Hell Hole review
The Adams Family tackles the creature feature through ups, downs…but mostly in between.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers
Hell Hole
Directed by John Adams and Toby Poser
Written by John Adams, Lulu Adams and Toby Poser
Starring Olivera Perunicic, John Adams, Toby Poser, Aleksandar Trmcic, Maximum Portman, Joana Knezevic and Boris Lukman
Hell Hole Review
I feel the need to admit a bias right off the bat. I adored last year’s Where the Devil Roams. It was one of our Top Ten movies of 2023. It scored nominations for Best Picture and Best Director in the 2023 Scare Value Awards…eventually taking home the Directing Prize. The film was, of course, the (then) latest movie from The Adams Family. The also excellent Hellbender caught people’s attention before that. Needless to say, a new release from the family of filmmakers has become an exciting proposition.
Those two films credited John Adams, Toby Poser and Zelda Adams as co-writers/directors. The trio also starred in each…joined by Lulu Adams. Hell Hole sees John Adams and Toby Poser as credited directors. They also are credited with writing the movie with Lulu Adams. Only John Adams and Toby Poser appear in the film. There is an incredible wealth of talent in The Adams Family. John Adams has composed tremendous scores. He’s handled editing and cinematography in the past as well. Hell Hole features another excellent score…which is no surprise. He also serves as the film’s editor. Cinematography duties were taken on by Sean Dahlberg…who shoots a fine-looking picture here.
This is all a long way around to getting to the point. The Adams Family are among the most exciting independent filmmakers in the game today. But…for whatever reason, Hell Hole can’t climb to the high standard set by their previous two features. That’s not a knock…there aren’t many movies each year that are as interesting, exciting and of as high a quality as Hellbender and Where the Devil Roams. They’ve set a high bar for style, storytelling, performance, sound…and a dozen other things. Hell Hole is a good movie that only rises above that station on occasion.
My first thought is that they aren’t a perfect match to elevate the subject. Hell Hole is a creature feature. It involves a parasitic organism that burrows into a male host’s body to incubate. The premise is strong. The Adams Family uses it to deliver some fun moments within a more grounded story. The creature itself looks fantastic when it’s out of its human shell and displayed in all its practical effect glory. The CGI tentacles protruding through orifices is less effective…but that’s budgets for you.
The story kicks off in superb fashion. We meet up with some of Napolean’s soldiers wandering through the Serbian woods in 1814. They are starving and desperate. When a woman brings them a horse…they have no choice but to eat it. Just when they bring a knife close enough to threaten the creature…it explodes into a geyser of blood and the parasite inside runs free. Flash forward to modern day…an American-led fracking team is about to dig up something unexpected. Namely, a French soldier who is very much alive. Well…kind of.
The crew is led by Emily (Toby Poser) and John (John Adams). They’re dealing with a pair of conservationists examining the ecological impacts on their intended dig spot. Nikola (Aleksandar Trmcic) and Sofija (Olivera Peruniic) soon find something more dangerous than they thought to study. The French soldier begs for death. He gets a hold of John’s knife and as soon as it feels threatened…the octopus like parasite leaves his body and enters John. A long dead husk is left in its wake.
Thus begins a string of body popping, shell swapping chaos brought on by the parasite. The team discovers enough to understand how dire their situation is. The scientists fill everyone in on the organism…violent occurrences clue them in on how it operates. Mostly, however, Hell Hole is spent talking about what to do. That’s where The Adams Family’s style feels most at odds with the material. The brilliantly crafted tones of their previous work that fit so effortlessly with their performances to create an otherworldly feel…don’t quite work here. What would normally be a story about paranoia and fear often comes across detached and dismissive in tone. It allows for some funny character moments…but it leaves the bulk of act two feeling off.
The madcap nature of the creature is on full display in act three. The action ramps up and the characters that are still standing after a woodland bloodbath scramble to find a way out. The more Hell Hole leans into its creature feature premise…the better it is for it. Which, arguably, goes aways into proving the overall point. The Adams Family does a tremendous job building unique worlds but their style fits less inside of a realistic one. By design, the creature is an abstract idea that must be set against grounded ones. The concept strips the filmmakers of their ability to define the terms of the playground.
But…Hell Hole is still a fun watch. The creature may provide a smaller canvas for them to paint on…but they come up with some creative ways to utilize it. There’s a lot of fun in Hell Hole playing with the created rules for the creature. Enough to make it a recommendation despite missing some of that old Adams Family magic. It’s still there. It’s just not the full focus this time around. Still can’t wait to see what they do next.
Scare Value
Look no further than last year’s Scare Value Award Winning Where the Devil Roams for how The Adams Family’s style can draw you into their worlds. That isn’t going to fit every kind of story. Unfortunately. creature feature turns out to be one of them. There is too much talent on display for anything to be an outright miss, of course. Hell Hole struggles to find a tonal fit with those talents. Budgetarily it can’t let its monster loose often enough to sell chaos…and there is only so many interesting ways to talk about what might happen.
3/5
Hell Hole Link
Streaming on Shudder
