7cb1d79195 A bandleader whose career is nosediving makes a deal with the owner of a bar to sell his soul for success.
A minor, if sometimes inventive spoof, Hellbent is given some class by the likeable Phil Ward in the lead. His funny performance is low key but very effective. Other than that, this is for fans of straight to video obscurities only.
Hellbent (1988) <br/><br/>* (out of 4)<br/><br/>A band member sees that his career is going no where so he approaches a bar owner to manage him. The manager agrees to do so but in return what the man's soul.<br/><br/>HELLBENT comes from director Richard Casey who had previously made HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5. That film there was one of the worst slashers that I had ever seen yet it was so darn weird and strange that you couldn't help but be somewhat entertained by its crudeness. This film here is certainly much better made than that one but there's no question that it's not nearly as entertaining.<br/><br/>There are a lot of issues that I had with this film but the biggest was the fact that all of the characters were rather bland and for the life of me I couldn't care less about what they were doing. This here is the biggest issue with the film. Whenever you can't root for or get into the characters then it's really hard to feel anything else throughout the movie. It's easy to see what the director was going for but it just didn't work at all.<br/><br/>None of the situations that the bad go through are dramatic or contain any suspense. The madness that's scattered throughout the picture adds up to very little. The performances range from decent to poor and there's not enough sleaze or anything else to make you really pay attention to it. HELLBENT just doesn't have anything going for it.