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| INDEPENDENT MOVIE REVIEWS: |
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HELLINGER serves up the tasty goods from ROUNDS ENTERTAINMENT and Director Max Cerchi! A beautifully orchestrated tale of terror unlike most of the low budget fare out there! This is one to check out! The visual quality is something we should all should be striving for! HELLINGER opens with the torment of a young MELISSA (Shannah Betz) by her father. His unrelenting taunting and mimicking of her unleashes her own deep, dark wishes and fears. HELLINGER comes forth from the darkness to claim his first victim. He swiftly dispatches dear daddy by plucking out his eyes! At Melissa's distress he ponders her upset and departs, but promises to be back... Flash forward twenty years, and as an adult, Melissa is still learning to cope with her bloody nightmare past and Hellinger. Yet he will not allow her to forget! He is back in her life and misses her dearly, "... more than God!", he bellows out!!! (Great delivery!) Hellinger is here to stay! Melissa's cousin, KENDALL RANSOM (Artie Richard), is a bounty hunter hired by the police (under the table) to track down a possible serial killer. A suspicious body has turned up and Detective Lonegan (James O'Danoghue) needs a bit of help. Kendall is the man, and he is willing to break a few bones to get the job done. He is somewhat protective of Melissa, having taken her in when she left her mother as a teen. Her trouble past has finally reared it's ugly head to him and he wants to help her. He wants to get down to the bottom of this Hellinger business. What transpires as a masterfully crafted scene, Kendall and Melissa play a game of chess, while a viscous crime takes place. Melissa's roommate and friend, Laura (Veronica Bero), is brutally mutilated, raped and murdered. This sequence is set up and executed wonderfully with no holds barred on the savageness of the attack! Not for the squeamish, Max definitely hits the mark in expressing such a disturbing event. (The scene is literally agonizing to watch and makes you want to get a piece of the guy and beat the hell out of him! Great job! Really pushes buttons!) Later, Melissa and her boyfriend, Roger (James Clifton), are making love, and doing a great job at it ;)! During their lovemaking, Roger has a vision of Melissa covered in blood. It turns out Roger is not "Mr. Right" but Hellinger appears and dutifully burns Roger's eyes to coal! Hellinger will never allow Melissa to live a normal life and sees to it she is "protected". When Kendall uncovers the truth behind Hellinger's existence, his own life is in danger. He fights and survives a mind-blowing encounter with Hellinger, and now must go to the aid of Melissa. Only the Mad Cowboy knows the way to Hellinger's lair and Kendall puts his trust in him to get there, but will he be able to help her? Or will Melissa be able to her herself? Close your eyes and go to hell! Top notch entertainment! Wicked and decadent! Hellinger is here and he wants your soul! Check it out! PRODUCTION NOTES Wow! Simply put, HELLINGER is beautiful! The cinemaphotography is top class with crystal clarity, sharp images and wonderfully framed shots! This is the quality I want to achieve in my own movies! Vivid and detailed! Great use of available scenery in New York! Love it! The Special Effects are cool! Nice red blood spillage! :) We definitely were licking our lips! Now it was not overdone, and it was done appropriately, that is what makes it work so well. For a low-budget feature they were awesome! Hellinger's makeup and look is wicked. I do not know about you, but if this dude showed up in my house... Very effective storytelling with great use of transitional imagery. The brutal rape scene I mentioned earlier, framed against a game of chess is brilliant! The use of great scenery adds to the "feeling" of the movie. You are there in the belly of the beast, New York, New York. Hat's off to Director Massimiliano Cerchi for this wickedly delicious "hell-erific" treat! Hellinger rocks! Director of Photography, John Gilgar gets a special nod for the "look" of the movie. Wonderful job! Gino Udina took Max's concept for Hellinger and turned out a killer story for the camera to roll upon! Hat's off to everyone! THE CAST Artie Richard as Kendall Ransom, bounty hunter extreme! Kick ass MF that you do not want mad at you!!! WONDERFUL JOB! We want more KENDALL RANSOM!!! Shannah Betz is Melissa Moran, our heroine! Beautiful and great! We want more of Shannah as well! James M. O'Donoghue is Detective Lonegan! Wonderful and great one-liner about acting! Delivered perfectly!!! Veronica Bero as Laura Ashton. Wow. Tough scene to do and you did it well. We really felt for you and wanted to rescue you. Great job! (Thanks it's just a job!) Soloman Cabbit is Reverend Sharp, the leader of a televangelist community Melissa's father was high ranking in. Totally corrupt:) AND wanting to bring Melissa on board because of her dad. Wonderful!!! Kelly Goldstein portrayed Young Melissa and did an outstanding job!!!! Great reaction to Daddy! Stephen Steel was Melissa's Father... Bad, bad man... Great job! Excellent overbearing and taunting, but...well Hellinger took care of you! :) Robert Cummins as Ross Hillman, Melissa's shrink was excellent! Great job! Nick Van Eeden was Nikki "The Pimp" and what a hoot to see Kendall knock him on his butt! Great job at being bad! Katie Hamshel and Ariell Stillman are the Hookers! AND if I didn't know any better... Great job! Mark Di Palma is Sal Di Palma, the cop that works with Detective Lonegan. I think he's a real cop to be honest! Awesome work! Mike Paulie is Bob, the Reverend's henchman... I do not want to meat him in a dark alley! Kudos! Mark Courtein is Rob, another henchman... eh, I don't want to meat henchmen in a dark alley! Awesome! James Clifton is Roger Barrow, Melissa's boyfriend. Man, you think you know a guy... He's the one you want to kill yourself! Great job! Jessica English is Teresa, one of Kendall's girlfriends and well, she is hot! (Kendall and her go t it all too briefly, but enough to know who she is.) Wild and crazy!!! Great!!! Max Cerchi is Mad Cowboy, and man 'o man is he one crazy mother! Ya gotta check out Max! AWESOME and WICKED! Wonderful job! Wayne Petrocelli IS HELLINGER!!!!! Man 'O Man!!! Just pray for your sins, because he will GET YOU!!!!!! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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