latest
such incident is the Blood Fest/Hell Fest
duality, two movies about horror-themed events at amusement parks where things
go horribly, violently wrong.
There are sure to be differences between the two, but the
biggest gap is that, while Hell Fest appears to be a more
straight-ahead slasher, Blood Fest skews towards the comedic
side. Writer/director Owen Egerton (Follow, not to be
confused with It Follows, which came out around the same
time) plays with horror tropes and clichés. It’s cheap and cheesy and meta,
which is both a detriment and an asset at various points.
Despite the wishes of his genre-hating father (Tate
Donovan), horror-obsessive video store employee Dax (Robbie Kay, Once
Upon a Time) heads to Blood Fest, a massive gathering of likeminded enthusiasts.
With his best friends in tow—the super nerd, Krill (Jacob Batalon,
Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Sam (Seychelle Gabriel,
Falling Skies), the obvious girl of his dreams, even though
he can’t see it—they dive into a celebration of gore, monsters, and other genre
faves. Things quickly go bad, people die for real, and they have to use their specific
knowledge of movie rules in order to stay alive.
While the set up isn’t particularly original, Blood
Fest makes up for that with an earnest zest and excitement. It
occasionally toes the line with that troubling elitism we see so often in
fandom these days, the you’re-not-a-real-fan-unless… attitude, but for the most
part, it’s a goofy, enthusiastic lark.
At least initially. The first hour or so is up-tempo and
energetic and has a grand old time spraying blood and winking at horror fans. It’s
sloppy and bumpy and silly, but it’s also manic and gleeful, a joyous, modestly
engaging celebration of splatter and gore. But it falters on the home stretch. The
script over explains the ridiculous—and not ridiculous in a good way—mechanics
of this event-gone-wrong. Attempts to add emotional weight not only don’t fit
and aren’t earned, they impact the tone and pacing in dramatic fashion,
damaging the two key things the film has going for it.
Blood Fest works best when it’s Dax, Sam,
and Krill running for their lives. The trio has a solid slacker chemistry and
the blood-soaked action is enough to carry these scenes, even if they watch
like made-for-cable Halloween fare. But it bogs down when it leaves them and we
learn the grand plan of Anthony Walsh (Egerton), the maniacal horror icon behind
the whole celebration. It’s convoluted and clumsy and drags the proceedings to
a disappointing halt.
Horror fans may find enjoyment in Blood
Fest for a time. Flawed and campy, it’s also occasionally a zealous
love letter to the genre. It wears its heart on its sleeve, but in the end, it
derails and winds up nothing more than a trifling momentary distraction that
doesn’t leave much of an impression. [Grade: C]
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