Director Giulio De Santi, known for his thrilling gross theatrics, presents his film Hotel Inferno, filmed in a first person perspective, which follows a narrative storyline and yet feels strangely familiar. Noting that JeruZalem (2015) took on this concept of first person filming (POV), only a few others have braved the new technology, namely the majority of audiences seem to shun the filmmaking presentation. When stating it feels familiar, it centers on the video game parallels especially found in the first person shooters such as class Doom (both the game and later the film). Those unfamiliar with Santi need to seek out Necrostorm, for this Italian gore-hound and splatter-loving punk nuts company understanding they enjoy spreading around the red stuff, while this film is only their third.

One must  understand that Hotel Inferno, films as if the character Zimosa is actually yourself and the hotel with each floor as a level, in other words a video, with a central location, and missions to fulfill. Frank Zimosa (Rayner Bourton in his first horror film) an ex-soldier of fortune now representing as a contract killer, with the interview and mission for his new and odd employer Jorge Mistandria (Michael Howe). His assignment presents with a clear set of instructions, and the wearing of an experimental pair of shades, for Jorge to watch over his actions. Right off the bat, Frank botches every portion of the task, and unleashes unholy hell upon him and each room and floor all become significantly worse, just like a video game with difficultly leveling upward. A note to the gore-hounds rejoice with this film the splattering of guts, brains, and blood overwhelms the area quickly, and impressive from a small independent movie. Each new frame presents more gore, and crushing skull blows, close-range firepower at numerous targets, and the usage of hammers to body ratio is incredible. Insanely overcompensating with the gore and gruesome factors, never letting up on the pace and action, but the story itself, becomes lost in the carnage. As for the understanding of the enemy, a tad muddled, incredibly well disfigured ailing from the disease corporation, which corrupt their souls and destroy their bodies with some bandaged and others rotting from within (inflicted with odd pustule growths). The pattern that forms in the movie and with the primary character, reminiscent of low budget slasher, just killing in a rampant manner to drive to a fine conclusion, and discovery of the evil at the center a tinge like The Cabin in the Woods (2012). The appeal of the style, likely intended to the video gamers genre however, in the past they had mix results with regard to House of the Dead (2003) and Doom (2005), though trend might become a new avenue in filmmaking with modifications.

The technical aspects all hit their intended goals, with solid pacing, nice editing moments in this 80-minute feature horror film, with the usage of effects of the bloody throat slicing bloody fantastic mayhem. A let down comes in the dialogue and story cohesiveness, nothing really comes along to replace the pitfalls, just more of the same carnage, mix with dreadful acting, not clearly sure where the blame falls, maybe the story or the presentation. If the POV (point-of-view) becomes a new wave for the budding filmmakers to ride with nonexistent budgets then we might see more using GoPro Cameras, iPhones (used in 2 Jennifer (2016) and maybe the new Soloshot camera.

A gory visual orchestrated display occurs throughout the movie, and hints toward the found footage genre for a brief moment, but all of it, gives the audience mere moments to rest, and might generate a nauseous feeling onto them. The extremism in the film, presents random acts of shocks, motivates a wonderment of violence and full range of weird but messy killing techniques. For the viewers, which prefer narrative storylines they need to avert their eyes from this production, for them it may represent a gruesome mess of splattering images. However, for the crowd of fans who enjoy first person video games and watching a horror movie at the same time as they overdose on sensory addictions this movie has want you seek, crave, and want to repeat over and over.

This review was originally published in September 2016 on the now defunct Rogue Cinema website with a view count of 1,520.

TAGLINES:

• The First and Only splatter movie in “first person view”
• It’s Only a Movie!
• First Person. Last Stand.
• First-person Action Horror!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398788/

IMDb Rating: 4.8/10

Baron’s Rating: 4.0/10