Very well executed

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

'Hellions' had a good deal going for it. The cover/poster was cool and creepy, the idea for the story was great, it looked and sounded interesting with it taking a more arty and surreal approach to supernatural horror. The mixed to negative reviews and less than favourable rating made me feel a bit conflicted in seeing it, due to judging from recent experience (being somebody who actually trusts the site ratings and critical reviews much more than most do) those that have either or both are that bad.Decided to see 'Hellions' anyway, and while it did underwhelm considering its potential, with it starting so well, it didn't make me feel ashamed of having watched it, despite its heavily problematic final third that brought it down significantly. As far as recent low-budget horror viewings go, 'Hellions' is up there with the better ones. Not great, not awful, more one of those mixed feelings worth a one-time watch for interest films while not holding up for repeat viewings.There are good things here. 'Hellions' is a surprisingly decent looking film in general, very nicely and professionally shot, some creepy lighting, editing that is coherent and not a hack job and some effects that don't look afterthought-like. The music and sound are ominous and not intrusive. It also starts off really well. The first half an hour especially is very intriguing and atmospheric with a lot of creepiness and suspense. The direction is assured to begin with and the acting is better than average, good in the case of Chloe Rose. The chemistry didn't feel bland and didn't feel random and did appreciate that it didn't rely on gratuitous gore and nudity to convey the horror. Which is why it is sad that 'Hellions' is badly let down by the last third feeling like a different film, where the tension, suspense and creepiness of the first half an hour completely dissipates. Instead becoming a mess of stupid decision making that makes previously sympathetic characters frustrating, senselessness that borders on incoherence, predictability and erratic pacing, it all becomes bland, uncomfortably weird and muddled. Topped off by an ending that feels like the film didn't have an ending at all and like the writers had run out of ideas or didn't know how to end it. They were enough to bring the film more than one star each.Also, the dialogue is far from great throughout 'Hellions', it is a miracle that the actors managed to keep a straight face with the unintentionally funny lines they had to spout. While 'Hellions' generally looks decent, it's not perfect. The pink colour filter is distracting and some effects struck me as unnecessary and cheap-looking.Overall, not bad but considering its early promise it should have been much better. 5/10 Bethany Cox

I nearly didn't make it through the first few moments of this Halloween themed horror. Sultry teen Dora Vogel (Chloe Rose) finds out she is pregnant and it seems very likely she is set to use the miracle of a life growing beneath her pierced naval as a reason to pout and act petulant, rolling those eyes beneath her thick goth make-up. And yet these tedious inevitabilities never actually happen. And if you can get through that, the rest of the 80-minute running time is a very rewarding experience.For someone I was expecting at best to tolerate, Dora emerges as a true hero. She does everything right, even scores a few victories against the creepy, larger-than-life trick-or-treaters that have created a seeming world of their own. And like all heroines, she is put through a punishing and genuinely unnerving sequence of events before the ending brings about absolutely no conclusion at all! 'Hellions' straddles demonic baby possession, creepy children, a pink-hued alternate dimension, and some frightening surreal imagery. Director Bruce McDonald and Writer Pascal Trottier have clearly worked very closely to bring about this convincing dark journey to life and the pace rarely slackens – although in an hallucinogenic project like this, the pace can be negligible. Suffice it to say, you may be too busy being impressed by the scale of strangeness, or trying to figure out what is going, or just feeling sympathy for Dora as she is continually convinced she is free of the nightmare, only to find he is even more deeply embedded in it.I recommend this dark horror fantasy.

And that usually is a good thing, if a director does not copy one of his best movies. On the other hand, this is so far out, it won't please most of the people watching it. I even can't tell exactly what it is or what it is aiming for exactly. I just know that it is very otherworldly and it has a lot of fantasy involved.Some might argue, that it's sophisticated, some might just think it's annoying. It can also be considered boring I reckon, depending on what you expect from it. You cannot deny that it has a flavor to it, it does have a certain look and feel to it, that you'll either like or hate. I'm not even sure everyone will consider this a horror movie, although it does have all the ingredients. It's just weird and hard to explain ... like a weird dream/nightmare you may not be able to escape ...

HELLIONS is another cheapie horror flick with a better DVD cover than the rest of the film put together. This one's shot in Canada and takes the likes of THE STRANGERS and TRICK 'R TREAT as inspiration; it's a low budget rip-off of the previously mentioned films, and consists entirely of a young girl being menaced in her house by creepy kids on Halloween.Now, I'm well aware that every idea under the sun has already been done in the horror genre, so I don't expect originality. However, what I do expect is a bare modicum of quality when it comes to the film-making, but we don't get that here. The whole thing looks as cheap as a found footage movie, and is unwisely shot through a pink filter to give it a surreal look when in fact it looks more like something a couple of students at your local college would produce.It's hard to fault the main actress in this, Chloe Rose, because she certainly puts her all into her performance, so it's a pity it wasn't in a better film. Rose plays a feisty young woman more than able to handle herself against the clichéd horrors she finds herself up against, and is the best thing in the movie. The rest of it is a dog. Oh, and that's an aged Robert Patrick, in case you were wondering.