Hotel Inferno is awesome. There, I said it. It’s a 2013 Italian action-splatter-horror film shot in first person, written and directed by the man behind the amazingly cool Adam Chaplin. If you understood any of that, you’d already be on board, but maybe you need a little more to be sold. Well, Hardcore Henry is out this week and first person action is all the buzz right now, so let’s look at this lower budget take on that same gimmick and see why it’s worth a look.

The story is about a contract killer, Frank Zimosa. He’s given a pair of scifi super specs that feed his vision back to his new boss, the head of a shady group who’s assigned Zimosa the task of killing two defectors from his cabal. But he can’t just shoot them, that’s too easy. He has to murder them with specific weapons and remove their brains in a ritualistic manner. Frank handles this absolutely splendidly. By that I mean, he shoots them both. Awesome. Turns out, there’s a reason for the ritual, and while I won’t spoil it I will say that Cabin in the Woods fans will feel at home with this particular detail. With the hits botched, Frank is left in a building loaded with both goons and a supernatural fire spitter with the voice of his former contractor describing the Hell he’s unleashed echoing in his head.

If that sounds cool, you’re ready to watch the movie. There isn’t much more to the plot than that. It’s simply a catalyst to give us as many bad ass first person action sequences as you can squeeze into eighty minutes. It’s less like a CoD montage and more like a play through of the Condemned: Criminal Origins sequel we’ll never get. Frank makes his way through the hotel and surrounding woods fighting off henchmen and weirdos in hilariously gory ways via shotgun, grenade, chainsaw, and whatever else he can find. There’s no denying that its action is less slick and visually appealing than the big budget Hardcore Henry, but the lengths the crew went to to capture this still crazy vision of chaos is not only admirable, it’s downright fun to watch. The camera work is surprisingly great, and rather than feeling like looking through someone else’s eyes – which, y’know, you are – you’re really drawn into the action in a visceral, satisfying way.

Speaking of satisfying, how about that gore? De Santi’s track record up to this film’s release included the aforementioned bad ass Adam Chaplin, easily the best comic book movie not based on a comic book if that makes sense, and the less than stellar but still solid scifi cannibal flick Taeter City. If there’s one thread binding these movies together it’s… Well, less like a thread and more like a length of intestine. His team at Necrostorm knows how to get the most out of their budget when it comes to effects. They may reuse a gag or two between all three of their earlier films, but the combination of goopy practical splatter and CGI enhancements leads to a distinctive, downright awesome visual style that lets you know right away who’s responsible for what you’re seeing. That said, if you want something more sterile… Sorry. Avoid not only Hotel Inferno but Necrostorm’s entire catalog if extreme violence isn’t your thing.

In the end, you’re not gonna walk away from Hotel Inferno a changed man, but fans of splatter, visceral action, and creative film making will leave satisfied. As for the buzz around Hardcore Henry… Yeah, it looks fantastic, but it’s not the first of its kind. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything to a lot of casual genre fans, but I think De Santi and his team at Necrostorm deserve a little credit for jumping onto this bandwagon before it was even rolling. Now go, armed with this knowledge, and act as smug as possible when people call Hardcore Henry innovative. You’ve earned it, friends.