Hellions

source: Hellions

This is some trippy, dream-like metaphor for the fear of young parenthood. Little kids terrorizing a 17 year old who just found out she's pregnant. Does this whole thing take place in her head? It's presented as such, and even if it's not, you know from the way things unfold there's not much reality to the proceedings. This film should basically be a pure atmospheric horror ride but it's too much in the main character's head, a head we don't know that well and we know isn't that important beyond the type it represents anyway. It's hard to find a tangible connection with this film and I found it hard to engage with the "terror" scenes outside a passing interest in the way they were shot and assembled. They didn't engage me, and in a non-cerebral film like this that's basically a death knell.

Yours truly is a diehard horror fanatic, but also a sucker for mushy traditions. During the Christmas period I seek out holiday-horror with psychotic Santa's or demonic elves, and on All Hallows' Eve I like to stay in theme as well. And, since you can't watch John Carpenter's "Halloween" every year, it's good to have some alternatives. "Hellions" isn't nearly as good or entertaining as, say, "Trick 'r Treat" or "Tales of Halloween", but I'm nevertheless glad that I watched a genuine Halloween flick with spooky seasonal decoration, gruesome costumes and lots & lots of pumpkins! Perhaps I'm being too generous here, as I was in a festive mood, but I think "Hellions" is a solid film for a mere two-thirds of the running time. Bruce McDonald, director of the - in my humble opinion - heavily overrated "Pontypool", creates an ideally sinister atmosphere and comes up with an efficiently unsettling premise. The rebellious but troubled 16-year-old Dora Vogel finds out she's pregnant, so she's pondering alone at her house while the rest of her family goes out trick or treating. Eerie kids with seriously terrifying masks and outfits soon come knocking at her door, but these little monsters aren't satisfied with regular candy. They want Dora's unborn baby, and anyone who tries to protect her won't survive the night! The set-up of the plot is great, the little demon-kids look petrifying and Chloë Rose is a persuasive young actress. So far so good, but admittedly Bruce McDonald has no idea where his surreal storylines are going or how to lead everything towards a credible finale. The skies over Dora's isolated little town suddenly color purple and pink, along with various other surreal and inexplicably bizarre phenomena, which causes us to suspect that McDonald tries to cover for the lack of content and/or continuity with visual distractions. Nice try, but horror fans really aren't as dumb as some people think, you know! I'll remember it for the handful of authentic frights, but "Hellions" definitely won't become a cult classic.

And that usually is a good thing, if a director does not copy one of his best movies. On the other hand, this is so far out, it won't please most of the people watching it. I even can't tell exactly what it is or what it is aiming for exactly. I just know that it is very otherworldly and it has a lot of fantasy involved. Some might argue, that it's sophisticated, some might just think it's annoying. It can also be considered boring I reckon, depending on what you expect from it. You cannot deny that it has a flavor to it, it does have a certain look and feel to it, that you'll either like or hate. I'm not even sure everyone will consider this a horror movie, although it does have all the ingredients. It's just weird and hard to explain ... like a weird dream/nightmare you may not be able to escape ...

Boring, clichéd teen ghost story/slasher that is more of an exercise in how to recycle tired elements such as overused sound effects, children being creepy, and the whole unborn demon pregnancy angle. What's worse is most of the movie is filmed in this gross purple-pink filter, which doesn't make sense... and as expected, the main character makes several unrealistic, irrational choices that help escalate the situation she's a victim of. I feel for Robert Patrick, who now seems relegated to playing the generic role of a small town cop in lame horror movies. His minimal screen time suggests he probably did not earn much for this appearance, though he is or was always a relatively dignified actor. This movie made me roll my eyes so hard that I could hear it, and incidentally it was the first time I jumped.

This movie is clearly a piece of pro-life propaganda from about five minutes in and while philosophical stances in movies and using horror as allegory is not always a bad thing, in this case it is just too heavy handed and shallow to really be any good. There is barely any thought given to character or plot and it is more all about creating striking visuals to drive home the message of how wrong it is to have an abortion. Whatever your stance on the issue it does not mean that you can't make a subtler and more thought-provoking film on the subject, otherwise you are just preaching to the converted. If you can look past the blatant bias that this movie possesses then there are some cool visuals and a dream-like feel that makes the film pretty unique considering it seems like the people who made it didn't actually care about the substance of their product. Still though I can't recommend a movie for style alone so I would give this one a miss, unless you just want to be told what you already know.

HELLIONS is another cheapie horror flick with a better DVD cover than the rest of the film put together. This one's shot in Canada and takes the likes of THE STRANGERS and TRICK 'R TREAT as inspiration; it's a low budget rip-off of the previously mentioned films, and consists entirely of a young girl being menaced in her house by creepy kids on Halloween. Now, I'm well aware that every idea under the sun has already been done in the horror genre, so I don't expect originality. However, what I do expect is a bare modicum of quality when it comes to the film-making, but we don't get that here. The whole thing looks as cheap as a found footage movie, and is unwisely shot through a pink filter to give it a surreal look when in fact it looks more like something a couple of students at your local college would produce. It's hard to fault the main actress in this, Chloe Rose, because she certainly puts her all into her performance, so it's a pity it wasn't in a better film. Rose plays a feisty young woman more than able to handle herself against the clichéd horrors she finds herself up against, and is the best thing in the movie. The rest of it is a dog. Oh, and that's an aged Robert Patrick, in case you were wondering.

It's Halloween again and my thoughts about this film, which I saw at TIFF 2015, are as mixed as ever. Bruce McDonald's art-house take on Halloween horror is terrific until the frustrating non-ending. I was loving the eccentric direction, off-kilter cinematography, sympathetic performances, mysterious killer kids, end the whole dream-or-reality puzzle. But then... I suppose the short run time should be a hint this is an unfinished movie, but honestly what were the producers thinking, letting this be released? Why not sit down with the director, point out this glaring problem, and offer to scare up funds for some additional writing and shooting to finish a potentially worthy follow-up to his great Pontypool. All that said, I still can't recommend against watching it; you don't want to miss what there is, but be prepared to imagine a third act.

This movie popped up in an email from Netflix as "something you may enjoy". Netflix, you couldn't have been more wrong. To be honest, I'm still not sure what the hell I just watched. I thought it started out decent. It felt like I was watching The Strangers, but with children; home invasion and children, two very creepy things in my opinion. The movie quickly turned into "demons from hell" type movie, which I could get on board, if it weren't for the quick turn it made into that direction. Some people say it's a pro-life propaganda movie, which I could kind of see, but that also may be reaching a little bit. I thought the acting was good in some spots; I thought the music was definitely creepy (Christmas sounding music with a child like tone); and I thought some of the visual effects and costumes were cool. What I didn't like were the lingering effects in scenes that looked choppy (the constant shot of her in the hanging sheets). I thought some of the dialogue was extremely lame. And, because the movie kind of goes by so quick, it's really hard to pin down what is actually happening. I felt like the film maker had a bunch of different good ideas in his head, and instead of picking one and running with it, he crammed everything into one movie. Overall I think the movie could have been so much better. There are definitely good elements there, they just need to be justly presented.

Be warned, not all horror geeks out there will adore this supernatural arty flick. Yes, I said the word, arty. There's a lot done with colour grading in post production and to make it look weird they added some arty shots. But is it still worth picking up, yes. What I did like about Hellions is the fact that you want to know what is going on and at the end you don't still know what is really going on. Being a horror it is low on blood and doesn't contain any gory moments but it's the creepy atmosphere created with the grading and sound that makes it worth watching. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5