Tales from the Hood 3 (2020)

 Directors: Rusty Cundieff, Darin Scott

 

One of the more unlikely franchises to exist is Tales from the Hood. Not that it’s a series that doesn’t deserve one, but the fact that it took 20+ years to get the first sequel to the cult horror anthology film certainly seemed like it came a bit too late. Yet, Tales from the Hood 2 was released straight to home video a couple of years ago and it must have sold well enough to warrant another entry. This brings us to the focus of this review, Tales from the Hood 3, the latest omnibus of horror stories that sees the return of writers and directors Rusty Condieff and Darin Scott. Like the previous sequel, this one is a relatively hit or miss affair and the various stories included range from intriguing to downright strange. Just like the last one too, there is an ambitiousness to the proceedings that often is at war with the budgetary constraints. At times this third entry is quite intriguing, but the ultimate experience is lackluster and muddy.

 

The Blood Splatter: 2018 Horror Vol. 3 [Hell Fest, Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel]

HELL FEST (2018)

Director: Gregory Plotkin

Notable Cast: Amy Forsyth, Reign Edwards, Bex Taylor-Klaus, Christian James, Matt Mercurio, Roby Attal, Tony Todd

To kick off the October horror viewing schedule a little early, it seemed like Hell Fest might be the ticket. It’s a colorful film, takes place around Halloween, uses a great looking extreme haunt setting, and hark back to an old school slasher approach to things. In those regards, yes, Hell Fest is a fun way to kick off the season. Gregory Plotkin ably uses the visuals nicely, saturating the entire film in Argento like swashes of bright colors, generally having fun with its concept, and builds a great set for the events of the film to take place. The film spends little time outside of the haunt, opting for a brief introduction of a couple characters and then moving into the haunt, aptly named Hell Fest, within minutes of the film starting. From there, it launches itself into slasher territory as our young adults, a series of couples nonetheless, proceed to find themselves stalked and slaughtered by our masked man. Cut, slash, paste, repeat.

Shadowbuilder (1998)

Director: Jamie Dixon

Notable Cast: Michael Rooker, Leslie Hope, Andrew Jackson, Shawn Thompson, Kevin Zegers

I’m a bit of a sucker for late 90s horror. There’s something about the aesthetic of straight to home video or low to mid budget horror from the era that hits a nostalgic note for me, so when Bram Stoker’s Shadowbuilder (also known as Shadow Builder without the iconic author’s name attached) hit my review queue I was generally excited to dig into a film from this era that I had not experienced before. Needless to say, even though the film is hardly perfect by any definition of the word, it also hit all of the right marks for me. Shadowbuilder is an enjoyably off beat supernatural horror action flick with some fantastic casting. It’s a product of its time, particularly in its use of visual effects around its villain, but its combination of cult horror with supernatural slasher elements was charming and fun.