Hold the Fort review – gory goings-on at the neighbours association get-together

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A couple move from the city to a seemingly clean-cut suburb in this enjoyable comedy-horror that breezes through the grisly deaths of characters you won’t care about

In this short, sharp, comedy-horror-siege movie, youngish couple Jenny (Haley Leary) and Lucas (Chris Mayers) are the newcomers in a clean-cut – or is it? – suburban neighbourhood, having moved away from the big city. Lucas is a world-class red-flag-ignorer, while in contrast, Jenny is adept at spotting the signs that something is off. When the perky moustachioed head of the local homeowners’ association Jerry (Julian Smith) invites the pair to a party celebrating the equinox, he assures them “it’s to DIE for!” in the tone of voice Ned Flanders might use in a Simpsons Halloween special. Jenny immediately asks the reasonable question: “Why would you say it like that?”

Roles are soon reversed at said homeowners’ association party, as an ample helping of the local moonshine blunts Jenny’s natural caution, leaving Lucas to notice that they seem to be in the early stages of a wacky horror film. Hold the Fort jumps pretty much straight into the action, with straightforwardly drawn characters essentially replacing elaborate backstory or scene setting, allowing the film to clock in at a lean 75 minutes – if you’re in the market for a movie you can start watching at 9pm and still get an early night, that’s certainly a point in its favour. On the downside, the breezily sketched characters don’t have the time to earn a place in anyone’s heart, making for a sense of weightlessness; it doesn’t feel like anything happening here massively matters, even if the ensemble cast scream in shock and surprise and meet grisly deaths on a fairly regular basis.

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