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A Review of Horror Soap Opera ‘Hell Town’

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Hell Town Poster

Steve Balderson’s Horror Soap Opera

Hell Town

Presented by Scream Queen Debbie Rochon

Now Available on Cable VOD and Digital HD

From Gravitas Ventures

Hell Town

  • Release Date: August 23rd on VOD
  • Written By: Steve Balderson, Elizabeth Spear
  • Directed By: Steve Balderson, Elizabeth Spear

From The Press Release:

Los Angeles, CA – Steve Balderson’s festival favorite Hell Town is now available to rent or own starting August 23rd on Dish Network, Cox, Charter, Verizon Fios, iTunes, Amazon Instant, Google Play, Vudu and more from Gravitas Ventures.  Presented as three episodes of a sadistic twist on Masterpiece Theater, Balderson (Firecracker, The Casserole Club) and co-director Elizabeth Spear have carved up a serialized story filled with catfights, cliffhangers, broken hearts and murder.

Since the world premiere sponsored by the Austin Horror Society and Alamo Drafthouse, Hell Town has made audiences and critics laugh and scream, picking up awards for Best Feature at Colorado Horror-Con, as well as a Best Feature and Best Actress win for Amanda Deibert, with nominations for Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography, at the Crimson Scream Horror Film Festival.

Debbie Rochon (Model Hunger, Return to Nuke ‘Em High, The Theater Bizarre) headlines as the hostess of the three surviving episodes of “Hell Town”, following the melodramatic, small-town and potentially short-lived lives of Krysten Day, Amanda Deibert, Owen Lawless, Ben Windholz, Jennifer Grace and Balderson muse Pleasant Gehman.

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Synopsis:

Hell Town follows the melodramatic antics of high school seniors clashing over love, sex, and betrayal. In the middle of all the everyday drama of one-sided infatuations, backstabbing bitchiness, bottled-up sexuality, sibling rivalry, and general small-town angst, the Letter Jacket Killer is killing students in a variety of sadistic ways. As the body count rises and the blood pools closer to home, it becomes clear that one of our main characters is the killer. Everyone, from the prom queen and shirtless jock to the nosy geek and the super bitch, are all suspects in the carnage.

 

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The film began with an introduction by Debbie Rochon, and I was digging it, I immediately received an Elvira and Rhonda Shear (USA Up All Night) vibe! A part of me wanted to see much more of Debbie. However, I was curious as to what was going to happen next.

Setup like a soap opera, Hell Town is a comedy horror spoof, directed by Steven Balderson and Elizabeth Spear. With the rest of the television series lost we see three episodes from Season 2, Episodes Seven, Eight, and Nine. The hell you say? How can we jump right in the middle of something like this? Don’t worry; the show has you covered! Enough backstory is brought to light that the episodes make sense, and everything flows quite nicely. The story focuses on the Gable and Manly families and is full of stereotypical scenarios and clichés that we have all come to recognize and love over the years. I was expecting to be surrounded throughout the film with unlikeable characters. However, the majority presented themselves to be very likable which was odd for a parody film.

The main synopsis of the film’s episodes is on a stereotypical super bitch Prom Queen type, Trish Gabel (Krysten Day). The Letter Jacket Killer, a crazed serial killer has decided to kill off anyone that comes in contact with this beautiful vixen, including an extensive list of gentleman that she needs to choose from for her prom date. Trish Gabel reminded me so much of a Marcia Brady type.

If this had been a typical horror film, the ending would have angered me and I would have felt cheated, however with the replication of daytime television; I felt the ending was perfect, and I was content. The only disappointment was this was not a continued series, and I was stuck imagining what future episodes might entail.

If you have a good sense of humor and are looking to have some good gory fun, Hell Town is the gem for you.

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Hell Town Official Website                    Order Hell Town on iTunes

Hell Town – Teaser Trailer Below:

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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