‘Hell Hole’ Review: Body Horror and Parasites from the Adams Family

What is Hell Hole About?

Toby Poser and John Adams directed Hell Hole, and they both co-wrote the script along with their daughter Lulu Adams. John Adams also edited the film, composed its music, and acts in a major role. Tobey Poser stars as Emily, the leader of the fracking crew, and Max Portman co-stars as Emily’s nephew Teddy. Also in major roles are Aleksandar Trmčić and Olivera Peruničić as biologists Nikola and Sofija, Marko Filipović as the man in the ground, and Petar Arsić as an unfortunate crew member named Danko. Also making a cameo appearance in the opening scene is Anders Hove, the actor who is probably best known to horror fans for playing the vampire Radu in the Subspecies franchise.

Hell Hole Review

I truly admire the Adams family. Their indie-horror spirit is alive and well in Hell Hole, and it’s great to see them continually expand their cinematic efforts through different genres. They (speaking specifically of Toby Poser and John Adams in this film) look like they’re having a great time making the kinds of movies that they want to make, and that enthusiasm shines through in the final product. That said, Hell Hole isn’t their strongest film so far.

The story in Hell Hole is a descendant of the horror-movie family tree that has Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982) as its roots. There’s the isolation, the creature that inhabits human bodies, and the fear and dissension among the small group of humans who all have different ideas about what to do. It’s all here. Hell Hole takes a decidedly less scary approach to the formula, instead opting for fun, gore, and (mostly) dry humor.

The best parts of the movie, perhaps unsurprisingly, tend to involve the monster and the gore. The parasite is mostly hidden at first, with just a few brief glimpses of its tentacles. Then, as the movie rolls along, we see the creature more and more. This is a smart move which keeps the creature interesting every time it makes an appearance. The grossest (i.e. best) uses of the monster are all in the first half of the movie when we see its tentacles slithering their way out of multiple holes in a person’s body. It’s rather disturbing, especially the first few times it happens.

As for the gore, Hell Hole isn’t a particularly bloody movie, but it doesn’t shy away from a few exploding bodies. These moments—when the parasite is jumping from person to person—are some of the most fun times to be had. But even if you’re squeamish about gore, you’ll probably be okay. Most of the bloodletting is so over-the-top that it plays more for comedy than for pure horror.

The humor in the movie is also present throughout the script. The dialogue is peppered with banter you might hear between people working together. Sarcasm, light jabs at each other, eye-rolling humor, that sort of thing. So, it’s fitting for the movie’s setting of a bunch of workers on a job site, but it doesn’t ever rise above anything more than slightly amusing. By itself that’s not an issue, it’s a style choice, but the biggest issues in Hell Hole do involve the dialogue.

For one thing, there is a lot of talking in this movie. People stand around and talk, at length, about everything. Everything is explained in a surprising amount of detail, from important topics like speculation about the monster, to mundane subjects like what the cook is making for dinner. Some of the talking is necessary, obviously, but the problem is that a lot of the information given to the viewer through dialogue could be conveyed with (or alongside) action. And if more of the talking led to action, that would be one thing, but there are multiple times when the conversations get in-depth, but then lead to almost no actions and little in the way of consequences. Some trimming of the dialogue could have helped the sluggish pacing of the movie.

Additionally, pretty much all of the talking scenes are done with everyone standing still, often in a line or semi-circle. There’s no movement in these scenes, and the result is that it makes a large portion of the movie feel stagnant. Even when the tension is supposed to be at its highest, everyone is okay with slowing down and talking things out with each other. It begins to feel strangely unemotional as the movie goes on.

Overall, Hell Hole feels like it needs more action, but even some of the action that is present in the movie is oddly executed. There are a few moments when characters react to something that supposedly happens, but it’s not represented effectively on the screen. Without spoiling anything, one of these moments involves a pivotal revelation (well, a mildly impactful revelation) about the parasite which should be made clear through the action taken, but it needs to be explained out loud for it to make sense. It’s a disconnect between the script and what we actually see on screen, and it happens a few times.

Maybe a movie like this just isn’t in the Adams family’s wheelhouse. Hell Hole is a valiant attempt with some good moments, and it has a style that fans of the filmmakers will likely enjoy (most noticeably, the music and way the movie is edited). It just doesn’t feel like it ever gets going like it could. It’s too still and slow for a movie about a parasitic monster that jumps from body to body in explosions of gore.

Hell Hole Rating and Recommendation

Further Reading

• Stupid Games Review: An Engrossing Supernatural Chamber Piece
• Ship of the Damned Review: Cursed Cannibal Pirates on a Low-Budget Ship
• Refuge Review: A Surface-Level Thriller that Looks Good but Falls Flat
• Frogman Review: A Gloriously Fun Found Footage Creature Feature