FILM: Hellions (2015)

Hellions is a Canadian horror film, by director Bruce McDonald (Pontypool), that contributes to the child horror-cycle as well as invoking the spirit of pregnancy horror like Rosemary’s Baby and Grace.

Set on Halloween night, teenage Dora Vogel (Chloe Rose) finds out that she is four weeks pregnant. Left home alone on the night of a blood moon while her mother and brother go out trick-or-treating, Dora’s night turns into a frantic fight for her life against a series of terrifying child-monsters who are after her unborn child. To make matters worse Dora’s doctor, who makes a house call, informs her that she’s now four months pregnant, rather than four weeks. As the night progresses, the child continues to grow at an alarming rate and the events taking place continue to grow in strangeness with an ethereal quality.

Hellions starts out with a bright and captivating color scheme that plays off the oranges of Halloween, but as the blood moon rises it turns to a dull and blasé pink that washes over every frame. It’s a fitting metaphor for the film. A solid start invites the viewer in and some early imagery provides unsettling chills. But as the film progresses a dream-like atmosphere takes over, leaving the audience to question what is real and what isn’t. By the time the film is relying on quick-cuts to scenes we’ve already witnessed and throwing exploding CGI-pumpkins everywhere, it loses any credibility that the first half gave it.

By the time the film reaches the end, it invites you to question what it all means; unfortunately it’s a film that doesn’t actually know what it means. Themes of the fear of pregnancy are littered throughout but are contradicted by each other. What could’ve been a fun Halloween movie instead just becomes a bore.