Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

moonmonday Billed as 'the first gay slasher film', Hellbent basically takes every genre trait it can and tries to combine them into a singular movie. It works in some ways, mainly as a pastiche with a twist since it's not the usual straight sex-crazed, drugged-out teens that have been served up as fodder for decades.Unfortunately, it doesn't work in a number of other ways, and that's a real shame. I think the biggest way that it fails is that no-one really brings up the concern of a hate crime after the double-murder at the beginning. In reality, that would be all over the place, people would have heard about it, and it's very unlikely things would go on exactly as planned with a brutal double-murder the night before Halloween, especially when it was not even two blocks away from the centre of West Hollywood. Sorry, but I don't buy it.It seemed like the makers wanted to avoid stereotypes, but in so doing also managed to avoid realistic-feeling characters. Instead, the characters came off as pretty heavily stereotypical...just in different ways than is usually seen in gay-oriented entertainment, and at the same time included almost no recognisable figures that one would really encounter in a place of such a concentration of the gay community. Basically, like they were trying way too hard to 'normalise' gay men and gay culture, to the point where it just looks like obnoxious 20somethings at funky clubs on Halloween. The characters are all fairly ridiculously fit, though, which isn't really clever enough to be ironic.It didn't deal well with the mysterious killer, who is never explained and has no real gravitas. It's just some bodybuilder in a mask, that's it. Nothing more is ever really explored. For that matter, the other characters were largely not that great, aside from the genuinely likable Chaz, which may have been due to the actor's own charisma. The main protagonist was awful, as was his unbelievable and obnoxious female friend; they also didn't really explain what he was doing working for the police since it was stated numerous times he failed his exam.This said, though, the big flub of Hellbent is that it kills off the much more likable and interesting characters, does it far too soon in the story, and doesn't even do it well. The more annoying characters stick around, the story goes nowhere, and it ends about as you'd expect. The story doesn't make sense -- after encountering a weird, potentially dangerous guy at the scene of a murder less than 24 hours previous, they say nothing to anyone and aren't that surprised when he follows them?! The whole hate crime element is not really touched upon, and it's conspicuous by its absence, but it's not something that the viewer can really avoid thinking about.Maybe that's the reason why Hellbent is one of a tiny few in the 'gay slasher' genre...because it's not really fun, and usually slasher films are kind of supposed to be. It tries too hard, and it doesn't try hard enough. It's basically just really depressing, and by the end of it all you aren't even fulfilled by a satisfying resolution. If it had been just another 'straight teens go partying on Halloween and there's a killer' film, not a single person would have cared. It doesn't have a sense of humour really, so you can't even say it's a black comedy. It's just sad.

morrison-dylan-fan Having an interest to see a Slasher movie perhaps take a different route from the norm,I was surprised to recently find out that 2004 had been the year when the first ever Gay Slasher film had been made.Intriged by seeing the genre's supreme producer Joseph Wolf connected to the film,I decided to take a look at a movie which would hopefully look at the Slasher genre from a refreshingly different point of view.The plot:With the famous West Hollywood Carnival only a day away,the local police start to suspect that a serial killer is planning to turn the Carnival into a bloody mess,when the bodies of two men are found beheaded in a park.Not wanting to ruin his friends plans for the carnival,officer Eddie decides that he will keep his eyes wide open for the serial killer during the celebration,who will end up getting Eddie and his friends to paint the West Hollywood Carnival blood red.View on the film:Whilst the characters of Slasher films are seen (sometimes wrongly) as being a bit stupid,writer/director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts sadly makes Eddie and his pals some of the dumbest characters that I have seen in any film!.Despite the best efforts from the charismatic cast,Ouzts makes it almost impossible for any emotional involvement with the characters,due to their level of stupidity being miles away from the normal behaviour of having a serial killer constantly trying to chop your head off,with a number of Eddie's friends seriously asking the masked knife welding psycho if he wants a date for the night!.Although his screenplay is a disappointing,first time director Outzts keeps the movie moving at a quick pace and also shows a real flair for the set-piece murder scenes,with a brutal murder taking place in a toilet featuring an impressively done final shot,and a savage killing at a disco being extremely distinctive thanks to Ouzts wonderfully stylised directing.

Alexstam54 Hellbent is the first gay slasher movie and it's great fun. The guys look great, there's a cute love story, the killer looks extremely sexy and there are some really gory scenes. The characters are nicely developed before some of them are killed. So you really care a bit about them, and that's more than you can say of most horror movies. Evidently it follows the rules of the slasher movie (the ten little Indians-scenario, the killer-behind-the door, etc.), but still it works. Sometimes the characters act just a bit too stupid, but that's just a minor point. I think that the ratings are really much too low, it's just a good slasher with some genuine scary moments. A great movie for a Saturday night.

Scarecrow-88 Four homosexual friends take to the streets during Carnival on Halloween night in West Hollywood as a buff serial killer(with a silver devil mask), who uses a sickle to attack victims(taking their heads after decapitation), follows close behind, waiting to strike each one when they are off by themselves. Eddie(Dylan Fergus), whose daddy was a policeman, is overly protective of his friends, and takes a liking to a biker in a leather vest(a manly gay man), always worried about his boys' safety because of the psycho running around(he saw the crime scene photos of the gay couple beheaded at the opening of the film, enough motivation to strike fear inside, or, at the very least, warranted caution). Bryan Kirkwood is Eddie's love interest, Jake. Hank Harris, Andrew Levitas, and Matt Phillips are the three pals of Eddie's who become targets of the killer. HELLBENT is probably my first male gay slasher flick and this, I figure, will be a strike against it because homophobes will find it hard to sit through as the movie emerges us into gay culture during a festive, energetic night on the streets where male homosexuals come out to enjoy the Halloween season with grand enthusiasm. Shot digital with the killings quite sadistic as the psychopath collects the heads of his victims! The killer's face is never shown and his motives are never clear. His presence and mask are pretty bitchin', to tell you the truth, and when he appears all you can really say is "Oh, sht!" While I mentioned that homophobes may find HELLBENT maybe hard to adapt to, there's an atmosphere and style I thought earned the movie brownie points; slasher fans, especially gay males, might consider this an underrated gem of a movie considering the genre hasn't too many flicks where the heroes are homosexual men. While we never see an actual beheading on screen, I felt that director Paul Etheredge uses impressive sound effects and camera work(not to mention buckets of blood)to compensate. We do see the bodies absent heads which are rather gruesome and the scene where the sickle's point isn't able to penetrate Eddie's glass eye is a showstopper. While the digital may seem grainy, I think Etheredge captures an authentic feel that works to the movie's advantage. You know, the activity on the streets, all the people, the crowds on every corner, packing clubs, it's a playground for a killer to inflict serious damage to whoever he so wishes to harm. There's one scene, for instance, where the killer is able to butcher a victim in a club with strobe lights protecting his identity. You just have to tolerate dudes kissing from time to time. I often get to see chicks engage in lip lock so it's only fair that guys do the same, even if I prefer the former, there are those who desire the latter and rarely get it..HELLBENT gives gay men just that, and the heroes are their own.