I’m not familiar with every movie from the Adams Family. I have seen The Hatred (2018) and Hellbender (2021) both solid offerings from the film makers. On Friday this new movie HELL HOLE appeared on Shudder made by these guys and after digging the cool thumbnail pic. I thought hell yeah! As far as the movie poster goes, it gave me perhaps John Carpenters THE THING vibes. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Here’s a synopsis insert from Google
An American-led fracking crew working deep in the Serbian wilderness uncover the unimaginable: a dormant parasitic monster.
Wow how fun does that sound? Very fun I’d say. However I thought as a whole the film was pretty uneventful. Of course stuff happens but yet the whole narrative left me somewhat bored. The opening scene is wonderfully gooey and gruesome I will say that. It looked like a fantastic mess. So first few minutes in I did start to feel monotony kicking with the characters. Nobody stood out as someone you can get into and root for. The acting for the type of movie was fine. Still all of the character seemed forgettable. A bunch of scientists rabbiting on trying to be quirky I didn’t care for any of them.
One scene is also particularly good when we first see the parasites tentacle emerge from someone. Great more monster effects please. Nope! Scientists and army guys banging on. Towards the climax I couldn’t give a hoot. The characters are wondering around a field the parasite goes from person to person.
I don’t want to bash this movie because I do respect the craft and these filmmakers are obviously passionate about the horror genre and love what they do. Still hopefully next movie they can craft something more interesting maybe with similar subject matter. I thought The Hatred (2018) was a cool violent little western tale. Hellbender (2021) had a fantastic location and sense of isolation. I haven’t seen The Deeper you dig yet, I’ll have to get round to that one. I’m not feeling Hell Hole, cool idea but the execution and main characters didn’t entertain me enough to stop looking at my phone. I’m interested to to see what this family team of filmmakers produce next. HELL HOLE is now available to stream on Shudder.
Movie Rating: 1.5/5