We recently featured the trailer for Hold the Fort. A screener sent over, so here’s our review.
Hold the Fort stars Chris Mayers, Levi Burdick, Julian Smith, Haley Leary, Mark Ashworth, Amy Bull, and Tordy Clark. William Bagley writes and co-writes with Scott Hawkins.
The Story
The story is simple, like me, maybe that’s why I liked it.
After moving to the suburbs, a young couple finds themselves trapped in an epic battle between their new HOA and an onslaught of monsters from hell.
Lucas (Mayers) and Jenny (Leary) move to a new town, and everything seems perfect. Soon after moving in, they are invited to a local Homeowners’ Association meeting. There, everyone seems to be joking about the town being on a hell mouth.
Once a year, all manner of monsters spawn out of a hell mouth, and the HOA has to fight them off. No wonder the houses were so cheap.
As the evening progresses, they find out it’s all true and have to fight off all kinds of monsters, demons and witches. Remember, magic can’t stop bullets.
All of the information about the hellmouth was in the welcome pack from the HOA; something that Lucas skimmed through, but missed the main details. I always pretend to read stuff too.
That’s it, it’s nice and simple, nothing overly complex, just monsters and guns; what’s not to like?
The Cast
Everyone is new to me, but overall, they are all good. I liked Jerry, played by Smith, as the head of the HOA. He seems like a typical HOA person, a bit overly OCD about things, but in this case, he must deal with hell spawn.
He’s done his homework, got all the weapons he needs, and everyone has been briefed. Get out there and have some fun, that’s his policy, that and no swearing.
I’m not going to break down the cast of characters, but I found myself having fun with them all. They are all just suburbanites who live in a strange place. The rest of the year, everything is gardening and cake meets. Just this one night, they must get their guns and kick some ass.
Overall
This review of Hold the Fort is short and sweet. I’m not going to examine the relationship of neighbours and how the HOA can break down communication. There isn’t anything to examine; there are guns and monsters, chuck in some jokes and blood, and we have a movie.
The good thing about Hold the Fort is that you can tell everyone was having fun making it. They know it’s a stupid idea, but they just run with it, and that’s fine by me.
It had the feel of Cabin in the Woods, as in, they know about the monsters, and just must deal with them. It’s all good, just be prepared. It feels meta, like they don’t have to find the secret to understand it all. The hell mouth is just part of where they live, and that’s fine.
Hold the Fort is a drinking movie. You can have a few drinks with mates and have a good laugh. They are good laughs, there are some good kills, and I found myself laughing. A solid 3 out of 5.
Hold the Fort is streaming as of today, 23rd of June.
