Hotel Inferno has massive faults, let's not kid ourselves. It's get terrible foley work, audio dubbing, abysmal dialogue, overacted death sequences, satirical levels of gore (which combined with the overacted death/combat sequences creates an extreme sense of low-budget campy shlock) and pacing that could have been drastically improved with improved editing. But for all of it's flaws, Hotel Inferno is a hell of a horror film that shows glimpses of what it could have been were it put in more capable hands and with a better budget.
Hotel Inferno is like a cross between Hardcore Henry, Doom/Painkiller, Smokin' Aces (but in reverse (imagine it as Buddy Israel trying to escape from the penthouse and going through the hotel floor by floor engaging in CQC with the hitters contracted to kill him, instead of the hitters trying to infiltrate the hotel floor by floor to make it to the top to kill Buddy Israel)), Dante's Inferno, Grotesque, and the Japanese Guinea Pig/American Guinea Pig series.
There's an absurd amount of blood, gore, viscera and violence. Much of the violence is very obviously digitally edited, but there's also a bucket load of practical FX which are actually quite impressive compared to a lot of the type of ridiculous stuff you often find in most 'transgressive' cinema movies like Visceral, ReGOREgitated Sacrifice, Serbian Film, August Underground,Todesking, Schramm, Necromantik, Begotten, films by Marian Dora, et al. etcetera etcetera. Unlike those previous movies though, Hotel Inferno has a very video game-like presentation, execution, and narrative. It's all done entirely in the first person like Doom, Painkiller, Agony or even the Outlast games, and much like those various titles it's about a person engaging hordes of hitmen/grunts/demonic entities/zombies/monsters/eldritch terrors and trying to survive them as said person makes their way out of the hotel they find themselves trapped in after a contract doesn't go at all as initially planned.
Despite the poor dialogue and bad accents, Hotel Inferno is an addictive watch because it shows a lot of great potential and much of the gore and effects are definitely adequate enough to sate any true gorehound's cinematic bloodlust. This is the type of bloodfest you invite your friends to watch with you, and unlike films like Visceral or Serbian Film where there's aberrant sexual behavior involved, you don't have to feel weird or awkward at what you're watching around other people. There's an excellent shotgun sequence at the 50-51 minute mark of the movie as well as a lore/exposition monologue in the 'Room of Flies' shortly after at the ~53 minute mark that are two of the most memorable parts of the film and will definitely have you and your peeps talking about them long after the movie is over.
6/10, looking forward to the sequel and honestly I'd like to see this same movie done by a studio with a bigger budget and a better script. It's definitely aching for that Triple AAA high-dollar indie treatment, and in the right hands this could be horrorcore's answer to everything Hardcore Henry failed to deliver (as dope as Hardcore Henry may be, i think most of us wish it was a tad more 'hardcore' and would live up to its titular adjective).
