Horror Movie Review: Halloween Hell (2014)

Written and directed by Ed Hunt, Halloween Hell seems to be purposefully aiming to be a ‘so bad it’s good’ movie but ends up just being a bad movie. It stars Eric Roberts, Evan Bittencourt, Sébastien Charmant, Tyler Emerson Crim, Kriss Dozal, Andre Edwards, Sam Johnson, Molly McIntyre, Elizabeth Peterson, and Paul Stanko.

It’s Halloween, and six lucky contestants have the chance to win $100,000 by simply staying in a room all night. Of course, there’s more to it than just that, as their host, Dracula (Eric Roberts) has placed a demonic idol in the room with them. One that just happens to actually be home to a demon. The real game for these six contestants is to see if they will survive the night. Whereas the real game for the viewer is to see if they can get through to the end without switching this trash off.

Now, you might be wondering why would a person dressed as/believing they are Dracula do this? Aside from being evil. Well, it’s for the clicks and donations! Yes, this is a reality TV show that viewers can watch online and bet on who will survive. How exciting.

Halloween Hell is terrible in every sense of the word. The story is so basic, the characters are non-existent, the acting is awful, the effects are even worse, and it is immensely boring.

The movie spends most of its runtime cutting between Robert’s Dracula talking and laughing to himself while he watches the contestants on the screen, the contestants being as obnoxious as possible, and the demon roaring at the screen. Every so often, someone will die. Then it’s right back to the formula. It is exceptionally dull, and most will probably check out during the never-ending and extremely tame strip-poker scene.

Why are they playing strip-poker? Because they’re bored and the most annoying character of all just kept banging on about it. You’ll want each and every one of them die as quickly as possible, just so you don’t have to listen to them prattle on with their stilted dialogue.

If all of this wasn’t enough to put you off watching this rubbish, Halloween Hell also looks so cheap. It basically has two locations, and both look like sets. The gore is light and fake looking, and while the demon might look suitably demonic, it also looks like a cartoon. Made even worse when he is floating with his fiery bottom half.

Had Halloween Hell been played more for laughs or taken a tongue in cheek self-referential approach, it might have been watchable. Alas, it plays it all straight which results in a movie no-one will have a good time watching.