Kim on the latest DTV must-sees

If you’ve been waiting for that last fest-themed horror to drop, Gregory Plotkin’s HELL FEST is now out — better than Fright Fest, not as good as Blood Fest, but a likeable enough midlist slasher. The victims are amusing enough to hang out with in the horror funfair sections before the masked maniac starts making inroads into the cast, with a fun turn from Bex Taylorklaus as the wisecracking, mean party girl who has a date with the guillotine.

Also on the if-you’ve-seen-the-othersyou-might-as-well-watch-this pile is Steven Kostanski’s LEPRECHAUN RETURNS, which takes the fashionable tack of ignoring all the other sequels (what — Leprechaun In The Hood never happened? Noooo!) and bringing back someone from the original to be pestered again by the tiny Oirish hat-wearing, gold-hoarding, rubber-faced horror git. No, Jennifer Aniston didn’t sign up and Warwick Davies — the only leprechaun for us — is replaced by the wonderfully named Linden Porco, but Mark Holton returns to his iconic role of what-wasthat-kid-leprechaun’s-name? (Ozzie.)

Much fresher is Sebastian Gutierrez’s ELIZABETH HARVEST, a mad sciencethemed take on the tale of Bluebeard with references to Hitchcock (especially Rebecca) and Brian De Palma (split screen!). Elizabeth (Abbey Lee), newly married to a castle-owning scientist (Ciarán Hinds), is schemed against by a sexy-sinister housekeeper (value-for-money Carla Gugino). She enters the one room she’s told to stay out of… only to face a machete, and a reboot that sets the film on a circular jaunt through variations of the plot. An excellent entry in a current cycle of perhaps-topical horror films in which bullying blowhards are given control of others (usually women) and have to be coped with, fought off, or got rid of for civilisation to resume.