Bingo Hell – Movie Review
85 Minutes, Not Rated
Written by Shane McKenzie, Gigi Saul Guerrero, and Perry Blackshear
Directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero
Synopsis:
In the Barrio of Oak Springs live a strong and stubborn group of elderly friends who refuse to be gentrified. Their leader, Lupita, keeps them together as a community, a family. But little did they know, their beloved Bingo hall is about to be sold to a much more powerful force than money itself.
Back in October of 2020, Amazon partnered with Blumhouse and released a quartet of films billed as Welcome to the Blumhouse, which were all generally pretty good (The Lie, Black Box, Evil Eye, and Nocturne).
Now, in 2021, Amazon is releasing the long-known sequel event, with four more films out.
Bingo Hell and Black as Night are the first two to release, hitting Amazon Prime Video on October 1, 2021.
Unfortunately, whereas those original films felt like actual films, Bingo Hell looks and feels like a made-for-TV event, which I suppose technically it is.
The plot is reminiscent of Needful Things, and has the definitive feel of the old Monkey’s Paw fable, where your wish is granted… badly.
The outcome of those bad wishes is sometimes gruesome, sometimes comical, but it is always permanent.
Be care what your greatest wish is.
That being said, Richard Brake (starring as Mister Big), who brings his high-stakes Bingo hall to Oak Springs, is wonderfully evil. Adriana Barraza and L. Scott Caldwell as the neighborhood grandmothers are suitably (yet lovably) overbearing protectors of their community.
This might be one of my favorite indictments of gentrification (more so than even the recently released Candyman update).
Strangely, though, it’s not really that good a film in a big, technical sense.
But it’s still enjoyable enough. Check it out.
Bingo Hell is available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Bingo Hell stars Adriana Barraza, L. Scott Caldwell, Joshua Caleb Johnson, Richard Brake, Clayton Landey, and Kelly Murtagh.
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