"Hell Hole" (2024)

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s the creature feature Hell Hole by The Adams Family members John Adams and Toby Poser.

Synopsis

The newest film from the Adams Family, the filmmaking team behind Hellbender, Hell Hole centers on an America-led fracking crew that uncovers a living French soldier frozen in time from a Napoleonic campaign, whose body hosts a parasitic monster. Starring Toby Poser, John Adams, Max Portman, and Anders Hove.

The Good

Joseph: I’ve really enjoyed the supernatural features crafted by The Adams Family — such as Hellbender and Where the Devil Roams — so when I heard that Adams and Poser were taking a stab at a creature feature, I became greatly interested. Hell Hole boasts a nice throwback vibe, including fun-looking practical effects for the creature and some impressive gory makeup work. The monster enters the human body in some nail-bitingly humorous ways. The performances are solid throughout. Adams’ original rock score provides nice sonic blasts of extra crunch and punch throughout.

Mike: We’ve seen a few movies so far this year that this fits nicely at home with, that being a film in the spirit of John Carpenter’s The Thing, usually mixed with something else (see Test Screening and Scared Shitless), although Hell Hole pretty much sticks with an homage to Carpenter alone, swapping the Antarctic outpost for a decommissioned Serbian factory.

There’s some impressive FX work on display here that should satisfy most gore hounds with some exploding bodies and a suitably monstrous creature full of tentacles and other creepy bits.

The acting is about what you expect in a low budget feature, but with some nice organic sounding dialogue that never seems too stilted, wooden, or over rehearsed it’s never a chore to see anyone deliver their lines.

Having never seen an Adams Family joint before and only knowing that the quality of their work belies the budget involved, I wasn’t sure what to expect and will say I was more than pleased with the finished product.

The Bad

Joseph: Like several recent creature features, Hell Hole wears its homage to John Carpenter’s The Thing on its cinematic sleeve. The previous works from The Adams Family are most impressive because of the originality that they brought to independent horror film, but Hell Hole features very little of that as the creature jumps from one human victim to another. Although I wasn’t particularly bothered by the pacing and the amount of dialogue, some viewers may find the film to be a little too much on the talky side for them.

Mike: The fact that Hell Hole so closely mimics Carpenter’s The Thing was a bit of a disappointment. While the other films mentioned earlier spun their own fabric into the tapestry, what we have here is pretty much just Carpenter’s film in a new location and minus any dogs. Based on this factor alone I have to knock the film a little despite it being mostly entertaining.

Of some note is that the first act, while it sets things up to a near perfect pitch, may be a bit slow for some people so if you prefer less explanation or wordy descriptions of cephalopods and bacteria and more guts and gore you may be a little bored.

The Verdict

Joseph: Though, in my opinion, not the strongest entry in The Adams Family’s oeuvre up to this point as it is the least original of the bunch, Hell Hole is nevertheless a highly entertaining goop-and-gore fest that I recommend strongly to creature feature fans.

Mike: This is our third such film in the past month and while entertaining in its own right, it doesn’t bring much originality to the table as the other two did (see above in ‘The Good’). The pacing may be slow to some viewers, but fans of “just enough science” in their explanations for things along with some snappy and organic sounding dialogue, not to mention some impressive practical effects, should get a kick out of Hell Hole.