William Bagley’s Hold the Fort had its world premiere at the 2025 Fantasia Festival, and two films in, the director of The Murder Podcast seems to be flying his flag for comedy horror with gleeful abandon. It’s a sub‑genre often deemed unbankable by the studio system and those who finance films, so credit where it’s due: directors like Bagley are keeping it alive on the indie scene, and fans like myself are very appreciative. And while these films may not be hitting the same highs as they did in the ’80s and ’90s, they still manage to be alive and well in a horror landscape that has moved on beyond all compare. Outside of us fans, the eternal issue with these films is finding the balance between comedy and horror. One thing that always helps — even when a film leans too far in either direction — is keeping the runtime tight, and credit where it’s due: at a gloriously direct 76 minutes, Hold the Fort never outstays its welcome. In fact, I could’ve done with more.
After a fairly misleading cold open that suggests a film with an entirely different focus, we meet Lucas (Chris Mayers) and Jenny (Haley Leary), a young married couple who are moving into their new dream home. Jenny’s a little more hesitant about the new place, but Lucas is fully on board — a status quo that’s maintained even after the representative for the local Homeowners Association (HOA) turns up. HOAs are a near‑alien concept outside of pop culture for these British eyes, and the ones in the U.S. are typically fastidious while being notoriously bossy and tedious with their rules. The HOA in Hold the Fort holds an annual party, which is something Jenny can get behind, and it’s then that the newlyweds discover this organisation is a little different to the others. This isn’t just any old party, but one with a historic tradition of fighting off the hordes of monsters that emerge from a portal to hell once a year. The couple laugh it off as a local quirk until a coven of witches emerges from the smoking red chasm. What follows is a video‑game‑like siege horror that features wave after wave of unexpected bad‑guys.
“If you’ve had a bad day and feel rotten about life and the world, you can throw on a film like Hold the Fort and things don’t seem quite so bad.”
I won’t spoil the surprises, but the kill count is high, the blood is generous, there are at least a few head ‘splosions along the way, and two creatures garnered belly laughs after Bagley’s script takes things in surprising directions. While Hold the Fort does tick some boxes when it comes to the demands of a horror film, it’s not scary — but, let’s be honest, few films genuinely are. The film is far more consistent with its laughs, which are mostly character‑motivated even though not everyone has a chance to shine, and like other comedies of this type the humour itself can be a bit hit‑and‑miss. So by the rules of comedy horror, Bagley’s film falls into the balance issue too, being more of a (very funny) comedy than a horror film.
Most of the laughs come from two characters — archetypal HOA representative Jerry (Julian Smith, who’s the absolute star of Hold the Fort), and a fully militarised assistant who’s roped in to help every year by the name of McScruffy (Hamid‑Reza Benjamin Thompson), who’s also responsible for most of the quotable dialogue. Jerry is presented as a general and ringleader, but he quickly gets taken out of action after eating copious amounts of muscle relaxants from the party food, and thus becomes the subject of some great slapstick and ragdoll gags. The problem is that a lot of time is given to the low‑hanging fruit of redeeming the cowardly Lucas, relegating the far more amusing supporting cast to fodder or one‑scene‑and‑done material. It’s here where it could — and maybe should — have been padded out, allowing room for the story to breathe and for a more satisfying resolution. That being said, there’s a great gag for one of those characters during the credits; it’s a flashback, and why it doesn’t unfold in sync with the mainline narrative, I do not know.
Of course, being a comedy means that everything I say can just as easily be discounted, as although I bounded past the “six laugh test” and found it to be a genuinely fun time, someone else could watch Hold the Fort and find it hard work, unfunny, and a tedious mess. Comedy is subjective, so reviewing it is a generally impossible and thankless task, yet I will always find time for films that are so endearingly dumb and silly. I know there are better examples of videogame mechanics in film, and films that have better acting and gags, but I enjoyed my time with Hold the Fort so very much. For me, it captures the essence of why I adore comedy horror: it’s the perfect late‑night watch, and if you’ve had a bad day and just feel rotten about life and the world, you can throw on a film like Hold the Fort and things don’t seem quite so bad. And if that’s good enough for Sullivan’s Travels, it’s good enough for me.
Rob’s Archive – Hold the Fort (Fantasia 2025)
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