Film 66 (Goal: 300) of 2024

Bloody Hell is a great little indie horror comedy (though how well it touches on both genres is debatable), from Australian filmmaker Alister Grierson. After Rex (played by Ben O'Toole) thwarts a bank robbery, he suffers both media attention and prison time due to committing murder against the perpetrator. Upon release and still garnering media attention, Rex decides to randomly pick a spot in the world to get away, with that spot being Finland. There he is captured by a family who have ulterior motives for him.

For what I assume was made on a shoestring budget, Bloody Hell is great fun. Is it perfect? Far from it. As mentioned its another entry into the seemingly more popular horror comedy, but I don't think it's scary enough (despite some mild gore) or funny enough though that's not due to the performance of the lead. Ben O'Toole is fantastic, operating a dual role between his real world self and his deprived psyche. He's got great comedy chops and the film despite the limited opportunities, lets him shine. He deserves far more opportunities because he really does carry the film.

Bloody Hell is a pretty standard horror comedy that doesn't break new ground, but it does everything well enough, to be a guaranteed good watch. Again, hopefully either Grierson and/or O'Toole get to do more. A lot of potential here.

It’s not often that a midnight movie excels in its quest for perfection, but “Bloody Hell” comes close. This violent, unruly horror-comedy is a tale of monsters, forbidden love, a demented family, and one very unlucky guy who just wants to turn his life around. Packed with a twisted sense of humor and plenty of surprises, this is one rowdy roller coaster of a movie that’s well on its way to becoming a modern cult classic.

When a video of him turning the tables during a bank robbery goes viral, Rex (Ben O’Toole) finds himself at the center of a public debate. Rex is on trial because thanks to his heroics, he rescued a bank full of people although an innocent bystander was inadvertently killed in the commotion. Depending on their perspective, some people hold Rex up as a gutsy savior while others scorn him as a violent lunatic. He’s sentenced to eight years in an Idaho prison and even after he is released almost a decade later, the man can’t escape the court of public opinion. Wanting to run away to a place where he can start over in an anonymous life, Rex randomly chooses to flee to Finland. But once the plane touches down in Helsinki, he is gassed in the back of a taxi and later wakes up shackled in a dark basement — with a body part missing.

The story is simple but solid, with a terrific setup that pays off tenfold. Director Alister Grierson relies on creative storytelling with the clever idea to have Rex talk to an imaginary version of himself. This two-way stream of consciousness device lets the hero’s inner monologue manifest as a sort of evil twin who shows up at opportune moments to encourage Rex’s devilish side as he struggles to escape. There are thrills, but the film never gets super dark because of the wacky, wry sense of humor (when a character discovers he has been talking to himself for years, Rex shrugs it off, saying “we all have issues”).

It doesn’t take long to become emotionally invested in the what-where-why mystery of the story, mostly because of the charismatic lead actor and his committed performance. The cast is terrific across the board, landing the nerdy film-literate references in the script and fully trusting the cohesive, inspired vision from Grierson and screenwriter Robert Benjamin.

As great as this movie eventually becomes, the first fifteen minutes are brutal to suffer through. At first I was so annoyed by the directorial style that I almost gave up entirely. Grierson’s overuse of artsy visuals is massively irritating but once the story gets going and the director settles down (and purges all the junk jump cuts out of his system), this turns into what amounts to the near-perfect midnight movie.

Once Rex arrives in Finland, everything on screen is outrageously satisfying. The last half of “Bloody Hell” made me scream with delight more than once, and it will probably be even better if you can watch it in the company of a raucous audience. Genre fans won’t want to miss this one.