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Hellbender Review
Image Credit: Shudder
Loading...Directed by: Toby Poser, John Adams, and Zelda Adams
Written by: Toby Poser, John Adams, and Zelda Adams
Starring:
Zelda Adams – Izzy
Toby Poser – Mother
Lulu Adams – Amber
John Adams – Uncle
Rinzin Thonden – AJ
Running Time: 83 minutes
Not Rated
It has very much been the season of the witch in recent years. Practitioners of magic have exploded in population as of late, and from The Witch and Hereditary to Fear Street, it feels like you can’t throw a stone in a horror movie without hitting someone who will cast an evil spell on you for having – well, hit them with a rock.
There’s good reason for this, of course. Witches make for some of the most versatile characters to build a horror movie around. There are many stories you can tell with a witch, perhaps most potently coming of age stories. That’s the road that the filmmaking clan known as the Adams Family have taken. This collective – husband John Adams, wife Toby Poser, and daughters Zelda and Lulu Adams – have proven to be among the most fascinating moviemakers coming onto the scene. Their 2019 ghost story The Deeper You Dig put them on the map for many audiences as a unit to watch.
If somehow that film didn’t catch your attention, then Hellbender should absolutely change that. Hitting Shudder on Thursday, this witchy tale of a young woman coming into her own power amid dark secrets is a potent mix of gorgeous framing, compelling performances, and DIY-style filmmaking with a strong thematic center that echoes some of the best coming of age horror films.
After opening with a scene from the past of an attempt to hang a witch gone horribly wrong, Hellbender turns its attention to Izzy (Zelda) and her mother (Toby), who live alone in the wilderness. Izzy lives a life of isolation due to a rare autoimmune disease her mother says that she has. Instead of going to school, she spends her days in the expansive forest around their home or rocking out with her mom in their two-person band.
But as a young woman coming into adulthood, Izzy wants more. One day she hears a laugh and goes to investigate but can’t locate the source. She asks her mother if maybe she could go to down with her but gets shut down with a moment of silence. Mother, meanwhile, gets recognized in town by an older man who says she was his grandmother’s nurse. She says she’s mistaken, but the fact that she can use blood magic to scry on Izzy suggests otherwise.
After a chance encounter with a hiker, Izzy eventually has her first experiences with someone her age, a girl named Amber (Lulu). A prank backfires when Izzy eats a worm and gets her first taste of blood. She discovers that she is a “Hellbender,” akin to a witch but a bit more than that. And from there, it becomes a battle of wills as Izzy tries to expand her power and her world, while her mother tries to protect her (and others) from herself.
Right out of the gate, Hellbender takes steps to draw you in through a combination of beautiful camera work and a tone drenched in quiet mood. The film is almost entirely the work of the four family members, with the exception of the smaller on-screen roles and visual effects courtesy of Trey and Samantha Lindsay. To call the microbudgeted film’s final product an impressive feat with that small a crew is an understatement. The Adamses have created a whole mythology here that is only hinted at, but never feels slight, and the fact that they deliver in all aspects marks them as one of the most exciting filmmaking teams in a long time.
To be clear though, this isn’t just “good considering the small crew.” This would be a remarkable horror feature regardless of whether it was put together by four or the many hands that are typically involved in filmmaking. The script is co-written by John, Toby, and Zelda and perfectly captures that essence of a young person coming of age, both from the youth’s perspective and that of the parent. It’s a difficult, messy time in the best of situations. When you’re a Hellbender, it’s clearly messier. Zelda and Toby carry the film on their backs on screen; there is nary a shot that doesn’t feature one or both of them, and their performances are muted but compelling as they stay smoothly in sync with the oppressive weight of the slow-burn story.
The gripping performances enable the film to go all out when it’s time to do so. The trippy visual effects come out in blasts of color during visions. When a more “grounded” effect is needed, such as some telekinesis or the appearance of a key, it’s seamless. Whatever budget this film had, it feels like it should have cost more and that’s a testament to how professional this family affair is. It manages to be intimate while still feeling vast thanks to the stunning location shots of the Catskills, and tender while still having terrifying sequences. There’s plenty of room for blood and bones in this tale of mother-daughter bonds and what happens when it’s time for the daughter to go out on their own. Perhaps most the most impressive thing about Hellbender is that, even as it hurtles into its bouts of horror, it never loses sight of its characters or their connections – which only makes the horror that much stronger.
