HellBent's boast of being the 'first ever gay slasher flick' is a little contentious, considering the existence of films like Cruising (1980) and The Silence of The Lambs (1991) and the generally horrific atmosphere of gay circuit parties and coffee shops, where HellBent is set. But slasher flicks with a gay ensemble, marketed towards gay audiences, are new and, in my opinion, quite overdue, but this example is so self-aware and tongue-in-cheek that any generation of horror or suspense is impossible and so apart from a chain of victims getting cut into pieces by a deranged killer, HellBent is more novelty piece - comedy, than slasher. It certainly isn't horror: there's not a scary scene in the film.

HellBent is, however, a very enjoyable movie and inadvertently historical. What would the gay activists who blockaded the set of Cruising say if they were around to see a gay killer stalk and carve up gay guys in a film made by a gay director, for a largely gay audience?

In HellBent, Eddie (Dylan Fergus) is a cheery hottiewith a couple of points to prove: he has a glass eye and his father, apparently, was a hero cop. Eddie dons his dad's old uniform as a costume for Halloween, which he spends with his bisexual roommate Chaz (Andrew Veritas) and their friends, male model Tobey (Matt Phillips), who dresses in bad drag for the night, and Joey (Hank Harris), a doormouse who dreams of snaring the phone number of his King-Jock dream-date, who, we learn, will never be interested.

Via his policewoman sister Eddie learns that two gay guys making out in a car have been decapitated by a psycho the night previous so naturally, the gang park their car in the killing park and walk the rest of the way to the Halloween circuit party. On the way they encounter the killer, who's dressed in devil's horns and armed with a scythe, and taunt him before heading into the real danger zone, a rocking street party full of muscle marys on amphetamines. Unbenkownst to them, the killer is in tow, and soon they start to lose their heads, literally, one by one.

Numerous things make HellBent recommendable and most surprisingly it's the acting which is most impressive. Fergus is a charismatic lead and Phillips is quite interesting as a frustrated stud submerged for the night under layers of grotesque glitter make up. More surprisingly, the actors have dialogue and characterisations to work with, something which can't be said for other gay horrow films (such as the woeful October Moon) or, pretty much, any gay-themed film made in the United States since 1995. Plot points and character shadings are unexpected and delightful throughout. It's really refreshing to see gay-critical gay characters navigating a threatening space full of other gay guys who wish them nothing but harm.

HellBent simpy isn't frightening enough to do the slasher genre justice, and though it does some interesting things with the gay angle, as mentioned, there's one too many moments of slippage back into gay-movie torture (near the climax, one character goes to the bathroom to get condoms and says "condoms suck - but they keep you safe!") but the movie is generally a lot of fun.

Related Reading
October Moon
Dahmer
Cruising