"Hellbent" Introduces The Gay Horror Pic

Genres collide all the time. There have been horror westerns and horror musicals. Last year's "Shaun of the Dead" was a zombie romantic comedy, or a "zomromcom," as the filmmakers put it.
At some point there was going to be a gay horror movie, and "Hellbent" is it. The novelty of this low-budget slasher flick is almost enough to make it work, although it's difficult to imagine it will appeal to anyone outside the target audience.
"Hellbent" is shot on video, and looks it. The opening 15 minutes are amateurish enough to set off warning bells, although once the plot kicks in the movie actually gets scary.
We follow four gay guys as they set out for the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival, a big street party. The characters conform to broad types we expect in slasher flicks: hero Eddie (Dylan Fergus) is solid and responsible, Joey (Hank Harris) is an innocent, Chaz (Andrew Levitas) is a party animal and Tobey (Matt Phillips) is jaded, albeit while dressed as a 1940s-style drag queen. OK, that part you don't have in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies.
Unfortunately for these guys, they manage to antagonize a masked man who turns out to be the mad killer terrorizing the neighborhood. Bad move. And because this is a slasher movie, not all the guys will survive the night.
"Hellbent" doesn't skimp on either side of its split personality, the gay-movie side or the horror-movie side. Director Paul Etheredge-Ouzt has said he envisioned the film like the blaxploitation pictures of the 1970s, which brought black heroes into the mainstream. That phenomenon seems unlikely to repeat here.
But he stages some genuinely frightening action scenes, and makes you worry about the characters to a far greater degree than the endless series of "Friday the 13th" movies.
So, this film delivers the horror, but will the cult audience accept the gay characters? If there's ever "Hellbent Part 2," you'll have the answer.
"Hellbent" HH
Amateurish but scary: A gay horror movie that doesn't skimp on either side of its split personality. Set at the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival, the film is sometimes amateurish but often quite scary.
from Herald Net