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Hell Hole Review
Image Credit: Shudder
Loading...Directed by: John Adams and Toby Poser
Written by: John Adams, Toby Poser & Lulu Adams
Starring:
Toby Poser – Emily
John Adams – John
Max Portman – Teddy
Olivera Peruničić – Sofija
Aleksandar Trmčić – Nikola
Petar Arsić – Danko
Bruno Veljanovski – Christian
Boris Lukman – Filip
Marko Filipović – French Soldier
Running Time: 92 minutes
Not Rated
The Adams Family are something special in the world of indie horror. John Adams, Toby Poser and their daughters Lulu and Zelda have risen to prominence on the independent scene over the past several years with DIY productions that highlight their creativity as a family. The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, and Where the Devil Roams saw the family grow by bounds with each film and as they’ve expanded their productions to accommodate larger casts and crew, they’ve only gotten better.
Hell Hole is their most ambitious venture to date, taking the family to Serbia for a gory, darkly funny creature feature with some pointed messaging. Premiering on Shudder this week, the film is their most mainstream to date but maintains some of their rock & roll sensibility and, most importantly, their unique voices.
After a prologue in 1814 whereupon a group of lost Napoleonic soldiers in Serbia encounters a monster, Hell Hole brings itself to the present day where American couple Emily (Poser) and John (Adams) are overseeing a fracking operation. Things aren’t going great for them; they must deal with conservationist Nikola (Aleksandar Trmčić) and his assistant Sofija (Olivera Peruničić) while keeping their Serbian crew happy. Emily’s nephew Teddy (Max Portman) is along for the trip and serves as cook when he’s not pining after Sofija.
When their latest attempt at drilling runs into some strange-smelling organic matter, the work is shut down so Nikola can investigate. At the same time, Teddy and Sofija encounter an impossibility as a French soldier is unearthed while a garbage pit is being dug. This solder emerges from a gooey cocoon, somehow still alive despite being buried. As Nikola and Sofija try to determine how that’s possible, the soldier reveals that he’s not entirely himself, as the parasitic monstrosity he encountered over 200 years ago has lain dormant all that time, and it’s on the lookout for somewhere new to shack up.
Hell Hole comes from a script by three of the four Adams (Zelda took this one off), and the film feels like a natural extension of what the family has been doing for a while. They love giving well-worn horror conceits their own unique spins, and with this film they’re giving us a bloody monster movie with shades of The Thing and Shivers. While it doesn’t have the letter’s horniness, there’s a twisted sense of humor in the monster’s method of possession that could come off as sophomoric but instead just hits the humor just right.
The plot is pretty basic at its core, but it’s the shades of thematic resonance and little character details that help it stand above what could have been just a mildly fun gorefest. The wormy parasite allows the film to wryly flip the script on themes of body autonomy and environmental issues without ever feeling the need to hammer them overtly home. Meanwhile, the characters are fleshed out enough that Adams and Poser are able to let them stand on their own while they get down to the silly fun of the body-hopping.
The cast is all doing fine work here; Poser gives Emily a take-no-shit vibe that makes her easy to root for, while Portman and Peruničić conjure up very solid chemistry as the young would-be couple. Trmčić takes up the role of the most villain-esque of the humans and he gives an off-kilter performance that suits the tone well. The workers are all quite good and game for what’s required of them, which is admittedly not a lot until later in the film when things start to get messy.
And get messy it most certainly does. Adams and Poser are clearly working with a bigger budget here, and that shows not only in the increased production values but the creature and gore effects. It’s a mix of practical, stop-motion and more, played for laughs more than scares. Exploding bodies, tentacles worming out of ears and eyes, and a nasty little creature design combine to make things a lot of fun courtesy of Todd Masters’ MastersFX and Cinergy FX.
While much of the film plays out in a way that fits more to mainstream horror audiences’ tastes, Hell Hole still contains some of the family’s trademark energy. John Adams’ composed music for the film is as metal as ever, and the editing keeps that energy which is both a blessing and a curse, as it livens up the film when it breaks away from the talkier moments that are the albatross around the film’s neck earlier on, as it’s trying to explain what’s going on from a scientific bent. On the flip side, it also results in some transition scenes that are glaring enough to take the audience out of the film, though the cast rarely has trouble bringing us right back in.
As it moves into the final act, Adams and Poser struggle just a bit to keep the momentum going. The higher stakes mean that the dark comedy ends up taking a bit of a backseat, but fortunately by this point we’re already invested enough that we don’t mind if not every I is dotted or every T crossed. Hell Hole may lack the thematic focus of their apex thus far in Hellbender, but it provides a viscerally squirmy good time in its own right.
Hell Hole premieres on August 23rd on Shudder.
