Editorials
‘Hellbent’ – Slicing Into the Classic Queer Horror Movie
While the horror genre touched on queerness well before Hellbent was ever released, Paul Etheredge-Ouzts’ 2004 film is considered to be the first of its kind: an openly queer slasher. Without question, there is no ambiguity about the characters’ sexualities as they partake in the annual Halloween festivities in West Hollywood. The only real mystery about these men is the masked killer following them, hoping to add their names to his growing list of headless victims.
Art director Etheredge-Ouzts was first approached by producers Michael Roth, Joseph Wolf and Karen Lee Wolf in 2000 about making a gay horror film. By then, the trend of slashers hard on the heels of Scream had already reached its expiration date, but even so, what eventually became Hellbent remains a unique entry in the first major revival of slashers. And what was once coded in both past and contemporary films was now glaring and unapologetic in this one.
Hellbent reverently draws from “slashics” like Halloween and Black Christmas. From coital death to a killing spree set on a holiday, Etheredge-Ouzts’ story plays out like a love letter to his own favorite horrors. Of course, the difference here is the film’s hook — a cast of queer characters. And that fact is clear right from the beginning; two men, as opposed to the standard heterosexual couple in these kinds of films, are caught fooling around in the woods before dying a vicious death. This attention-seizing opener brings morbid meaning to the phrase “giving head.”
Hellbent plays with horror conventions without making them unrecognizable. The killer’s playground is no longer a summer camp but a campy city carnival in WeHo — a setting inspired by the 1959 film Black Orpheus — and the Final Girl is now a Final Boy. The enduring character types of horror remain intact, although they’ve been modified. The jock is decked out in drag, the buffoon is a sex magnet, and the dork wins the hunky man of his dreams. As for the aforesaid Final Boy, he doesn’t stray too far from the habits of his female counterparts; hopelessly romantic Eddie (Dylan Fergus) wants love but also a little danger. Bad boy Jake (Bryan Kirkwood) definitely checks off multiple boxes as a love interest. His increasing fascination with Eddie almost rivals that of the sickle-wielding killer (a.k.a. the Devil Daddy).
The strength of Hellbent is ultimately its characters. Etheredge-Ouzts conceived queer characters whose sexualities aren’t their most defining trait. The cast, with the exception of Tobey (Matt Phillips), is indeed dressed up as hypermasculine stereotypes on Halloween — Eddie as a vintage street cop, Joey (Hank Harris) as a leather daddy, and Chaz (Andrew Levitas) as a sexy cowboy — but their costume choices carry psychological weight and, for some, are a fantastical extension of their usual personalities. Dressed in his father’s ‘70s police uniform, the desk-riding Eddie can step out without getting too wild. Joey is originally the unassertive twink of the group, yet now he finds confidence after strapping himself into leather gear. Chaz, being the token bisexual among his friends, can’t be tamed as the lawless cowboy.
Perhaps the most complicated character of the group is athlete and underwear model Tobey. The decision to go in drag stems from his double-edged feelings about objectification. While he becomes undesirable and invisible (to other queer men) after donning a gown and wig, his plan backfires once he starts craving attention again. This eventually lands him in trouble when he does everything in his power, including handing over his and Eddie’s home address, to engage the killer, who otherwise showed no interest in Tobey. If not for this severe miscalculation on his part, Tobey might have survived his obsession with others’ perception of himself.
It’s uncommon to have a slasher where the antagonist’s identity remains undisclosed, however, Hellbent isn’t necessarily set up to be a whodunit. With the story happening all in one night, it’s impossible for Eddie and the others to fully investigate their attacker. Until their enemy is upon them, they don’t even realize they are in danger to begin with. The absence of the killer’s unmasking is frustrating, but the total anonymity allows for both the characters and the audience to create their own mythology about the Devil Daddy. Are these the hate crimes of a homophobe, or is the assailant out to hurt members of his own community? Not knowing a definitive answer is more effective, not to mention unsettling in this scenario. The director put it best in an interview with Slant: “I chose to keep the killer something of a blank slate, allowing the audience members to interpret the killer for themselves.”
The low-grade presentation of Hellbent isn’t for everyone. The film tends to look too dark, too murky, and too raw, yet the director’s creative flair still manages to come through. As Eddie and his ill-fated pals travel their way to and through the street carnival, the film starts to develop a visual identity to better match its sinister story. Suspiria-esque colors, uncanny lighting, and silhouette play are just a few of the elements that raise the film’s aesthetic value.
Horror fans might be inclined to overlook Hellbent because they think of it as more of a joke — a “gay movie” posing as a slasher — than a genuine horror film. On the contrary, Paul Etheredge-Ouzts’ directorial debut is a sincere stab at the genre. Yes, the film’s appearance can be off-putting, and the cast lacks diversity. The complex characters and smart writing, though, help make up for these shortcomings. Eddie and the others all come across as real friends who are worth caring about. This slasher may be seen as just another shallow offering of beautiful young bodies being slaughtered at Halloween, but neither the story nor those bodies are brainless. Hellbent is a clever slice of queer horror that’s deserving of its hidden gem status.
Hellbent has been remastered and can now be viewed at Here TV.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, and it’s easy to see why with his feature debut, the spider horror movie Infested. Playing like a cross between Attack the Block and Arachnophobia, Infested makes you care about its characters while delivering no shortage of skin-crawling spider horror moments.
Available now on Shudder, Infested follows Kaleb (Théo Christine), a lonely 30 year old who’s estranged from his best friend and at odds with his sister over their crumbling apartment. His dreams of opening a reptile zoo get drastically thwarted when he brings home an illegally acquired desert spider, one that happens to be gravid, and it gets loose. One hatched egg sac gives way to hundreds more, plunging the apartment building into a visceral arachnophobic nightmare.
It’s not just that Infested employs real spiders for many of the skin-crawling horror moments that make it so effective, though that certainly is a factor. Or in the way the spiders’ venom inflicts a painful, grotesque demise. It’s in the constant escalation of the horror and the way Vaniček captures the arachnids on screen. These eight-legged terrors may not exist in the real world, thankfully, but the movements look authentic enough to make you squirm. That authenticity, the high octane energy, and the constant rise and fall of palpable tension as the spiders skitter about and wreak devastation are enough to leave viewers curling into the fetal position.
While Infested offers no shortage of arachnophobia-inducing moments, from tiny shoebox origins to giant garage encounters, we’re counting down six of the most skin-crawling moments of spider terror. Warning: some plot and death spoilers ahead…
6. Shoe Babies
Poor Toumani (Ike Zacsongo). He finally gets a shiny new pair of coveted sneakers after wearing his to the point of falling apart, only to get bit by a spider when he tries them on. It’s a move straight out of Arachnophobia. Director Sébastien Vanicek draws out the tension in this unsettling scene; the audience knows there’s a spider somewhere in that box as Toumani struggles with the light switch (hell, foreshadowing) before finally giving up to test his new kicks on the stairwell. That his sweet canine companion is with him heightens the suspense as we wait for the metaphorical shoe to drop. Vanicek doesn’t give his audience a reprieve when Toumani smashes the culprit behind his bite, though. A second look inside the shoe reveals the spider had a host of small babies that skittered across Toumani and inflicted even more spider trauma.
5. Air Duct Infestation
Madame Zhao (Xing Xing Cheng) is introduced as the tough building custodian who tirelessly works to get the crumbling building in order, which is no easy task. That makes her one of the first to notice the infestation as she carefully picks up a smashed spider and arms herself with bug spray, and she notices telltale signs of webbing. Zhao uses caution when handling the carcass and even more when attempting to clear the vents with her spray. In a normal world, the pesky spider problem would’ve been handled or at least slowed until professionals could show up. But this isn’t a normal spider situation and the moment Zhao pokes her head up into the vent to check the aftermath, she’s face hugged by a venomous arachnid. Vanicek ensures this terrifying moment comes with maximum suspense. We know what’s going to happen, and that makes it all the more excruciating to watch.
4. Never Put Your Face in a Spider Hole
Vanicek paints a visceral picture of what happens when you put your face in a spider hole in the film’s opening sequence. That brutal lesson lingers as Infested unfurls one of the most intense spider invasions on film in a long while. Seeing the consequences of an illegal trapper getting face hugged in the intro makes what happens to Moussa (Mahamadou Sangaré) all the more skin-crawling. His attempt to squash a giant spider lurking on his bedroom wall creates a hold in the wall, and Vanicek again slows time to an unbearable degree to let Moussa discover the hard way why some dark crevices, holes, and hidden spaces are better left alone.
3. Prime Time TV Watching
When the infestation has fully taken root, and the dire situation has convinced the protagonists to finally flee, Kaleb insists they also attempt to save the long-term residents that were there for him and Manon (Lisa Nyarko) when their mom died. It heralds a harrowing montage that demonstrates the physical and emotional devastation the spiders are causing. Most unsettling of which highlights the fate of Claudia (Marie-Philomène Nga), a parental figure to the siblings. Kaleb and Mathys (Jérôme Niel) enter her dimly lit apartment and find her seated in front of the TV. Though she appears to be sleeping peacefully, Vanicek terrifies with the sudden burst of spiders from the back of Claudia’s head. A quick shot later reveals that Claudia was infested from the inside out, and the image is pure nightmare fuel.
2. Bathroom Attack
Lila (Sofia Lesaffre) is deeply arachnophobic, so she understandably freaks out when she spots a giant spider while she’s using the bathroom. She screams for her boyfriend, Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield), to rescue her, who gallantly brings a glass to collect it. Of course, it doesn’t go well. Jordy eventually gives up and smashes it, scattering the babies on its back everywhere, just in time for dozens more to bubble up from the shower drain. Vanicek dials up the intensity of this scene from the start by showing the audience that there are far more spiders lurking about than an oblivious Lila knows. Keeping her in the dark lends unpredictability, but the anxious screaming from everyone, including nervous friends in the hall, only increases the stress of the unexpected attack. The constant misdirection and frenetic camerawork ensure this sequence gets your heart pumping out of fear.
1. Bad Timing in the Webbed Corridor
Early foreshadowing made it clear that the building’s broken timer on a crucial light switch would become a problem later. And boy does it. When the protagonists come upon it in their bid to escape, they find it now transformed into a webbed tunnel filled with an obscene amount of venomous spiders. The only path forward is through it, but the faulty timer leaves them vulnerable to death when the lights go out. Naturally, Vanicek wrings as much dread from this scenario as possible, leaving Manon (Lisa Nyarko) very nearly caught. The group hits a dead end, forcing them right back into the webbed corridor, which leads to one of the film’s most emotionally painful scenes. Everything about this particular hallway is a skin-crawling nightmare, from the close brushes with spider bites to the dizzying way Vanicek captures the sheer scale of the infestation within this hall alone.
Infested is now streaming on Shudder.
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