Hell Hole
Directed by The Adams Family (John Adams and Toby Poser)
Written by John Adams, Lulu Adams, Toby Poser
Starring Olivera Perunicic, Bruno Veljanovski, John Adams
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour 32 minutes
Streaming on Shudder August 23

by Laurence Boag-Matthews, Staff Writer

Hell Hole, directed by filmmaking duo The Adams Family, follows a Serbian and American fracking team in the Serbian countryside encountering a parasitic creature that has been lying dormant and buried underground in the body of a Napoleonic soldier since 1814. At its best, the premise and special effects evoke Alien and The Thing. The film’s practical effects are gory and manage to retain their effectiveness throughout the film–when seen outside of a host body, the parasite appears facehugger-esque and the effects are impressive. The mollusc-like form’s creeping tentacles appearing from the infected characters’ faces are particularly nasty.

The film warms up as it goes along, introducing more and more elements that enrich the narrative. The cold open with the Napoleonic soldiers brought some tension and gore prior to the meat of the film, but didn’t add much of substance to the story. Excising this element may have added to the mystery and suspense when we do see the present day discovery of the soldier’s body. The early scenes lean in a little heavily into exposition and the characterisation of John (played by John Adams, part of the directing team) as the hubristic, entitled American fracking enthusiast goes perhaps a little too far to make him unlikeable. John is clearly going to be the first to go and I found myself quite impatient for him to be dispatched.

Once Adams’ character is gone the pace really quickens. Sofija (Olivera Perunicic) and Teddy (Maximum Portman) have a nice chemistry crossing the cultural barrier that separates the American and Serbian groups. Emily (Toby Poser) carries the film well with a grounded performance. Revealing that her character was in the solar power industry, but was forced into fracking for the money is an economical way to introduce this character complexity as well as comment on the state of these industries. She is tough, clearly good at her job, and handles the tough survival decisions necessary in the monster scenario well, while we see a softer side come out through her relationship with her nephew Teddy.

In the roles of Serbian scientists, Olivera Perunicic and Boris Lukman (Filip) are relied upon heavily to deliver exposition about the nature of the parasite following their tests and the two speculate about the origins and future of the creature. The questions thrown up by their interactions and thoughts about the parasite are really interesting and the moral and ethical speculations are worth the sometimes overly-exposition laden dialogue. The latter half of the film benefits from the slower pace in the first section, as the early scenes go a long way to set the scene and establish the dynamics and latent tensions in the group that pay off satisfyingly later. Filip’s ultimate desire to study and preserve the monster was executed well and was an understandable character journey and added well to the tension in the group.

The film has a simple, but solid story and really benefits from great special effects. If you’re looking for a The Thing or Alien style flick, the Adams Family pull off a laudable low-budget homage to the genre in Hell Hole.