Gay and lesbian cinema is relatively unadventurous. Aside from popular erotic films, prominent homosexual characters can generally only be found in dramatic or comedic films. To take a popular genre such as the horror movie and populate it with out and proud characters marks an otherwise clichéd film as notable.Before Hellbent (1994) came along only one director had been pushing the boundaries of acceptable sexual identity in genre movies. Under the Rapid Heart Pictures banner, David Decoteau has been churning out cheap, strongly homoerotic horror movies for years; notably the Brotherhood series made during the 00s. His movies feature casts of chiselled male model-types who take off their shirts a lot in between death scenes. Almost always with a girlfriend or prospective female love interest present, the films could be said to use monstrous themes to represent the demonisation of homosexuality. Wolves of Wall Street (2002) is a perfect example of this subtext in action.Unlike Decoteau's own slasher fare, such as 2001's Final Stab, Hellbent sets itself apart from that particular approach. While featuring it's share of handsome and muscular stars, Paul Etheredge-Ouzts' directorial debut avoids over-the-top erotica while being very frank about the sexuality of his protagonists. Hellbent is a straight slasher movie (pun intended) with the exception of scenes of man-on-man affection, restricted mainly to kissing. Hellbent is upfront but very restrained. It's a slasher movie where the characters just happen to be gay. Indeed some of the cast are straight themselves. This isn't a movie with an agenda beyond entertainment. Ageing producer Joseph Wolf has made a number of slasher movies, including Halloween (1978), and approached this project with the same perspective as all his others. He didn't care if the characters were gay, but I'm sure he thought it would be a novel selling point.Like all good slasher movies Hellbent draws you in with engaging characters, some decent plot development and good death scenes and received a broad UK release through TLA Releasing, specialists in indie and homosexual interest films. Hellbent had a lot of potential to crossover and could be found in Blockbuster amongst similar fare. I'm sure straight horror fans who might be deterred from seeing it after discovering it is gay would find much to enjoy. It's main flaw is that the mysterious, silent, mask wearing, wrestler-type antagonist is a thinly written villain. There is none of the complexity of a Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees or even Dr. Giggles (1992). Known only as the Devil, the sickle wielding psycho has a great presence but no depth. With a likable cast and a fun soundtrack of underground gay punk, Hellbent is 80 minutes of simple pleasure. A unique take on an overly familiar story. But just as Brokeback Mountain (2005) didn't really change anything in Hollywood, Hellbent didn't change the bias toward heterosexual protagonists in B-movies. Even DeCoteau's characters are still in the closet.

This movie, like a number of movies that have been churned out since the New Queer Cinema days, suffers from a genuinely bad script and performances by actors who obviously don't want to be in a gay movie.Richard Ruccolo obviously didn't want to kiss a gay guy in All Over The Guy but gave a good performance, given the bad dialogue and general sitcom-quality of that script. The best thing that can be said about the main actors in this movie is that they give plausible enough performance IN SOME cases in A VERY FEW scenes, with some of them giving really bad performances nearly always. Bryan Kirkwood was patently uncomfortable that he brings new meaning to the word "trade." Some gay-for-pay straight models in gay adult films have given far more believable "acting" performances. If Hank Harris was supposed to be Dylan Fergus' (Eddie) and Eddie's cop/sister younger brother, he needs better skin care and makeup. The producer should have also, at least, sprung for the buck to buy some black hair coloring at the 99 Cents Only store to make the family resemblance at bit more plausible.SPOILERSBut plausibility isn't something this film seems to want to care much about -- for example, the Luke character leaves a crime scene or shows up at the "West Hollywood Police Department" in a motorcycle, sans helmet without hearing word one about it from a "WH" cop; the Chaz character get not only sliced but decapitated on a crowded dance floor and no one notices, hears about it, or stumbles on him; Eddie ends up at the crime scene where his younger brother (whom he was earlier so concerned over and about) was killed, gets attacked there himself, goes to the "WHPD," runs into his sister and yet no one (not even the sister) mentions to him that his brother was the victim at that crime scene. By this point, even some stupid queen in a k-hole would have realized there was a bloody, decapitated body on the dance floor and since the "devil" wasn't taking wallets, it shouldn't have been that hard to ID the bodies. Yet, when he gets homes, Eddie walks around the apartment wondering where everyone is. . .I could spend another few paragraphs on the really horrible dialogue or plot points, but it's not worth it. Suffice to say that it would have taken about 1/3 the cleverness of any of the Scream movies with even this exact same cast, to make a movie 10 times better.This isn't even worth spending the time watching on Logo, much less paying $3.95 for it on Here! TV.

I had some trepidation watching HellBent, as I'd not seen a slasher film before. Fortunately, the film didn't prove realistic enough to provoke anything more than a startled gasp or two from me. But worst than that is the absolute unbelievability of the four leads in their roles. If writer-director Paul Etheredge-Ouzts had cast more talented actors willing to imbue their characters with the slightest bit of believability as WeHo gay guys, this movie might have had some credibility as the "first gay slasher" movie. I can't help wondering if any of these actors been around 20something West Hollywood gays in their lives? I defy anyone with an ounce of "gaydar" to detect anything queer about any of the lead characters (the drag queen least of all). Yes, there are "straight acting" gay guys, and there are straight guys. It seems that the four lead actors were doing their best to send out signals to the audience, "We're just pretending. We wouldn't want anyone to think we might possibly be gay." Try again, Mr. Etheredge-Ouzts, only this time respect your audience's intelligence and perceptiveness.

This so called gay slasher horror film is non of the 3.It is so darkly lit & with constant facial close-ups,you cannot tell what is happening. SPOILER ALERT, as soon as I saw one guy in flamboyant Drag & a cute young guy, I felt that they would be victims,It was also filmed in West Hollywood, It sure did not look like the West Hollywood I know so well.I feel sorry for those that spent $ 11:00 or more on this in the theatres. I saw this on NETFLIX so my cost was very reasonable* 1/2 out of 4 36 points out of 11 2 IMDb