I enjoyed it very much until the end. I HATE HATE HATE movies that never give the audience the motivation or reason for the villain's actions. That is called TRICKING THE AUDIENCE and it is nothing but irritating. It's one thing to "give the audience something to think about", but when the movie never gives a motive, it ruins it for me. Sorry, but the ending ruined what could have been a better-than-decent horror flick.

"Fresh Hell" is a very weird little entry in the "video meeting during the pandemic" horror film. As of June 11, 2022, it appears that this will be the first non-fake review, so here goes --

"Fresh Hell" is set during 2020, and is presented in a series of "Acts" that are broken up with news reports to give us a sense of the timeframe in which the film is taking place. The movie begins with a video reunion of a group of classmates. The classmates are an hilariously and absurdly diverse group, and I believe that is intended to be ironic since in the course of the film we will have jokes about BLM and QAnon, among others. Seven of the eight show up and spend a bunch of time sort of goofing around while waiting for Laura, the eighth student. Suddenly, Laura appears to join the meeting but instead of Laura it's some bizarre guy in a huge beard that is definitely not Laura. He calls himself "The Stranger" and after acting in a totally unhinged manner for a while, he ups the ante by showing images of Laura being abused and then going truly off the deep end. Afterwards, the remaining friends are not sure if what they saw was real or fake. And then it appears that maybe someone is targeting them, but no-one can be sure if it's real or not...

"Fresh Hell" is a mixed bag. It starts very slowly, while we watch the seven friends in a seemingly endless chat. Finally the "Stranger" shows up and we enter some serious "WTF?" territory and movie moves along briskly, even if it's awfully familiar territory. Possibly the biggest flaw, though, is the ending, which is pretty much just one of the longest and most drawn-out "Villain Monologues" ever put on film.

But it does some things well. It takes its violence seriously and doesn't shy away from showing it. The middle part -- the strength of the film -- is pretty unnerving at times. It appears that it is trying to say something meaningful, however clumsily it's trying. But the bad is bad. It takes way too long to get going, and the ending is really underwhelming.

While nothing to get excited about, "Fresh Hell" is not the worst of the pandemic-era "Video Meeting" movies, so it's not a terrible way to spend 90 minutes.

The movie is set at the height of the COVID lockdowns, so we are introduced to the main players via ZOOM. There are to be eight, diverse, and all have a common connection. This seems an easy way to get a movie made with the restrictions of COVID but will not age well, as the references are too current to survive for long. Grace starts, and each in turn slowly logs on. As they wait for Laura, she doesn't appear but a stranger appears, and does some very bloody things that upset others in the group. And then, others in the group seem to be killed off one by one, or did they? Because messages are received from the supposed murdered persons after they were supposedly dead. The movie is done in three acts. Three insufferable acts that really try the patience of the viewer. I would give high marks for incoherence, but that is really not one wants a movie to be. People appear in dog masks, but there is no explanation of what that is about. Is it a cult or hallucinations? The concept of the movie is interesting, but it fails miserably.