« Modern movies lack memorable songs | Main | Theater continues comic productions with Shut Your American Pie Hole; or Discount Family Values »
October 11, 2005
HellBent goes to great lengths to identify itself as first gay horror slasher flick
Norman Bates is raging in his Oedipal grave as what has been taglined as the ‘first gay horror movie’ in the form of the chic, entertaining, sexy (and yes, a tiny bit campy) slasher flick, HellBent opens this fall. It’s like an indie Halloween, but gay, and thankfully not directed by John Carpenter. The marketing for HellBent takes great pains to identify it as the first gay horror movie, which I’m assuming is a concept in direct relation to ‘gay owned and operated.’ In whatever sense, it offers something much more stylish and classy for its audiences, at least in comparison to what I could only assume would be the ‘one millionth straight horror movie.’ That rarely obtained class of course comes in the form of not having thirty year old actors play high school students. In fact there is not a high school in sight.
The film begins with two horny pretty boys getting it on in a car until suddenly they are decapitated by a sexy masked man with devils horns and killer abs. Of course, the next day happens to be Halloween, and in the setting of West Hollywood this is much more exciting then any Halloween I’ve experienced in Minnesota. We meet four close friends, who are actually roommates, who are all completely different and refreshingly nonstereotypical. Our main protagonist is thankfully more realistically human than the uncompromisingly prepubescent Jamie Lee Curtis, and the final sequence between Eddie (played by Dylan Fergus) and the most physically appealing serial killerčwith the exception of Kathleen Turner in Serial Momčin homicidal history is definitely an eye-opener. Is HellBent scary? Maybe if you’re
homophobic. Instead, it’s the most fun, twisted and originally formulaic horror film I’ve seen in years. Since it is never revealed as to why the killer targets gay males in particular, perhaps it was wise to be marketed as gay-friendly in order to avoid accusations of hate crime themes. Whatever floats your boat, HellBent is one helluva a ride.
Posted by msveum at October 11, 2005 11:40 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)