Director: Bruce McDonald
Writer: Pascal Trottier (Screenplay)
Starring: Chloe Rose, Rachel Wilson, Rossif Sutherland, Peter DaCunha, Luke Bilyk, Robert Patrick
Plot: A teenager must survive a Halloween night from Hell when malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at her door.
Tagline – Hell Comes Knocking
Runtime: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Shock Value Horror
Story: Hellions starts when teenager Dora Vogel (Rose) learns that she is pregnant on Halloween, she is meant to be graduating this year, she has the week to decide whether to keep her baby with the advice from Dr Gabe Henry (Sutherland). Dora decides to keep her pregnancy secret from her mother Kate (Wilson) as she prepares for her Halloween night.
This Halloween is going to go in a very different direction, when Dora, home alone gets visited by mysterious masked trick-or-treaters that are willing to kill, Dora must make a stand while her pregnancy isn’t going the way any normal one should.
Thoughts on Hellions
Characters – Dora is a teenager about to graduate high school, only she has become pregnant, which leaves her facing a difficult decision. Left alone on Halloween night she is left to think about her choice, which sees a string of masked trick-or-treaters come to invade her home, they want something from her and she will fight to keep it. Dora is the main character and involved in every scene of the film. Kate is the mother that has always pushed her daughter to achieve the most, while enjoying life, she takes her son Remi trick-or-treating. Dr Gabe Henry is the one that tells Dora about her pregnancy and offers to be there to help if she ever need help, standard doctor material here. Officer Corman is the first to come and try to help with the situation, only he knows more than he could which will offer Dora help while trying to make it through the night.
Performances – Chloe Rose is the leading lady and is the best performer in the film, she needs to be because of the amount of reaction her character must go through as she needs to keep our attention. When we come to the supporting cast we get the big name in Robert Patrick who does show his experience, while the rest of the cast are good with their limited involvement through the film.
Story – The story is kept simple here, we have a teenager tormented by a group of masked figures in the form of children on Halloween night. She must fight them off to figure out their motivation for the attacks which will have a bigger impact on her pregnancy. We can clearly see the metaphor being used here on Dora as she must deal with the idea that could abort her pregnancy and this could be the haunting idea that she could become haunted by what she does for the rest of her life, giving her the chance to fight for her child’s life. If we want to dive deeper into the story, it becomes clear that the story can take the back burner for moments of shocking imagery which isn’t always needed for the film to move forward.
Horror – The horror in this film reflects how Dora is feeling about hearing that she is pregnant, it comes with shocking images and demon child in masks which can work at times to make us feel uncomfortable through the film.
Settings – The film keeps most of the action on the remote home of Dora’s, it does have weak phone signal, she doesn’t drive, giving this everything it needs to isolate her from the world.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are strong when it comes to practical effects which does include a melting scene which is something that is the standout through the film.
Scene of the Movie – The melting scene.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Over playing the shocking images over story.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the typical late-night horrors you can put on, enjoy without becoming overly scared, because it turns to shocking images over scary moments.
Overall: Horror looking for shocks over substance.
Rating
