A group of young(ish) people enter a rundown old Wild West themed tourist attraction fake town thingy, where a ghostly legend stalks the night and lures unwary men to their doom, and they soon run afoul of her as well as her insane vengeful father and must try to escape the ensuing madness alive before they all become a part of the show! So this is definitely one of those turn off your brain kind of movies, in fact this movie practically does that for you! It's all but required as there's no real strong narrative to it or ever a sense of cohesion, it just breezes along at its own weird merry pace and offers up lurid set pieces and bonkers sight gags, like creepy borg Gomez Addams lookalikes and hilariously exploding monster goldfish, haunted can-can shows.. For me it's just about inventive and lively enough that you want to keep watching just to see what might pop up next, and while technically awful and very stupid it's certainly not boring and makes for one crazy trip to watch, one that is a lot more fun if you never take it too seriously. It's such an astonishingly confusing mess of a picture that you might think you've missed a few chapters but no, it was just made that way! It is a little annoying the way that it toes the line between trying to be a legitimate horror movie and a comedy, they should have opted to just make it a horror comedy, it may have played a lot better than it does, and a sense of structure wouldn't have hurt either. I do enjoy it for what it is, because it's just so damn strange! I find something enjoyably compelling about it all, even if the fractured storyline isn't as good as its parts. It's so wonderfully offbeat, the tone and story is like a mix of an old fashioned Twilight Zone type of ambiance and the then fresh exuberance of the awesomely gooey practical effects, and it does have a good sense of macabre fun to it. Even the main cast is odd, they all look like they're in their early thirties, but they act like immature kids and make dumb obnoxious jokes and in one scene even skip down the street together, it's like you're watching the Scooby gang! I loved him in this movie and for me he was one of the more fun aspects of it, but man Ron Palilo had to be the most unconventional choice for the lead in a horror movie ever. Everything about the guy was so not what you'd typically get, he was very short which was naturally hilarious in the movie, big silly eyes, vaguely effeminate and an overly quirky way of talking, even when he was trying hard to be all serious it was like he was in a comedy sitcom. His character even cracks a joke right after he and his broadbacked butch girlfriend have narrowly escaped explosive death at the hands of insane Mecha Gomez Addams, and they know that their two other friends are dead and condemned to be crazy ghost residents of the cursed town of Hellgate forever! I thought he was a cute and charming little dork though, he was the right kind of hero for this movie. I wish it was better and more focused but I do have a soft spot for this freaky little horror oddity, it's a strange, strange film of bizarre moments and oddball characters, and one that never answers any of the many questions you might have. I'm sure there was a good concept in there somewhere, as it I just enjoy the ride of it, and like I said sheer weirdness makes you want to keep watching, it never quite makes it as a horror comedy, slasher, or ghost/zombie movie, but what does make it an entertaining and fun enough romp to sit through is to me just the surrealistic randomness of the plot and stand out moments, it's definitely best described as so bad it's fun! X.
Review of Hellgate
