Well, initially then I have to say that I was rather impressed with the cast ensemble that was on the cast list for the 2022 horror movie "Hellblazers" from writer and director Justin Lee.

And yeah, I hadn't heard about the movie prior to stumbling upon it here late in 2022. But with it being a horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie.

"Hellblazers" was watchable, sure, but it was by no means a grand milestone in horror cinema. In fact, I will actually go as far as to deem "Hellblazers" to be a rather mundane and bland foray into the horror genre. Luckily a rather impressive cast ensemble were able to keep the movie afloat.

The concept idea for "Hellblazers" was interesting enough, there were some potential here, for sure. But writer and director Justin Lee seemed to drop the ball and opted to go for a rather bland and generic approach to bring the movie to life on the screen.

If you are a newcomer to the horror genre, then you might get a kick out of "Hellblazers". But if you are, like myself, a seasoned horror veteran, then "Hellblazers" came and went without much of any lasting impression. This is hardly a movie that I will recommend to horror fans, except if it is only to see the rather nice cast ensemble.

The acting performances in "Hellblazers" were fair enough, but it was clear that the actors and actresses were struggling with a bland script and character gallery. There are some familiar faces and names on the cast list, especially if you have been watching horror movie since the 1980s; with the likes of Ed Morrone, Adrienne Barbeau, Meg Foster, Courtney Gains, John Kassir, Edward Finlay, Bruce Dern and Billy Zane.

My rating of "Hellblazers" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Vietnam vet Bill Unger (Bruce Dern) is just trying to visit his wife's grave when he hears Joshua (Billy Zane) and his followers conjure a demon, a fact that no one seems to believe. They better - the coven plans on feeding that demon every single person in town.

The real reason many genre fans will want to watch this Tubi original is the cast: Courtney Gains (Malachai!), Meg Foster (Evil Lyn!), John Kassir (the Crypt Keeper!), Tony Todd (do I even have to tell you?) and Adrienne Barbeau as a DJ not named Stevie Wayne, the nightlight at KAB.

It's also a The 'Burbs reunion and doesn't miss the opportunity to throw in a line between Dern and Gains.

Director and writer Justin Lee (Apache Junction, Big Legend) has excelled at making movies with monsters in them. This one has a great demon - you barely see it but when you do, it's quite incredible - and a cult determined to destroy a town that is in no way ready to go down without a fight.

Sure, VFW and The Void did this before and better, but if Tubi is now our video store, this is certainly not a bad film to grab before the store closes and you promised everyone you'd get a horror movie.

Within the first 20 minutes there is an event, then a witness of said event describes the event we just saw to the sheriff. Then the sheriff says "Let me get this straight..." and relays the event back to the witness who just described it! Who is writing this stuff?

The premise seemed interesting and with a better script and more gore (this may have been due to budget constraints) it could have been entertaining. As-is it feels like the talent they brought together for this effort was wasted.

I also think this would have worked better as a straight-up horror film. The "comedy" was not funny. Honestly, I would skip this one.