Lucas (Chris Mayers) and Jenny (Haley Leary) move to a new house and discover that their first home is on a portal that opens annually and spews homicidal monsters. “Hold the Fort” (2025) asks if Lucas will be able to step up and defend his wife and neighbors. The off kilter, infectious energy of the odd ball ensemble cast turns this low budget film into a genuine delight, but as the herd thins, the movie gets more monotonous and limps to the end as it predominantly bets on Lucas’ manhood ritual through battle to churn out the laughs with dwindling results.
“Hold the Fort” begins with the HOA’s origin story, but it is unclear why anyone needs to sell, especially if they are already familiar with the neighborhood’s tradeoffs. It is probably because it is funnier to see how residents with generational experience handle the challenges of living on a Hellmouth (no, it is not the Buffyverse, but it sounds better than portal) versus less experienced folks looking for a deal. Is the Amityville house no longer available? Anyone looking at housing costs would totally buy into the premise and may consider moving there too if it was real. It probably would have been better to make the Gruber Hills Association seem less sinister from the outset so it would be easier to enjoy everyone and lock in for the supernatural mayhem instead of eye them with suspicion.
“Hold the Fort” starts strong with Lucas as a blissfully clueless man not noticing any of the red flags. His little slice of suburbia is not as idyllic as he thinks. Story conceiver Scott Hawkins, writer and director William Bagley and the entire cast are in sync in understanding the exact tone of the movie that they are trying to make: a delicious blend of contrasts, sweet and sour. As they take a stab at realism and have mournful reactions to the rising body count, it does make the comedy drag, which is a momentum issue because comedy is the film’s strongest asset. The Achilles heel of the story and thus the movie is believing that Lucas is a strong enough character to rest the entire movie on his shoulders. Do not take that comment as a slight on Mayers, who does an amazing job embracing the worst aspects of his character to turn his character into someone that the audience can root for, but Lucas is the worst. Mayers is truly hilarious as Lucas gradually gets acclimated to the situation, and everyone has magnificent chemistry.
Lucas keeps secrets from his wife, decides important matters on emotion, not facts, makes unilateral decisions, including financial, for them as a couple, and prioritizes his feelings as the ones that should dominate any room, which is barely tolerable when he does it to Jenny because at least, she chose him as her husband and signed a waiver, but becomes a critical issue when the proverbial crap hits the fan and his (understandable) emotional outbursts start costing his neighbors’ lives. Let’s just say that Jenny did not marry him because he kept his vow to protect her. It is kind of hard to see how they got together. Jenny seems more like a person that a viewer would meet outside of the theater over any other character but is severely underwritten and sidelined. Instead of using the horror to punish and correct Lucas’ behavior, it is used to elevate him at the expense of everyone else; thus reinforcing his entitlement. Within the movie’s universe, the problem is not accepting reality, but in the real world, his problem would be not understanding his place in society and the effect that his actions have on others. He is still the pace setter, and the survivors rationalize his behavior. If “Hold the Fort” had more restraint in killing off the neighbors and spent more time on them, the movie would be more fun. Some of the extras seemed colorful enough to warrant at least a line instead of remaining in the background.
Jerry (Julian Smith) is the strait laced, uptight, striver HOA president, which is a huge contrast to the other neighbors, but explains why Lucas loves the place because they are both retro as if they watched a lot of black and white sitcoms. When the Hellmouth opens, Jerry’s demeanor shift is a hilarious contrast to his daily persona. Ted (Levi Burdick) and Annette (Michelle I Lamb) are the outgoing, married couple who are jazzed for the occasion, especially because it is an excuse to be social, but Annette leans more towards self-medicating through moonshine to get through the night. Leslie (Tordy Clark) prefers prescription drugs and is a bit of a burnout. She gets some hilarious sequences that warrant sticking around during the post credits. Clark is a bit of a comedic genius in the vein of Kate McKinnon. Marcus (Luke Michael Williams) is probably the least neighborly, which makes him perfect for the night. Meeting these less than perfect neighbors implicitly shake Lucas’ faith that he moved to the right neighborhood since he thought that he left those types of people behind. Lucas’ other lesson is to actually appreciate the neighbors that he has, not the kind that he imagined, i.e. more like Jerry.
How are the horror and action? You will not be scared because the execution of the monsters is more conventional and basic than the lore offered for witches, kung fu spirits, a werewolf (Liam Day), and the Stick Man (Oliver Kasiske). Despite the lack of genuine chills, Bagley and Hawkins clearly put a lot of thought into their creations, especially how to kill the kung fu spirits, who wind up being a mashup between possession and zombies with the latter dominating “Hold the Fort.” Zombies are a bit “been there, done that,” and it is too bad that their creativity did not translate to in the presentation. McScruffy (Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson) is supposed to be a bad ass hired to protect the neighborhood, but because Lucas must be the hero, McScruffy is as sidelined as Jenny, and the fight scenes lean towards laughs, not being impressive though there are flashes of that ambition in the aforementioned post credit scene.
Because the screener for “Hold the Fort” was only available to watch on a device, not a television, and most of the second half of the movie takes place at night with no electricity and only moonlight to illuminate the scenes, they will not be able to see a lot of the action. It is easier to mentally check out of the story because depending on how the viewer streams the movie. Bagley should not feel bad because movies and television series with more resources like “Game of Thrones” were equally indiscernible. For example, when the Stick Man arrives, even though he is clearly the most terrifying monster of all, it is impossible to tell what makes him so unsettling outside of the cast’s reactions, his size and his vague powers.
“Hold the Fort” is an amusing little movie and is the exact kind of film that would improve with more money and resources. The story was uneven but reflects a lot of potential if they tap into having others read their script who are less in love with the idea and open to giving criticism that would aid with pacing and overall development. At the moment, they are too in love with the idea of making a movie to kill their darlings. There is nothing wrong with having fun and making a movie for yourself, but with such a great cast and clever set of people behind the camera, it would be fun to see what they can do while maintaining the excellent vibes.
