Hellblazers

source: Hellblazers

The film opens with Billy Zane reading from a book and rather poorly attempting to raise a demon from hell. They manage to get the victim into the pit and out pops a demon. This was witnessed from afar by Bill Unger (Bruce Dern). The scene then goes to the small town of Hope Valley which has a policeman for every three people in town. Here we are introduced to many of the town's characters, none of which are as funny as Billy Zane or the gritty Bruce Dern. Bill rolls in the sheriff's office and goes on about what he saw on his property to the new sheriff Joe (Ed Morrone) from New York. For some strange reason Joe doesn't believe this Vietnam Vet who occasionally sees space aliens on his property. The plot heats up as the Boilermakers need to feed the demon human bodies. The film was funny when Zane or Dern were on the screen. It was boring when they weren't on the screen. Needless to say, they exited the film too soon. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Within the first 20 minutes there is an event, then a witness of said event describes the event we just saw to the sheriff. Then the sheriff says "Let me get this straight..." and relays the event back to the witness who just described it! Who is writing this stuff? The premise seemed interesting and with a better script and more gore (this may have been due to budget constraints) it could have been entertaining. As-is it feels like the talent they brought together for this effort was wasted. I also think this would have worked better as a straight-up horror film. The "comedy" was not funny. Honestly, I would skip this one.

Well, initially then I have to say that I was rather impressed with the cast ensemble that was on the cast list for the 2022 horror movie "Hellblazers" from writer and director Justin Lee. And yeah, I hadn't heard about the movie prior to stumbling upon it here late in 2022. But with it being a horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie. "Hellblazers" was watchable, sure, but it was by no means a grand milestone in horror cinema. In fact, I will actually go as far as to deem "Hellblazers" to be a rather mundane and bland foray into the horror genre. Luckily a rather impressive cast ensemble were able to keep the movie afloat. The concept idea for "Hellblazers" was interesting enough, there were some potential here, for sure. But writer and director Justin Lee seemed to drop the ball and opted to go for a rather bland and generic approach to bring the movie to life on the screen. If you are a newcomer to the horror genre, then you might get a kick out of "Hellblazers". But if you are, like myself, a seasoned horror veteran, then "Hellblazers" came and went without much of any lasting impression. This is hardly a movie that I will recommend to horror fans, except if it is only to see the rather nice cast ensemble. The acting performances in "Hellblazers" were fair enough, but it was clear that the actors and actresses were struggling with a bland script and character gallery. There are some familiar faces and names on the cast list, especially if you have been watching horror movie since the 1980s; with the likes of Ed Morrone, Adrienne Barbeau, Meg Foster, Courtney Gains, John Kassir, Edward Finlay, Bruce Dern and Billy Zane. My rating of "Hellblazers" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Vietnam vet Bill Unger (Bruce Dern) is just trying to visit his wife's grave when he hears Joshua (Billy Zane) and his followers conjure a demon, a fact that no one seems to believe. They better - the coven plans on feeding that demon every single person in town. The real reason many genre fans will want to watch this Tubi original is the cast: Courtney Gains (Malachai!), Meg Foster (Evil Lyn!), John Kassir (the Crypt Keeper!), Tony Todd (do I even have to tell you?) and Adrienne Barbeau as a DJ not named Stevie Wayne, the nightlight at KAB. It's also a The 'Burbs reunion and doesn't miss the opportunity to throw in a line between Dern and Gains. Director and writer Justin Lee (Apache Junction, Big Legend) has excelled at making movies with monsters in them. This one has a great demon - you barely see it but when you do, it's quite incredible - and a cult determined to destroy a town that is in no way ready to go down without a fight. Sure, VFW and The Void did this before and better, but if Tubi is now our video store, this is certainly not a bad film to grab before the store closes and you promised everyone you'd get a horror movie.

This was one of those movies I was sort of half watching while doing something else, but after the first 10-15 minutes I was hooked. Nothing makes sense in this movie. Nothing is ever explained, the extraordinarily bad decisions made by some characters are frustrating. But the thing that really lift s this above is the fact the characters a likeable and very well acted. There are some great characters acted by some recognisable actors. It is a good fun movie, but suffers from falling between the lines of comedy and horror. You never find out the backstory, and the first 10 minutes seem like a life time ago, but it was fun, and sometimes horror movies need that..

Hellblazer (2022) is a Tubi Original that I watched on...Tubi. The storyline follows a small town where a cult has unleashed a demon from hell. As people start disappearing the sheriff starts investigating the area where the cult resurrected the demon...it may be his last investigation. This movie is directed by Justin Lee (A Reckoning) and stars Tony Todd (Candy Man), Adrienne Barbeau (Creepshow), Meg Foster (They Live), Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn), Bruce Dern (The Burbs) and Billy Zane (Demon Knight). This movie has a tremendous cast...and every single one of them is under utilized except Bruce Dern. He was awesome. The comedy overall is pretty good. Dern's entire conversation at the store, and his Purdue reference, is hilarious. The cult vs Dern was outstanding. Todd being on the cover I will say is false advertising. He's in the movie for like two seconds. The demon in this is fairly crazy looking and I say the cult was well done. Overall this is a very uneven movie that doesn't take itself seriously, but if it did a little bit more, could have been really good. This seemed liked an excuse to put together an awesome cast; unfortunately, they didn't do much with them once they did. I would score this a 5/10 but recommend seeing it once.

Big city sheriff moves to small town to avoid the high crime and violence, but weird events start to occur, and people start to disappear. What is going on and how many of our cast of goofballs and stereotypes will survive? Almost every horror staple actor who was still alive at the time of filming was briefly present in this very enjoyable, short, straight-forward movie. Bruce Dern and his character were absolutely hysterical. A hearty Happy Hannukah to you, my friend! I liked it a lot. The biggest detriment is how light it is on story, script, and dialogue. It almost feels like this was more created as a series of small inside jokes, references and tributes to previous horror movies, rather than its own story. But I still enjoyed it. The silly humor was my kind of humor. There were a few nice and gory kills. And in the end. There is basically zero explanation for the actual supernatural events. I'll re-watch this often. I liked it very much. It's a solid 8.9 for me, and I revisit this review wondering if I should raise it to a 9, probably only due to a few jokes that I found particularly pleasing and worth seeing regularly.

Most of the people giving this a low rating are just haters, trolls or people expecting too much. This is really a 5 or 6 movie but I'm giving it a higher rating to offset the idiotically low ratings. Note: If you are watching this for Tony Todd he's barely in it. The script is decent and not as bad as some of these ratings indicate. Sound quality and lighting are good. I didn't have any problems hearing or seeing anything. The creature is a little goofy looking but not bad for the budget. As far as Tubi originals go this is good. One of my main gripes is that it's way too short. Just when things get going the movie is over.

Without me giving a full synopsis- expect a fairly routine plot- evil stalks a small town, trapping the survivors in a bar until the final confrontation. The most interesting plot points were the mid credit & after credit scenes. The veteran actors had a few key moments and really serve as the hook I know they're why I clicked on the title. Dern is especially entertaining in a key scene with the sheriff. Adrienne Barbeau and Tony Todd have a few scenes ... However Meg Foster feels wasted in approx 1 min of screen time. Billy Zane appeared to give the minimum effort possible, but it's always a pleasure to see him. I suppose he did the best he could with what he was provided and I would have liked to know more about his character. The rest of the cast is serviceable with a few needing additional practice delivering their lines. The sheriff was my favorite character-and was memorable in a scene carried by Dern. The effects are fair (keep your eye out for the obvious chicken skin!!!) And when possible used practical vs digital (always a plus when delivered properly). A few scenes linger too long. For what it is, a movie carried by a free streaming service, it's passable. I watched why waiting for a repair man to visit my home and it made the time go fairly quickly.