This is definitely my kind of smorgasbord of horror subgenres, but does each of these three films do its theme justice? Let’s find out.
HELL HOLE (2024)
The opening scene of this kind of comedic creature feature is so awesome and leaves us with high expectations. Back in the 1800s, a horse explodes, and an awesome, parasitic creature bursts out of its carcass to the sounds of rockin’ background music.
Problem is, that energy is only delivered during the attack scenes sprinkled throughout the film.
In contemporary times, we meet a group of Americans fracking in the woods in Serbia when they exhume something unexpected. In between parasitic attacks, there’s a lot of dialogue, some of it humorous, but that’s pretty much all this movie is—it bounces back and forth between excessive dialogue and quick, fun, gory monster sequences. Also, note that not all characters speak English, so there’s some subtitled dialogue.
The film has some nasty elements, like the parasite’s tentacle squirming out of one guy’s ass and inserting itself into another guy’s mouth, so you’d think things could get super wacky and wild. Unfortunately, there’s just no real plot to drive the movie forward beyond people occasionally getting the parasite in them.
The best part is when the monster starts jumping from one person to another in the final act, so the humans just keep shooting each other.
YOUNG & CURSED (2025)
This is one of those movies I should have turned off once I saw how hokey it is, but it just has such an early 2000s direct-to-DVD look and feel to it that I couldn’t resist the simple comfort of it.
Five kids come to a cabin in the woods with no idea why. They are greeted by a young woman who is both paranoid and possessed right from the start. She called them there but has no idea why. However, the possessed part of her that peeks out sporadically knows. It takes a while, but the bewildered kids eventually drag the truth out of her in between fighting her silly SyFy television show magic effects.
The possession faces that eventually start showing themselves are also basic –CGI overlays on top of the actors’ faces.
They do a séance to get to the root of why they’re trapped in the cabin, which unleashes the witchy woman trapped inside the girl that called them there. Her goal is to harvest their souls right as a lunar eclipse takes place.
Now they have to figure out how to stop their fate. It involves confessing their sins, in some cases dealing with their struggles as marginalized individuals, and facing their inner demons, which rise to the surface as actual demons. That might make it sound like this eventually turns into some sort of Evil Dead knockoff, but they don’t terrorize each other. The pain is mostly self-inflicted and emotional. Blah. That’s no fun.
THE CHEERLEADER SLEEPOVER SLAUGHTER (2022)
This indie film runs only 62 minutes long, yet despite having plenty of pretty good kills, it somehow feels like it goes on forever.
Other than the kill scenes, the writing just doesn’t have enough ideas to create a full, engaging slasher script. It’s a movie about a cheerleader sleepover. There are plenty of classic, similar themed slashers one could consult to see how they filled the time, but alas.
We even get filler. The intro credits, playful and accompanied by an apropos theme song, are a little long. There’s an unnecessary dream sequence scare. There’s a cheerleading montage. There’s a twerking montage. And games of Never Have I Ever and Truth or Dare add nothing to the story, character development, or entertainment level.
The plot is simple. The cheerleaders practice. The cheerleaders plan a sleepover. The cheerleaders prepare for the sleepover. Boys plan to crash the sleepover—and drink Cherry Pepsi. Awesome.
The girls gather for the sleepover. There’s a peeper who is clearly just a loser and not a red herring. The boys show up. They all party. And eventually, they all die.
The kills are the highlight, capturing that classic, early 80s style, complete with practical effects. The killer wears a hoodie and mask and uses traditional sharp weapons to stab and slice throats. There are shower scenes, nudity, and backseat ambushes in cars. Most importantly, the kills are perfectly paced throughout the movie. But you have to wonder why the girls don’t become super concerned when the size of their squad begins to dwindle as they near the night of the sleepover.
Luckily, there are still enough cheerleaders for the killer to take down in the final 10 minutes. One girl who didn’t quite come across as an obvious final girl suddenly finds herself in that position, leading to a satisfying and violent hack n’ slash battle with the killer, so the movie does at least end strong.
