Reed Alexander's Horror Review of 'Bingo Hell' (
There should be a word for "In the style of Bubba-Hotep"
You know, for a shoe stringer, this was pretty good. Kinda reminds me of Bubba Hotep in many ways, and not just the feel of the horror as slightly ridiculous, but also the way it was shot, and the general presentation of the story.
I do feel like there were a lot of amateur mistakes in the cinematography, such as weird closeups and bad angles. But this kind of gives the movie a sort of strange surrealism that almost fits by accident. Almost...
And the acting was even good for horror. No one's gonna be winning any awards here, but it did the job. Sometimes they hammed it up, but most of the time it was on point. The cast was even pretty good. It's nice to see a movie with a primarily older cast. Also, Richard Brake. Fucking love that guy.
The plot was even pretty interesting. It's basically about a mysterious figure that takes over a bingo hall. Doesn't sound like there's a lot of meat on that bone but when you take into consideration the setting (a struggling neighborhood), the characters (a pack of septuagenarians trying to live their best lives), and the premise of an evil bingo hall, it's actually got some depth to it. Bingo is really the only thing the characters have. Their aging friendship, their rundown neighborhood, the best of their lives behind them. Something like getting together for bingo becomes a big deal and gambling for a little money doesn't hurt either. They all had big dreams long gone and the hope of hitting it big is the only dream they have left. This little indie has actually got some spirit.
But you know what, it's fun, even a little silly, and the horror ain't bad. I'd almost recommend this to only Horror Heads and Riffers, but I feel like most people would enjoy it.
~
SPOILERS!!!
There was kind of a huge plot hole that was hard to ignore. The movie starts out with the death of the original bingo hall owner. He took a payout from a devil-like character with cursed money. The cursed money makes you crazy and you wind up killing yourself in a way that looks like an accident. The main character, Lupita, played by Adriana Barraza, discovers his body and then *poof* nothing. Just on to the next scene. Later in the movie they try to hang a lantern on it, that Lupita called the cops, but I feel like that was a scene that needed to happen. First of all, there needed to be more processing for Lupita's character, second, the scene is pretty damn weird and the cops would definitely have something to say about it. The jump feels pretty careless, like the director wrote himself into a bit of a corner or something. Like, either he couldn't afford two actors in cop uniforms, or he didn't know what to do with the scene and just skipped it.
That's my only major complaint, though. For the most part it's pretty good, actually impressively good for an indie. I highly recommend it.
About the Creator
Reed Alexander
I'm a horror author and foulmouthed critic of all things horror. New reviews posted every Monday.
@ReedsHorror on TikTok, Threads, Instagram, YouTube, and Mastodon.
Check out my books on Godless: https://godless.com/products/reed-alexander
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Comments (1)
Nice review- I had been thinking about watching this, but may just hold off a bit longer. Though even bad movies can be fun, I suppose. I am new to Vocal and looking to connect with other writers. Happy to read and support your work. Thank you for writing!