Hellblazers

Well, initially then I have to say that I was rather impressed with the cast ensemble that was on the cast list for the 2022 horror movie "Hellblazers" from writer and director Justin Lee.

And yeah, I hadn't heard about the movie prior to stumbling upon it here late in 2022. But with it being a horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie.

"Hellblazers" was watchable, sure, but it was by no means a grand milestone in horror cinema. In fact, I will actually go as far as to deem "Hellblazers" to be a rather mundane and bland foray into the horror genre. Luckily a rather impressive cast ensemble were able to keep the movie afloat.

The concept idea for "Hellblazers" was interesting enough, there were some potential here, for sure. But writer and director Justin Lee seemed to drop the ball and opted to go for a rather bland and generic approach to bring the movie to life on the screen.

If you are a newcomer to the horror genre, then you might get a kick out of "Hellblazers". But if you are, like myself, a seasoned horror veteran, then "Hellblazers" came and went without much of any lasting impression. This is hardly a movie that I will recommend to horror fans, except if it is only to see the rather nice cast ensemble.

The acting performances in "Hellblazers" were fair enough, but it was clear that the actors and actresses were struggling with a bland script and character gallery. There are some familiar faces and names on the cast list, especially if you have been watching horror movie since the 1980s; with the likes of Ed Morrone, Adrienne Barbeau, Meg Foster, Courtney Gains, John Kassir, Edward Finlay, Bruce Dern and Billy Zane.

My rating of "Hellblazers" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I get it that this movie isn't to be taken too seriously, they tried to make it mildly funny at times (and in my opinion they failed), but the story is just too stupid. Too many bad decisions to make it not looking idiotic. For example, why would a cop armed with a 12 gage run away from a hooded villain armed with just a sickle or a crowbar? What kind of cop is that? It's little details like that that made it boring. The cinematography wasn't bad, I'll give them that, nor was the acting although the 'big' names just have a very small role, but the story was just not good. The demon/monster looked okay for a small budget, but scary for sure not. I wouldn't waste your time with this one if I were you.

Within the first 20 minutes there is an event, then a witness of said event describes the event we just saw to the sheriff. Then the sheriff says "Let me get this straight..." and relays the event back to the witness who just described it! Who is writing this stuff?

The premise seemed interesting and with a better script and more gore (this may have been due to budget constraints) it could have been entertaining. As-is it feels like the talent they brought together for this effort was wasted.

I also think this would have worked better as a straight-up horror film. The "comedy" was not funny. Honestly, I would skip this one.

It kinda starts off with a SyFy movie formula but then takes a lot of fun, unpredictable directions. It's good to see Tony Todd and Adrienne Barbeau if fun movies again. Bruce Dern would have ruled in You're Next.

Hellblazer (2022) is a Tubi Original that I watched on...Tubi. The storyline follows a small town where a cult has unleashed a demon from hell. As people start disappearing the sheriff starts investigating the area where the cult resurrected the demon...it may be his last investigation.

This movie is directed by Justin Lee (A Reckoning) and stars Tony Todd (Candy Man), Adrienne Barbeau (Creepshow), Meg Foster (They Live), Courtney Gains (Children of the Corn), Bruce Dern (The Burbs) and Billy Zane (Demon Knight).

This movie has a tremendous cast...and every single one of them is under utilized except Bruce Dern. He was awesome. The comedy overall is pretty good. Dern's entire conversation at the store, and his Purdue reference, is hilarious. The cult vs Dern was outstanding. Todd being on the cover I will say is false advertising. He's in the movie for like two seconds. The demon in this is fairly crazy looking and I say the cult was well done.

Overall this is a very uneven movie that doesn't take itself seriously, but if it did a little bit more, could have been really good. This seemed liked an excuse to put together an awesome cast; unfortunately, they didn't do much with them once they did. I would score this a 5/10 but recommend seeing it once.