JP Nunez
In the world of super low-budget horror, you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody more beloved than the Adams family, and I don’t mean Gomez and Morticia. I’m talking about the filmmaking team of Toby Poser, her husband John Adams, and their kids. They’ve made some of the best indie horror flicks in recent memory, like The Deeper You Dig and Where the Devil Roams, so when I heard they were back with a creature feature called Hell Hole, I knew I had to check it out. I didn’t get a chance to cover the movie’s world premiere at Fantasia, but I was able to grab a screener ahead of its Shudder release and let me tell you, it’s a super fun time.
Hell Hole was directed and co-written by Toby Poser and John Adams, and it stars Toby Poser, John Adams, Max Portman, Anders Hove, Olivera Perunicic, Aleksandar Trmcic, Petar Arsic, and Bruno Veljanovski. It follows a fracking crew working in a deserted part of the Serbian wilderness, and when these people start to dig, they find a parasitic monster that jumps from host to host in a gruesome and deadly manner.
Right off the bat, Hell Hole had me completely hooked. In typical Adams family fashion, just about everybody in this film is super likable, but I have to give a small caveat here. Don’t go into Hell Hole expecting Oscar-worthy writing and performances. This cast has the kind of quirky charm you’d expect from a B-movie creature feature, so if that’s not your cup of tea, you’re probably going to find this entire crew just about insufferable.
But if that sounds like something you’d enjoy, you’re going to love this rag-tag ensemble, and one character in particular is really going to stand out: Emily, the head of the fracking operation. She’s played by Toby Poser, one of the co-writers and co-directors, and as always, this woman comes across as a super fun person. She makes watching her on-screen feel like you’re hanging out with her, so I could probably watch an entire film of her going about her normal, everyday life.
On top of those excellent characters, Hell Hole also features some awesome horror. At first, we don’t know what this creature is or what it’s capable of, and that makes for one of the most captivating low-budget monster mysteries of the past few years. Then, when we finally learn a bit about this deadly parasite, the questions surrounding it take a back seat, and the movie starts to lean into the creature feature fun.
As a super low-budget indie endeavor, Hell Hole doesn’t have the top-notch special effects you’d expect from a big Hollywood production. Instead, its monster looks more rubber than organic, so if you’re looking for photorealistic visuals, you’re going to have a hard time with this film. But if you can accept the creature for what it is, it’s an absolute blast.
It gives us the kind of ridiculous B-movie fun the big studios stopped caring about a long time ago, and when the monster kills its victims, directors John Adams and Toby Poser let the blood flow pretty freely. They also show us the gory aftermath of a few of the creature’s kills, and just like in their previous films, these shots are full of the goopy goodness many horror fans crave.
Last but not least, I want to talk about the message of Hell Hole. There’s more going on here than you might expect from a super low-budget creature feature, but the most prominent theme has to do with motherhood, abortion, and bodily autonomy. Even before the fracking crew digs up the parasitic creature, there’s a line where Emily describes pregnancy as having a monster living inside you, and once we find out the creature’s MO, several of the characters describe it as if it were a fetus growing in utero.
Unsurprisingly, almost every one of the thing’s hosts wants it taken out of them, and that forms a pretty obvious metaphorical case for a woman’s right to abortion. But if you pay close attention, the movie curiously undermines that message. At one point in the story, the creature’s host asks his comrades to kill him, but they refuse. Later on, some of his coworkers approach Emily and say they want to kill the guy, and once again, her answer is a firm no.
In that way, Hell Hole emphasizes that it’s wrong to kill an innocent human being, but that’s what abortion is. It’s the killing of an unborn human being who’s done nothing wrong, but the film never addresses that tension. It’s only able to make its case about bodily autonomy because the parasitic creature terrorizing this fracking crew isn’t human, so thematically, the story feels somewhat disjointed.
That’s a pretty big flaw, and it keeps Hell Hole from reaching its full potential. But thankfully, it’s not nearly enough to ruin the entire experience. On the whole, Hell Hole is still a super fun creature feature with awesome characters and excellent B-movie horror, so if you’re a fan of low-budget creature features that look like they came straight out of the 1980s, I think you’re going to have a great time with this film.
Hell Hole will be available to stream on Shudder starting August 23.
