Dir. John Adams & Toby Poser (2024)
A group of oil drillers in Europe unearth a symbiotic monster from a Napoleonic soldier.
I'm a big fan of the Adams family, so I was super psyched to be able to check out their latest film that's coming soon to Shudder. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I got. Gone is the super serious and slow burn folk horror, Hell Hole is a punk rock monster movie with some outstanding gore, ultra dark humor, and a whole lot of fun. It's quite a shift in direction for the First Family of Indie Horror, and it's a welcome change to show just how deep their filmmaking chops go.
Emily (Toby Poser) and John (John Adams) run a fracking company in Europe that has just accidentally drilled into what looks like some sort of underground creature. Shortly thereafter, they find a man stuck inside what appears to be an egg sack, and when strange tentacles begin peeking out from his orifices, things begin to get a little wild. As the drillers attempt to rid themselves of the creature by any means necessary, a pair of scientists working with the dig to try to save an endangered rabbit are much more concerned with saving the creature, no matter the cost to the humans within its grasp.
John Adams and Toby Poser write and direct the film, as they do with their previous efforts (we've reviewed Where the Devil Roams and Hellbender for the site already), and it's a huge departure from their previous films. Hell Hole is a Troma movie with a less juvenile sense of humor, a huge extraordinary gorefest with exploding bodies, tentacled monsters, and some laughs along the way as well. It's a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the creature feature genre that feels so refreshing, a monster movie made by people who actually know how to make movies. It's B-grade, but intentionally so, an indie love letter to the type of movies that I grew up with.
The style of the film is amazing, utilizing a grayscale, depressing cinematography that feels very Serbian while also delivering an indie flair that audiences have come to expect from the filmmakers. The splashes of blood and gore only serve to accentuate the dim atmosphere of the film. Poser and Adams both give excellent performances in their roles, and another bright spot was Olivera Perunicic, who plays a biologist named Sofija who specializes in the study of parasitic creatures. The unbridled enthusiasm she brings to the role really makes it shine, helping serve as a foil to the largely serious deliveries by Poser and Adams.
It's so difficult to praise indie horror enthusiastically, as some of it can be a bit hard to watch. It's a wonderful thing that I don't ever have to search for nice things to say about an Adams family film, because they're full of genre references, great writing, and a truly competent brand of filmmaking that is exceedingly rare in indie horror. I'm so glad that they've been able to get their work seen by people through Shudder, and this one will be a welcome addition to the streaming service's filmography. A true treat for unserious monster movie lovers, and a welcome rebuke to climate change deniers via parasitic mollusk invasion.
Who this movie is for: Creature feature fans, Indie horror lovers, Climatologists
Bottom line: Hell Hole is a treat for indie horror fans and creature feature appreciators alike. It's another great offering from the Adams family and a fantastic departure from some of their earlier work. It's streaming on Shudder 8/23, and I definitely recommend that you check it out, especially if you're a fan of the 80's monster movies and the humor from that generation as well.
