Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a horror,
thriller film from 2018, titled Hell Fest. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
A traveling horror theme park called Hell Fest has arrived in Orange Grove and hundreds
of people have paid to enjoy a very frightening experience. Tonight, three friends are entering
a haunted house, and one of them gets separated from the group when encountering a dead end.
She begins searching for an exit, unaware that one of the figures among the decorations isn't
actually a doll. The Other follows the girl into another dead end, and when she turns around,
she recognizes him as the man that has been following her all night.
She still believes he is part of the attraction until The Other comes closer and stabs her.
To hide what he's done, he hangs the body from the ceiling to make it blend in with the props,
and it won't be found by the police until three days later when it starts to stink.
A couple of years later, Natalie visits her old friend Brooke, who she hasn't seen in a
while because they live far apart and she's been busy with college. Natalie is displeased to see
Brooke is now living with Taylor, a very crass woman that teases for liking her friend Gavin.
Brooke takes Natalie away to her room and promises they'll have a Taylor-free weekend,
but tonight, she's coming with them to Hell Fest, a park Gavin got them VIP tickets for.
The girls go to Hell Fest on Halloween night together with Brooke's boyfriend Quinn,
who tells them the story of the body found in Orange Grove years ago, and meet with Asher
and Gavin inside the park. They walk around the area, taking pictures with the decorations, being
startled by the costumed actors, and having drinks while discussing which attraction to visit next.
Meanwhile, The Other has arrived at the park dressed normally, but as soon as he gets inside,
he puts on a mask and puts up his hood, making him look like one of the actors.
After accidentally bumping against a girl that tells him he isn't scary,
he steals a knife from a food cart. The friends go to an attraction called "Deformed School",
which is populated by both dolls and actors. After exploring various creepy rooms and hallways,
the girls accidentally get separated from the boys and come across the woman that bumped into
The Other some moments ago. She's scared, crying, and clearly running away from something, but the
girls just think she's part of the show as she hides behind a curtain. The Other shows up then,
and the girls are not impressed by him. When they try to leave, he gets in their way until Natalie
tells him the woman he's been chasing is behind the curtain. The Other moves over to drag her out
and, after Brooke and Taylor leave, he stabs the woman right in front of Natalie, who rushes out
of the building feeling things got a little too intense. The girls reunite with the boys outside,
and Natalie can't help but notice The Other is watching her from afar as he puts a finger against
his mouth, silently asking her to keep the secret. They also see him following them around the park
as they enter the carnival games area. Quinn wins a prize for Brooke, but Gavin doesn't manage to
get anything for Natalie no matter how many games he tries, so he ends up buying her a pretzel. The
two of them find a photo booth and decide to get their pictures taken, sharing a kiss after failing
to agree on a pose. The Other has followed them there and takes the chance to steal the photos,
but Brooke sees him and goes after him as he leaves. The area he's escaped to
is backstage and abandoned, so when Brooke gets there, she starts having second thoughts.
Suddenly, Quinn startles her when he appears at her back, and together they go back to the group,
who still dismiss the whole ordeal as part of the show. The friends want to go to the Deadlands
next, but Gavin stays back, determined to win a toy for Natalie. While the group waits in line to
get on a ride that will take them to the next area and signs a waiver that allows actors to
touch them, Gavin tries to buy off a prize from one of the game stands, but he's turned down.
However, when he sees a man bringing out more prizes, he finds the room where they are stored
and gets inside to steal one. After choosing a doll from a locker, he closes the door and comes
face to face with The Other, who makes him trip with a mallet and then uses it to smash his head.
When The Other sees Gavin's phone is getting messages from Natalie, he uses Gavin's finger
to unlock it and replies pretending to be him. When the time comes to get on the ride, Taylor
and Asher get on one car, and Brooke and Quinn get on another, leaving Natalie to ride alone.
While the couples make out and are jumped by various decorations, Natalie's car stops
right before the power goes out. A red light suddenly starts flashing and Natalie sees The
Other approaching her, she wants to escape but the safety bar is stuck. Meanwhile, the couples have
finished the ride and are waiting outside, hearing Natalie's screams. When her car finally comes out,
The Other is sitting on the hood. As more men wearing the same clothes and mask come out,
it is revealed that this isn't The Other after all, but a group of actors whose act is to get
the car of single people stuck on purpose to provide a fellow rider. The group continues
to make their way around the park, stopping by a body prop that Asher dares to put his hand into.
Taylor is suddenly taken away by one of the actors, but they find her again seconds later,
having enjoyed the scare. Afterward, a group of creepy children appears to take them to
the Deadlands by hand, going through a hallway filled with smoke and masked men. This time,
the actual Other is watching as well. They split again to enter two different mazes.
The girls enter one with a terrifying laboratory and are chased by a crazy surgeon, the boys find
a house replica filled with lifeless addicts and an old train that causes them to separate.
As The Other enters the maze as well and steals a syringe, the girls arrive at a hallway that they
must cross while hands sticking out of walls try to touch them. Taylor and Brooke run off
and the door closes behind them, so when Natalie runs after them, she takes a different path. She
enters a room filled with bones and body parts, and while searching for a way out, a fake mirror
lights up on the wall and The Other appears behind it, hitting the glass with his fist. Thankfully,
Natalie finds the exit just in time to leave the building and reunites with the girls and Quinn,
who still think Natalie only saw an actor. Now they have to wait for Asher, who hasn't come out
yet. He's still inside, lost in the maze, and The Other takes this chance to catch him alone
and kill him by inserting the syringe in his eye. While waiting, the group is approached by
a monster actor that pukes on Natalie's clothes, so she goes with Brooke to the bathroom to wash.
The girls talk about how much they miss each other and agree to go on a trip to Spain soon.
After Brooke leaves, Natalie puts her head under the hand dryer to take care of her hair,
so she doesn't see or hear The Other coming closer and almost touching her. Afterward, she enters a
stall to relieve herself while texting Gavin, and something curious happens: every time she
sends a text, she hears the ping coming from another stall. When she's about to leave,
she sees The Other's boots under the door as he starts shaking it to get inside. Natalie tries
to call 911 but she has no signal, so she slides under the stall wall to enter a different one.
For a second she thinks she's made it, but a hand appears above her head and grabs her hair.
She struggles against it until she frees herself and runs out of the bathroom to find Brooke.
Together the girls bring a security guard to the stalls, but he says there's nothing he can
do if Natalie wasn't actually hurt and can't identify the guy. Brooke finds Natalie's photo
boot pictures on the floor and she says The Other has Gavin's phone, but the guard says it must be
all a prank and he can't arrest anyone for doing their jobs. The girls reunite with Quinn in front
of a stage. They want to leave, but they have no idea where Asher is and Taylor has volunteered
for the show that is about to start. A host appears on the stage and after hearing Taylor
has been a naughty girl, he decides she must pay for her transgressions with her head, so
an executioner ties her to a guillotine. Natalie notices the executioner's shoes and realizes he's
The Other in disguise, but when she attempts to stop the show, security gets in her way.
The guillotine blade falls and cuts Taylor's head off, which the host picks up and shows the public,
but it's just a fake. This reveal helps Natalie calm down, unaware of what's happening behind the
curtains when they close - The Other, instead of freeing Taylor, binds her tighter and puts
her head under the blade before letting it fall on her neck. It only leaves a thin cut though,
so The Other double-checks the cutting edge before trying again. This time, Taylor manages to undo
the bindings and run away. The group tries to tell a guard that two of their friends are missing,
but he just thinks they're getting drunk somewhere in the park. They suddenly see Taylor running by
and asking for help, so they follow her and find her being stabbed by The Other. When Quinn tries
to stop him, he gets stabbed as well. The public finally catches on to the fact this is real and
starts fleeing in panic, including Brooke and Natalie, who are now being chased by The Other
while the guards capture the wrong guy. In an attempt to hide from The Other, the girls enter
yet another maze, this one has been decorated to simulate hell. The Other follows them inside and
retrieves an ax from one of the prop bodies, then he closes the door to the entrance and breaks off
the handle. Meanwhile, Natalie and Brooke are constantly jumped on by the attraction's traps,
delaying their escape, until Natalie notices there are sensors on the floor that activate them.
Now they know where to step to avoid putting attention on themselves, they sneak into a
different room and hide in a closet, where they try to use their phones to ask for help,
but there's no reception there. The Other walks by and the girls see his feet through the door gap,
but he doesn't know they are there. After waiting a few seconds to be sure he is gone,
the girls leave the closet and run back to the entrance, only to find the door stuck. They only
have one choice left: they'll have to go through the whole maze. As they continue to avoid the
sensors on the floor, they find a room filled with weapons, but they're all fake. In order
to defend themselves, they grab two unlighted torches before going back the way they come,
where they see the closet they left open is now closed. They walk very carefully in front of it,
thinking The Other is going to come out from it, but they make it through without trouble.
After crossing various other spooky rooms, they arrive at one filled with dolls of all sizes,
among which The Other hides. As soon as the girls turn around, he jumps on them and attacks them
with the ax, only managing to hurt Brooke on the leg because Natalie sees him just in time and hits
him with the torch. She grabs Brooke and helps her run out of the room; and after crossing a hallway,
they reach an area they believe to be a dead end. They decide to hide in there by pretending to be
part of the masked props. The Other arrives as well and unlike the girls, he manages to
find the exit, which triggers a recording that congratulates the participants on escaping.
Since this is the first time he hears it, it means his victims haven't left and they're still around
in this room. The Other inspects every mask but chooses incorrectly and attacks a doll, getting
his ax stuck in it. The girls use this opportunity to act: Natalie hits The Other with the torch,
but he overpowers her by kicking her and hitting her with his ax while Brooke runs away. She comes
across a sign that makes her choose between two possible paths and she chooses left, where she
enters a hallway that has hands in the walls that try to grab her. Natalie tries to follow her, but
she takes the right path while The Other reaches Brooke by breaking through the fabric wall with
his ax. Because of the wound on her leg, Brooke isn't capable of jumping over her sensors, so
she actives all the traps, delaying her escape and giving The Other the chance to catch up with her.
When he comes closer to attack her, he touches one of the sensors with his foot, which opens a
wall that reveals Natalie, who jumps on The Other and stabs him with a knife, leaving him bleeding
on the floor while she finally escapes the maze with Brooke. When they reach the door, they come
across the cops, who are finally investigating the area, but after they take the girls outside,
they only have bad news for them: they couldn't find the criminal anywhere. Moments later, after
the news of the tragedy has reached the media, The Other returns home in his car. After leaving his
mask and Natalie's pictures inside a cabinet in the garage where he keeps other masks and mementos
from his previous murders, he goes into his living room, where his daughter receives him with a hug
and asks him if he's brought her anything. The Other gifts her one of the park's dolls.