November 13, 2006

Hellbent

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ***

Could the real gay film niche be the "slasher" genre rather than the romantic comedy? Weird thought, but Hellbent makes you wonder. This better-than-average scare movie offers all the gay-for-straight substitutions but--via a clever script, nice acting, attractive leads and a first-time writer/director, Paul Etheredge-Ouzts, who knows how to use and subvert the genre--it succeeds surprisingly well at being creepy, witty and fun. (And often, as in the film's delicious final moment, all three.) There are the usual unbelievable moments (less here than in many "scare" films, however), but by compressing the action into 48 hours and timing his movie to well under 90 minutes, Etheredge-Ouzts manages to make it both believable and suspenseful. There's not a lot of unnecessary exposition, either, and the identity and motivations of the killer, while hinted at, are left tantalizingly out of reach. Some viewers evidently find this a problem, but for those of us who’ve had our fill of explanation overkill, this may come as quite a blessing. Lead actor Dylan Fergus (of various TV soap operas) makes a glass eye seem sexier that he any right to.

Posted by cphillips at November 13, 2006 10:05 AM
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