Hell Hole
Emily (Toby Poser, "Where the Devil Roams") and John (John Adams, "Where the Devil Roams") are Americans leading a fracking team in Serbia, advised by an environmentally concerned professor, Nikola (Aleksandar Trmčić), and his research assistant student Sofija (Olivera Perunicic). The moment they begin to drill, though, they hit something oozy and organic and when they use a backhoe to dig out a waste pit, they encounter something beyond belief in what will become a “Hell Hole.”
Laura's Review: B-
Cowriter (with daughter Lulu)/directors John Adams and Toby Poser ("Where the Devil Roams") take a more light-hearted approach to their latest, a creature feature with plenty of gore and tongue-in-cheek homage to B movies that have come before. With a weird looking parasitic monster Sofija is happily ready to theorize on for both the frackers and the audience, the Adamses deliver an ecological message within their horror romp.
The stage is set in 1814 where we are told Napoleonic soldiers pushed out of the Illyrian Provinces became lost and were starving. Two are given a horse by a peasant woman, but the gift is a Trojan horse – it explodes in a Cronenbergian rain of gore and a tentacled monster emerges.
In the current day, Emily learns they are cut off, their access road underwater, but decides to go ahead with the drilling that is immediately halted. Her ecological advisors discuss the presence of pikas, an indicator animal that might be signaling an environmental warning. Emily’s nephew, Teddy (Maximum Portman), the camp cook, requests a waste pit, but this time they hit something different – a man encased in some kind of organic pod emitting a terrible odor that we will recognize as that French soldier (Marko Filipović) from the opening scene.
The film plays something like “Alien” crossed with “The Thing,” the octopus-like creature moving from one host to the next, identifiable by the horrible reek it emits even from within, but its irreverent sense of humor distinguishes it. Emily, who Teddy describes as a ‘pot smoking hippy type’ back home, is all in for fracking, has no use for environmental concerns and slings sexually loaded insults but tells Niko she voted for Bernie Sanders. The Serbian workers (they are subtitled, although the French soldier, who only Teddy can somewhat understand, is not) have a predilection for shooting each other in moments of chaotic panic. The special effects (the creature by Todd Masters), which appear to be mostly practical, even deliver some laughs, one gore field created by the departing parasite leaving its host shod leg ripped off below the knee still standing.
Cinematographer Sean Dahlberg makes great use of locations at an old Serbian mine nestled amid mountains, drone shots emphasizing old structures and remoteness. John Adams cuts many scenes to his heavy metal score, the images enlarging and collapsing to his beats, adding to that irreverent, punk tone. Poser (one wonders why she isn’t cast in more films by other directors) is the anchor here, but she and her husband have gathered a terrific cast, Perunicic delivering her expositions with a twinkle, Bruno Veljanovski, Boris Lukman, Petar Arsic and Joana Knezevic all making an impression.
The movie’s conclusion is a bit abrupt and “Hell Hole” doesn’t live in the same artistic realm as the Adams’ last film, but it is their first overtly comical outing and it’s a whole lot of fun.
Robin's Review: B-
"Hell Hole" will begin streaming on the Shudder platform on 8/23/24.
