The curse of a film with a cracking title and a ridiculous concept (“a sewage system taken over by evil spirits”) is that it becomes very hard to live up to the expectations. For me, Bowels of Hell didn’t quite make it past this curse. It was a fun film. It was very silly. But the idea was probably still better than the execution.

There was a lot to enjoy: excruciating influencers, cashing in on their stepchild’s disability, a scat psychic (!), a cat eaten by a toilet, and waves and waves of shit. It leaned in hard to the gross and did a good job with it, proving once again how much more fun physical effects are.

I overheard someone explaining their film festival choices. They’d picked Bowels of Hell, they said, because however good or bad it might be, it was unlikely to be boring. A sound argument. This might not have been great, but it was quite good fun.