★★★★

Blood-soaked and full of clever comedy and gratuitous violence, Bloody Hell is an entertaining romp with unpredictable twists and turns, and a bizarre cast of characters you won’t soon forget.

Rex (Ben O’Toole) is a former marine who gains infamy when he single-handedly ends an attempted bank robbery by shooting a number of mask-wearing thieves after a gun inexplicably falls into his lap. Captured on video, the incident goes viral and his heroic deeds become controversial as an innocent bystander is killed in the process. Despite his efforts, Rex is convicted and sent to prison for eight years.

Upon his release, he decides he is going to relocate away from America and chooses to move to Finland, a decision made when a spitwad he launched landed on the country on a map posted in his jail cell. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Finland, his Uber driver is not who he appears to be, and with some secret nitrous, Rex passes out. When he wakes up, he realizes he is bound by his hands, hanging like a slab of meat in a basement somewhere…and not entirely intact either.

From there, a number of surprises await the viewer, which I will step away from spoiling. Suffice to say, Bloody Hell is not at all for the squeamish, but also ridiculously entertaining, as Rex’s subconscious mind appears as a character in the film, attempting to sarcastically guide him through a most untenable of situations.

When he meets Alia (Meg Fraser), a grown woman who finds him tied up, Bloody Hell shifts its tone and atmosphere. Her connection to the events become clear, and soon Rex and his subconscious mind have a cat-and-mouse game to navigate, with Alia perhaps a willing accomplice.

Written by Robert Benjamin and directed by Alister Grierson (Sanctum), Bloody Hell is a tense, cringe-inducing dark comedy. What you grow to appreciate is how rather fearless this whole thing is - holding back all of its bells and whistles until a wild final set of scenes that payoff everything which came before it.

As it looks for distribution, Bloody Hell is a film that could definitely find an audience and become a hit when widely released. At times, I was reminded of 2019’s terrific Ready or Not, which also focused on the idea of someone being unwittingly captured and forced to fight their way free.

Thankfully, Bloody Hell stands apart from anything else out in the marketplace and I hope the buzz builds and lots of people get to see the wicked delights it has to offer.

Bloody Hell receives its North American Premiere at the Nightstream 2020 Film Festival.