HELL’S LABYRINTH (aka CARNIVEROUS, 2008)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed/Written by Drew Maxwell.

A group of people find themselves lost in a seemingly endless labyrinth with a badly CGI-ed demon breathing bad CGI flames at their heels in HELL’S LABYRINTH. Though something should be said about a film shot almost entirely in front of a green screen, I can’t help but feel had some of it taken place in the real world, it would have been a slight bit better.

Some of the performances here aren’t half bad, especially the two leads, Leah Rose and Ryan Schaufler, who prove to be the toughest of the bunch when it comes to running away from cartoon images. I almost would have loved had they gone all COOL WORLD with this one instead of trying so hard to make things look real and failing miserably. Had there been just a shade more of an element of cartoon to the CGI, stylistically, it might have been better. As is, it looks like cheap CGI because…well…it is cheap CGI. Still, of all of the actors trapped in this maze of computer-generated terror, Rose and Schaufler react to the ping pong balls representing the monsters they are supposed to be running from the best.

There are a few unexpected turns toward the end of this one, showing that writer/director Drew Maxwell has some potential moviemaking skill. He certainly knew how to cut corners. Given a halfway decent budget and a sense of “less CGI is better” Maxwell might surprise us in future endeavors. The survivors running around a dark labyrinth being manipulated by dark unseen forces will ring as pretty familiar to those who have seen CUBE and CABIN IN THE WOODS. Nevertheless, HELL’S LABYRINTH didn’t impress me much and it’s doubtful it will impress anyone but those looking for nothing but an hour-thirty to kill on the couch.