Hold The Fort (2025) ‘Fantasia’ Movie Review: Never As Deliriously Fun As It Pretends To Be

There’s a limit to which we can endure films built around monstrous invasions. William Bagley’s “Hold The Fort” (2025) is painful to sit through, as lazy as ploddingly clumsy. Nothing is propping it up in terms of inventive imaging or scintillating action. In other words, it’s dead on arrival. The film opens with Lucas (Chris Mayers) and Jenny (Haley Leary) moving into their new house. They have dreams and anticipation regarding how their lives will proceed in a change of neighbourhood. Lucas is the more charged of the two; Jenny flinches at the prospect of tackling the community association. She’s cautious about it, but he dismisses her anxieties. Soon, the association’s president, Jerry (Julian Smith), lands at their doorstep. Exuberant and enthused, he insists they attend the equinox party that night. But there’s a caveat.

It turns out the community has a strange portal, connecting directly to hell. On equinox night, the gate opens, and all kinds of wicked spirits crash in. The film is set over the course of the fateful night, as the couple and the community band together to stave off the attack. At times, “Hold The Fort” feels deliberate in piling on the tackiness. It’s as if it wants to be schlocky. But it never translates to anything remotely fun or is able to revel in the outrageous because of its uncommitted slant. Such films need to go all the way in, throw everything at the wall, and be wholly giddy and unabashed about their trashiness. But this drama is undone on several counts. Firstly, it barely sets up things in a convincing manner.

Tawdriness in cinema works when the makers mine abundant glee and unapologetic sincerity in the frankly garish. We are expected to be in on the joke. But this film is mostly desultory across the gamut. That there is a portal opening to hell is harped on endlessly. But the mythos around it comes off as too vague and uninspired. Where’s the pounding trepidation, the creeping feeling that everything’s about to go south? No matter what characters do to pre-empt trouble, it’ll storm in. The problem is that the film strains to persuade us about the danger lurking. When we don’t even have a twinge of excitement or apprehension over the next turn in a narrative, there’s little salvaging it.

Hold The Fort (2025) — A still from “Hold The Fort” (2025)

Even when the monsters do surge in, they have no personality or exude menace. It all feels mechanical and clunky. The action escalates, but it doesn’t register with force or visual wit. A cohesiveness is missing, as is panache to land the wild swings. Instead, Bagley struggles to deliver stylish, singular set-pieces. He keeps the blows on the uprise, yet the clashes never accelerate into truly visceral stuff, the kind that sets pulses racing and overwhelms us.

If at all, the steady appearance of the demons assailing humans, both well-versed and unsuspecting, leans closer to the amateurish than terrifying. They register as exaggerated inconveniences. Even if we don’t take them as massive threats but try to approach with levity, the invasions fail to impress memorably, a sting sorely absent. There’s a specially appointed person who is seasoned in offsetting and diffusing the threat. Hence, so far, no lives have been lost. The community knows the invasion would happen, and they are almost secure and confident in battling it.

Exacerbating matters furthermore, even the lead couple lacks a basic riveting pull. It’s because the couple is naïve to all this, matters get complicated, and situations worsen beyond the initial estimate. Stakes rise. But this tension stays dissipated throughout, consigned to empty flares. Such human-otherworldly encounters need a dose of cheekiness. In some stray moments, the film angles into it. But it remains a peep rather than a full-blown chaotic ride. Hence, there are no thrills.

The film fusses over mounting those, but nothing becomes punchy and striking. It stays muted and vapid, meandering without solid conviction. We wonder if the makers even cared to construct the characters. When one of them renders an apology, it’s inconsequential. Investing in characters and their travails is likely only when the film clearly gathers the complications, placing them within a fairly plausible framework. Overall, “Hold The Fort” is too sketchy in dispensing horror and fun alike to be a blast.