FrightFest review – Portal to Hell
From an introductory sequence showing protagonist Dunn (Trey Holland) at his day-job – working from home, he telephones people who owe debts for medical treatment under the nightmarish American health insurance system and tries to get them to pay money they don’t have or aren’t willing to part with – you’d think he was already in Hell. Then he notices infernal fires behind a dryer window in his favourite laundromat, and everyone admits that it’s a portal to Hell.
Basically well-intentioned – and we know what road that paves – Dunn, who has the habit of saying ‘I’m Dunn’ and provoking misunderstandings, is told by a demon (voiced by Richard Kind) that if he arranges for three souls to go into the fire then his ailing neighbour Mr Bobshank (Keith David) will be let off his own debt to the Prince of Darkness. Somehow, laundromat manager Ed (Romina D’Ugo) – who is more worried about losing her job than her immortal soul – is drawn into the deal … and a selection of the unworthy are presented for sacrifice. The funniest is Rip (Casey Deidrick), a drug dealer who turns out to be delighted by the opportunity – since he’s a devout Satanist. But as with all diabolical deals, things aren’t as simple as they seem.
Chip (Kind) turns up in person to play off Dunn. Kind, an actor who masters deadpan hilarious, seems to set the tone for the whole film, which is played in neutral even when the story is getting wildly out of hand, making funny situations all the funnier because everyone tries to approach them reasonably. Even the cartoon gag that Hell is easier to deal with than an American insurance company is revisited with seriousness – and a plot development which reminded me greatly of Skip Tracer, a terrific 1977 Canadian film about debt collection which I’ve not seen in decades but has stuck in the mind. It has an appropriately detached, distanced look – the portal is deliberately not a big deal, though its unending fire becomes more disturbing as the film progresses. Holland is splendid in the lead and matched by all the supporting players. Portal to Hell is a very promising debut from writer-director Woody Bess.
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