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The horrors of HOAs extend beyond sneaky fees and harsh regulations in William Bagley’s Hold the Fort. His suburban siege thriller pits buttoned-up community members against hordes of monsters brought forward by a Hellmouth. It’s sillier than, say, a supernatural version of Assault on Precinct 13, as Bagley favors residential yucks over frights. Enemies spawn at random as witches, werewolves, and “kamikaze bats” bash down doors and shatter windows, but overall quality is restricted by low-budget constraints. Don’t expect Cabin in the Woods’ elevator scene, which is proficient in its monster-mashing abilities. More of a creature-of-the-week television show that has no choice but to let the seams show.

Cityboy Lucas (Chris Mayers) and his hipster-presenting wife Jenny (Haley Leary) are the latest residents of the copy-and-paste housing development Gruber Hills. Hoa President Jerry (Julian Smith) gives them a warm welcome, with an invitation to their evening Equinox celebration.

Homeownership can be intimidating for first-timers, but, in the case of irreverent comedy-horror Hold the Fort, it’s downright deadly. Witer/Director William Bagley (The Murder Podcast) brings the laughs in his monster-a-minute style approach to homeownership. Not even its peculiar stance on HOAs or its budgetary constraints can hold back the almost DIY charm of this madcap, briskly paced creature feature, knowing exactly when to take a bow before overextending its welcome.

Like many horror couples before them, Jenny (Haley Leary) and Lucas (Chris Mayers) have just relocated from the city to their first home in an idyllic suburban neighborhood. They’ve barely moved in when Jenny is perturbed to learn that their new, exclusive digs come with the very thing Jenny didn’t want: an Hoa. It just so happens to be the day of the Hoa’s annual gathering at the clubhouse. Lucas drags his begrudging partner to the party,...

The 2025 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival got off to a hell of a start with the opening day world premiere of William Bagley’s suburbanites vs. monsters from hell horror comedy, Hold the Fort. Freshly christened homeowners, Lucas (Chris Mayers) and Jenny (Haley Leary) are in for the night of their lives when they learn that their Hoa does quite a bit more than simply measure the growth of the neighborhood lawns and admonish those who put their trash cans out too early. Their new housing development has an added feature that is possibly even more exciting than the soon-to-be-completed pool: a portal to hell! While Lucas is gung-ho on their new lifestyle, city girl Jenny is a bit more hesitant and worried...

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Plot: Follows Lucas and Jenny, who think their life is finally coming together when the couple becomes homeowners. Little do they know that their new house comes with a big catch. Lucas and Jenny soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they become trapped in a battle between their Homeowners Association and an onslaught of monsters from hell.

Review: As Fantasia 2025 kicks off, I’m happy to say that the first film (for me at least) is a blast. There’s nothing quite like a horror/comedy that is able to simply be fun. Often they can get so wrapped up in trying to be a specific thing, that they lose their identity. And Hold The Fort manages the fun throughout its runtime with over-the-top characters, fun practical effects, and a pacing that keeps things moving a mile a minute. This has a tone that is playful,...

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.

Movies that purposefully try to be campy can be a risky endeavor, often falling more in the realm of cringy than charming. Not without its flaws but incredibly enjoyable, William Bagley’s Hold the Fort is a robust horror-comedy that brings plenty of laughs and a satisfying amount of gory fun — a worthy homage to the cult classics it references.

Hold the Fort Review

Hold the Fort follows a couple who think they have found an idyllic home in a quiet suburban community, only to discover that once a year, a bevy of supernatural monsters use a portal directly into their neighborhood to invade the Earth. What follows is an action-packed night of defending their new home from otherworldly monsters.

For many audience members, their enjoyment of Hold the Fort will live or die depending on how much they can get on the film’s comedic wavelength. Much of the...

Jenny (Haley Leary) never wanted to live somewhere with a Home Owners’ Association. Her husband Lucas (Chris Mayers) seems considerably more enthused about the move to the suburbs, though they both like the house, there’s no property tax, and they can’t complain about the price. It will be for the best, Lucas suggests, if they at least try to be friendly with their new neighbours, so when Hoa president Jerry invites them to attend an equinox party, she reluctantly agrees.

Jerry (Julian Smith) is one of those persistently cheery people who, in a parallel universe, might have been played by a young Bruce Campbell. In a brief prologue alerting viewers to the threat which Jenny and Lucas are yet to discover, we have seen him praised by his boss for his vision and coping skills, and it’s not long before we get a hint of how much he has coped.

"You can always tell which neighbors are gonna last... Good luck, son." Ha! Blue Finch Films has revealed the teaser trailer for a film titled Hold the Fort, which is premiering this month at the prestigious 2025 Fantasia Film Festival up in Montreal.

Homeownership is an insane hell in the new teaser for the action-packed horror-comedy Hold the Fort, set to premiere later this month at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Watch the new teaser below, which unleashes a kitchen sink of raucous horror fun, from bad neighbors to over-the-top monster mayhem.

Hold the Fort follows “Lucas and Jenny, who think their life is finally coming together when the couple become homeowners. Little do they know that their new house comes with a big catch. Lucas and Jenny soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they become trapped in a battle between their Homeowners Association and an onslaught of monsters from hell. The horror-comedy takes the timely concern of homeownership and wraps this up in an entertaining, action-packed thrill ride.”

The horror-comedy is written and directed by William Bagley (The Murder Podcast), with story by Scott Hawkins.

The aim of Hold the Fort,...

Presented by Bloody Disgusting, “Bloody Bites” returns for Season 14 today on Screambox, with two brand new horror shorts now available to watch at your leisure!

The top-performing original series on the Screambox platform spotlights up-and-coming voices in the genre, with each episode featuring two horror shorts from around the world.

New snack-sized frights are available to stream every Friday for the next eight weeks. Episodes also air Fridays at 8pm Et on the linear, always-on channel Screambox TV.

Season 14, Episode 1 features the following two horror shorts…

Sweaty Larry

Director – Vanessa Ionta Wright

Starring – Camryn Bentley, Haley Leary

Three curious young girls summon the entity, Sweaty Larry, based on an urban legend passed down through generations. They must flush the toilet while saying his name nine times…Nine Times and then turn on the lights to see if he will appear. The only problem was that no one told them how to put him back.

Exclusive:The UK’s Blue Finch Films has boarded sales onWilliam Bagley’scomedy horrorHold The Fort.

The film is set to screen at the Fantasia International Film Festival, running from July 7 to August 3 in Montreal.

Hold The Fortis about acouple who think their life is finally coming together when they become homeowners. Little do they know that their new house comes with a big catch.

The film was written by Bagley who also produced alongside Matt Dodd and Luke Williams who both worked with Bagley on 2021 film The Murder Podcast. Tim Reis and Julian Smith also serve as producers.

Chris Mayers,...

Spookt Photo: courtesy of Frightfest

Two popular vloggers; one supposedly haunted house. That’s the set-up for Spookt, which screened recently at Frightfest, with the complication that one of those women is devoted to proving the existence of the paranormal and the other is an avowed sceptic with a history of debunking dodgy claims. They’re not exactly fans of one another’s work, yet as they investigate the building where a child once disappeared, they will both find themselves facing the unexpected, and will ultimately have to work together in order to solve the mystery and escape.

Starring Haley Leary as Claire, the believer, and Christen Sharice as Rachel, her rival, the film was directed by Tony Reames and produced by Vanessa Ionta Wright (amongst others). When I met up with Tony and Vanessa to discuss it, we began by talking about the phenomenon of supernatural-themed vlogging. it wasn...

Stars: Christen Sharice, Haley Leary, Eric Roberts, Erin Brown, Keith Brooks, Victor Rivera, Crystal Cleveland, Jennifer Pearl, Davi Crimmins | Written by Torey Haas | Directed by Tony Reames

Director Tony Reames opens his feature debut, Spookt, with a simple scene, as a boy walks home alone while listening to music through his headphones. The walk is interrupted by a supernatural occurrence, startling the boy as he passes a spooky house. Known as the Gibson house, it is part of local folklore whose bloodied history still frightens locals.

Voice-over gets out the necessary information with accompanying footage, highlighting how ten-year-old Flora Blu Giddens disappeared 6 years earlier after walking into the Gibson house on a dare. It was previously owned by once-respected surgeon and Greenville Butcher, Dr. Bram Byler (Eric Roberts). Delivering this info dump is skeptical YouTuber, Rachel (Christen Sharice), who spends her time debunking supernatural events and has her sights set on the Gibson house next.

One of the problems with extremely polarised debates, no matter what the subject, is that they can blind us to broader possibilities. Rachel (Christen Sharice) has spent many years investigating supposed supernatural phenomena and is adamant that they do not exist. Claire (Haley Leary), a rival vlogger who has spent years getting excited about them, is equally convinced that they do. When the two find themselves thrown together in the investigation of a house where a child disappeared, viewers are left to wonder whether their determination to prove one another wrong will fade in time for them to recognise that they might be facing another kind of danger – one which they will need to work together to survive.

It’s not quite that simple, of course. Nothing ever is. The house has had a reputation for sinister going-on for some time. It used to be the home of a mysterious doctor.