Fantasia CR: Hell

Occasionally, mediocre films sneak into the Fantasia lineup solely by virtue of fitting the festival template. Thailand’s Hell is one of those films.

A grisly road accident seemingly claims the lives of a group of twentysomethings and ships them on a beeline to hell. In fact, they’ve all survived the crash but are hospitalized in a comatose condition which means that although technically they’re in hell, there is the possibility of escape if they can fight their way back to life.

For a film with such a dire premise, it’s curiously unaffecting. None of the characters have any particular appeal and you never really get a sense that you’re somewhere else, much less hell – essentially a gravel pit with an orange lens filter. The demons look like extras from Conan The Barbarian and the scenes of torture (this IS hell after all) don’t have the gravitas they should.

Passing itself off as some kind of survivalist excursion into the pits of hell, I can’t help thinking it don’t look so tough.