Hold The Fort Review (Fantasia 2025)
Hold The Fort is a zingy monster flick that freshens up a genre staple with gore and gags galore. When Lucas and Jenny relocate to a suburban dream home, they are immediately recruited by the local homeowner association to join their battle against equinox portal monsters. To survive the night, they must ward off a conveyor belt of supernatural creatures by summoning hidden courage and avoiding too many drug-laced cheese sticks.
It takes a while to bed into its ludicrous central premise, but once Hold The Fort sets its frothy tone, it proves consistently entertaining. Once we realise it’s just a thin excuse for a steady barrage of ’80s direct-to-video one-liners, bad taste humour and practical gore effects, it’s easy to be swept along by its brio and brevity.
The dominant vibe of the movie is that of early Peter Jackson, with a slapstick spirit to the carnage, primarily achieved through practical effects courtesy of the Silver Scream Effects Lab. The roster of assailants includes werewolves, broom-riding witches, zombie spirits, and a legion of demon bats. Best of all is the heinous Stickman, who looks like Lord Voldemort after he’s been shat out by an owl in an oil slick.
Hold the Fort creates its monster mythology and lore as it rattles along, which serves the pace and pandemonium well. The writing is consistently funny and occasionally hilarious, with the eclectic cast projecting the playful tone with verve and commitment. Haley Leary is excellent as the acerbic Jenny, as is Julian Smith as HOA leader Jerry, who spends 80% of the movie paralysed from the neck down from muscle relaxant-laced nibbles.
Director and writer William Bagley focuses more on genre elements than on the social commentary regarding neighbourhood snobbery and elitism, which is just as well given the residents’ motivations. Does battling a horde of bloodthirsty creatures once a year justify rock-bottom mortgages? Especially when the rates are counterbalancingly high to purchase arms and ammo and patch up the clubhouse ‘fort’ after each skirmish.
I suppose it could be considered a laboured metaphor for housing desperation and draconian community tyranny. Still, it’s a conceptual stretch that may take some out of the film’s goofy universe to its detriment. If this phenomenon, freely documented in a publicly accessible manual, were happening like clockwork annually, the streets would be awash with Tik-Toking morons, have-a-go spirit slayers, and paranormal scientists.
That being said, Hold the Fort has enough genre grace and vivid set pieces to offset the shaky world-building and preposterous plot holes. For midnight movie junkies of a certain age, it will feel like a warm, nostalgic horror hug from the bygone era of B-movie bliss.
★★★
World premiere at Fantasia on the 16th July 2025 / Levi Burdick, Michelle Lamb, Haley Leary, Chris Mayers, Julian Smith / Dir: William Bagley / Blue Finch Film Releasing
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