Horror Movie Review: Hellarious (2019)

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Hellarious is a 2019 anthology that features 7 short horror-comedies from a talented bunch of creators and a strong cast. Unlike many other anthologies, there is no ‘wrap-around’ story or anything that links the shorts. That could go against it if it wasn’t for high quality of most of these movies.

Split into 7 chapters, the first is called Killer Kart. A very amusing horror story about shopping carts getting their revenge for decades of mistreatment. Oh, they’ve not become sentient now suddenly, they’ve always been that way. They just dedicated their lives to servitude because they loved humanity and then we treated them like crap.

They’re rising up and taking their revenge… starting with the employees of a grocery store.

Killer Kart sets the tone for this anthology. It is an absurd concept, plays it for laughs while also delivering buckets of blood and gore. It’s a tight story with a gleefully dark ending.

The next chapter is In Horrific and this is probably the worst of the bunch but it’s not a bad short either. Which should tell you something about the overall quality of this collection.

In this short, a slovenly man has his trailer invaded by some sort of wild animal. His attempts to destroy it creates mayhem and it becomes a battle of wits between the two. Nice and short, this one happily doesn’t overstay its welcome as the carnage of the man and the invader is all it has to offer. It’s fun watching the destruction and the ending is pretty cool, but there’s nothing else to this one.

‘Til Death is chapter 3 and with this one, we have arguably the best short of the bunch. Were four friends, each with their own martial problems, come to an agreement to kill each other’s wives. The only problem is, their wives don’t stay dead.

Not only is this short dark, violent and gory, it’s hilarious. Easily one of the best comedy horror shorts that you will ever see. The cast are exceptional, the twisted humour is great, the effects are wonderful and the ending is deliciously nasty. If there’s one reason to watch Hellarious, it is this short.

It’s a tough task to follow that but in chapter 4, Death Metal (USA) manages it by being gorier than anything else in this anthology and by keeping it really short. It’s a couple of minutes long and sees a young man who loves death metal be gifted a satanic guitar that will make him play really well. It comes with some rules though, which he promptly ignores resulting in blood-soaked mayhem. A great blend of horror and metal.

It’s chapter 5, Lunch Ladies up next and again the quality is very high. Here, we have two lunch ladies who feed snotty high schoolers while dreaming of one day being the personal cooks of their beloved Johnny Depp. Desperate to get the money together to go see him play in his band, they get inspiration from one of his films after being given an ultimatum by the school principal. Which film? Only Sweeny Todd.

The filming style, comedic pratfalls and vibrancy of this short really makes it special. Two characters, the lunch ladies, that you can’t help but like and some welcome gross-out gore and humour. It’s another top tier short.

Chapter 6 is called Bitten and features a woman who lives a lonely life with her dog. While out at night, the dog is bitten by something and she bandages it up. That same night, she goes out on a date leaving the dog alone but it’s a full-moon and the dog transforms into a man.

When she comes home alone to find a naked man asleep on her couch, she doesn’t ask many questions. However, during their sexual encounter, he bites her on the shoulder.

The next morning, the man is gone and her dog is back. She is none the wiser… until the next full moon.

Whereas everything else in this anthology features blood and guts, this one avoids it mostly. Instead, it has a bit more heart and feeling to it. That’s quite nice and while it’s not as obviously funny as many of the others, it still has amusing touches. The payoff is excellent too.

Finally, chapter seven is a story about bad Satanists. Not bad as in evil but bad as in, they’re not very good at it. Called Born Again, this group are trying to birth the Anti-Christ but end up summoning something… else.

You don’t want this one spoiled for you, it’s arguably going to get the biggest belly laugh of all. Another excellent short that is up there as the funniest while also having a decent amount of blood too.

What a great anthology this is. The criticism that it’s just a collection of shorts that can be viewed alone and elsewhere is fair, but this film sure makes it easier to find them. Simply put, it’s 7 ‘good to great’ comedy horror films which is a strong return on your time investment.