Well, the first comment one must make with Hellscape is why in the hell has Sam Sorenson not made a feature film yet?!
Hellscape is something you’ve seen before. What happens is all too predictable. A woman runs, she is captured… and an investigation unfolds, a priest talks about the meaning of God’s intentions. The punchline: the journey of the film is in itself a self-aware genre product. It subverts your expected conclusion, and even better – it invites the audience to become a participating witness to a secret.
The closest film I can think of, and this is meant as a compliment – as this is a classic of French horror cinema, is High Tension (also known as Switchblade Romance) by Aja.
Much like Aja’s film, this one boasts strong visuals, a sense of morals, and a subversion that delivers its own kind of hell.
Comparisons aside, the cast is strong – the art design is consistently convincing and real, and the score is light and nice that it maintains a feeling of a pace without becoming too interruptive.
The standout overall is the leading women, who are given the most room to exist… and the rustic feeling of the kidnapper (he provides a lot of verisimilitude to the situational horror).
As a team we all agree, Mr.Sorenson and his team should just get on and make a feature film that can be distributed. Because this was great.
