6 Degrees of Hell

It's difficult to find a decent horror film these days. Sadly, there are only one or two a year that pass as average to decent, with the rest coming across as frightless garbage. Unfortunately, despite its decent plot and set up, '6 Degrees of Hell' falls into the category of rubbish. Needless to say, I was unimpressed and sorely disappointed.

I need to vent about films that draw you in by billing an actor as the lead, only to have you discover that a particular star's role is very small. This happens quite a bit when low budget films acquire a big name and put that person's face front and center on the posters and the Blu-ray cases. Now, while in this particular instance the only recognizable name is Corey Feldman, hardly an A-list actor nowadays, he receives top billing and his image is prominently featured on the cover. After viewing the film, not only does does Mr. Feldman appear only a few minutes in the film, but his character has no point to the story. So if you're expecting some good Corey Feldman screen-time, this is not the film you should watch.

I hate to come down on horror filmmakers, especially new ones, but there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. And Joe Raffa, who pulls double duty as director and actor, did a all of the wrong things. The set up and plot are decent enough, centering on a horror-themed hotel that becomes a grisly scene of some very horrific murders. Sounds decent enough, right? Wrong.

We start out with paranormal investigator Kyle Brenner (Feldman), who hears about the murders and thinks that there is more than a psychopath going around killing people. He thinks there are sinister paranormal forces at work here. This is where we find out about the actual events in the hotel's past.

The hotel owner Jack (Brian Gallager) has set his mind to creating the scariest experience for horror fans, in which he gets his hotel staff to dress up in scary costumes and scare his patrons of the hotel. He acquires some objects which are said to be haunted, and he uses them in his hotel to scare his guests even more. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the objects are actually haunted and actually possess the staff with some evil spirits, which cause their eyes to turn black and send them out to brutally murder the patrons.

The two other main characters we center on are June (Nicole Cinaglia), who has psychic powers, but doesn't like using them, nor does she know how to really control them, and Erik Sanborn (Kyle Patrick Brennan), one of those reality show ghost hunters, who is there to investigate the haunted hotel. June has the most screen time, however her character and storyline don't go anywhere, as do the other characters in the film. And Raffa must have really enjoyed the film 'Inception', because he incorporates flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks, causing my brain to have a meltdown and making this film fairly difficult to follow. However, the final climax of the film picks up speed, and this is where all of the murders take place with enough blood and guts for the whole family, even grandma.

That being said, it is executed fairly poorly, with weak visual effects, bad acting, and terrible storytelling. The hotel staff's blacked out eyes were done with CG, which if done well, might have looked good, but it wasn't and is laughable. I did find out that there is a haunted house out there like this and this is where the idea for the film came from. And I'm wiling to bet that the actual haunted house experience is far superior to this film. I doubt anyone would find '6 Degrees of Hell' scary or remotely interesting.

'6 Degrees of Hell' has a 1080p HD transfer presented in 1:78.1 aspect ratio. Colors look just good enough, with the detail looking sharp, as this was shot digitally. The brightness level seemed a bit high, giving the image a slightly unrealistic look. There was some evidence of video noise as well here and there, giving this direct-to-video release a below average video presentation.

This disc comes with a lossless DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix as well as a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. The DTS-HD 5.1 audio sounds decent enough, with clear dialogue centered on the front speakers nicely. The rears don't get used much surprisingly for a horror film, but when the ambient noises do pop up as well as the music crescendo scares, they play out well, however they could have been used more often. I didn't notice any cracks or hissing.

• World Premiere of '6 Degrees of Hell' (HD, 3 mins) - Here we see the world premiere of the film at a small theater near where they shot the movie. Cast and crew are in attendance. Really nothing to see here.
  
• The Making of '6 Degrees of Hell' (HD, 11 mins) - Here is you standard making of featurette, which features some talking head interviews with cast and crew and we find out how the idea of the film was created.
  

• Behind the Scenes Corey Feldman Blooper (SD, 14 seconds) - Yes, 14 seconds of Corey Feldman flubbing one line and cursing, which is bleeped out. There is not point for this.
  

• Corey Feldman and Harrison Smith Interview with Connie Roberts (SD, 4 mins) - Connie Roberts interviews Feldman and writer Harrison Smith while on set. Not a particularly great interview.
  

• Joe Versus the Hotel (SD, 6 mins) - Here, director Joe Raffa goes to the haunted house that inspired the film and shows him going through the house. Awful extra as the sound was way too loud and the video is very shaky.
  

• NEPA Ghost Detectives Promo (HD, 1 mins) The fake promo for the reality TV show in the film.
  

• The Hotel of Horror Commercial (HD, 1 mins) - The fake promo for the hotel in the film.
  

• Photo Gallery (HD, 8 mins) - Photo gallery of actors and behind the scenes stuff which plays automatically to music.
  

• Trailers (HD, 8 mins) - Here are several trailers and teasers for the film.
  

This is a poor attempt at a horror film. It's hard to follow, with bad acting, terrible effects, and a story that goes nowhere. The video and audio are decent enough for a direct-to-video release, but nothing to write home about. And the extras, while there are many, aren't good. I'd stay away from this film, unless you have some fascination with owning every Corey Feldman movie. That would be scary.