Hellhole

I liked this one. Starts as an investigative thriller and goes full horror in its third act.

It can be a bit repetitive during the set-up and development but it pays off with a cool ending, nice visuals (not perfect or Hollywood level, of course), and a bleak atmosphere. A good surprise. Some plot twists are kind of expected but there are definitely some surprises and new ideas.

It can be a bit repetitive during the set-up and development but it pays off with a cool ending, nice visuals (not perfect or Hollywood level, of course), and a bleak atmosphere. A good surprise. Some plot twists are kind of expected but there are definitely some surprises and new ideas.

Pretty grim film with a lot of equally grim atmosphere in a monastery somewhere, I presume, in Poland since it's Polish film. I was about to say the premise is, but this has a few premises so let me just say it's starts off with a priest shot to death while about to stab to death an infant thinking it to be the anti-Christ, very reminiscent of The Omen, and he might be right. We immediately switch to 30 years later when a detective infiltrates this monastery due to the disappearance of a number of women who went in only to never come out. It annoyed me for a while at how easily he discovers various things in his snooping around. He gets found out quickly enough and things get ugly and brutal and very gruesome. This is not a great movie, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do right to the end with no holds barred.

Having seen no trailer of this, I've decided to do some mix and match with The Cabinet of Curiosities and I like this better than the first 4 episodes of that show (Lot 36, Graveyard Rats, The Autopsy, The Outside). The monastery in this movie felt lived-in and authentic compared to the obvious movie sets in that Guillermo del Toro show. Although both of these are disgusting so try not to eat during it.

This movie started a little slow and obvious but there are twists and turns along the way to keep you going. Not much characterization beyond the 3 or 4 names that are mentioned in the movie but no matter, the plot (and the title) is what draws the viewer interest anyways.

As for the ending, yes they did go there. It's divisive for sure but I like it and I find it appropriate.

All in all, a decent watch for Halloween season. Much better than I expected and much better than those cheap Blumhouse horror flicks.

This one is actually good. There is a gloomy and creepy mood all over and it haunts you, till the real horror begins. Don't underestimate this polish movie because it is not Hollywood or because some found it lame. Give it a try. The film contains spooky elements combined with slashy/ gory ones, so be warned.

The story is there, there are those ghastly (lost places) elements and the actors and the filming crew are doing a good job.

I don't know why people reduce movies like that to their limits. Our world is full of artificial people and films, let's get back to the roots where cgi wasn't everything. 10/10.

Jacob Boehme, a mystic from Silesia - the area where the monastery (Lubiaz) is located where the film was shot - named the expected time of "the rejuvenation of the world" the Time of the Lily. In Catholicism, lily is a symbol of innocence and Virgin Mary.... yet in the more esoteric circles, it is also a symbol of Lilith, the first wife of Adam, like Satan banished by God - in her case, to the desert. As often in the case of Christianity, meanings are bestowed upon the older pagan symbols, reversing them yet raising the question which meanings are the real ones. Here, the well descends to Hell ("Hellhole"); in the Old Testament a well is associated with the beloved of Jacob, Rachel; in Judaism a woman comparable to Virgin Mary, whose name, maybe surprisingly, maybe not will be the last words of Satanic messiah during sacrifice. Likewise, the most knowledgeable in the matters of the cult of the Prince of Darkness in this movie is a monk named after a man who set up Christianity as a religion.... Peter. He will betray the Satanic messiah in the way original Peter betrayed Christ, finally both enabling and completing the sacrifice of Satan's Chosen One, in the end so akin in his fate to Jesus Christ.

The appearance of lilies, rather untypical for cinematic stories about devil, is an example of how well versed in the occult this movie is... In this gripping story of ritual, human sacrifice, cannibalism (the original Polish title is "The Last Supper/Ostatnia wieczerza") and deceit (of his own worshippers by Satan is the last one), the Son of the Dawn (reversal again) is the only winner, even his earthly followers paying price: perhaps they never paid enough attention to the wisdom which says that "No one really knows what the World to Come shall look like". This movie says it will be the great Reversal again, high up to Sky - As above, so Below - to remind one of occult tenets, again somehow present in the Catholic Oratio Dominica prayer ("in caelo et in terra").

The knowledge this movie conveys (up to the pattern of thyrsus on the ceremonial robes of the high priest of Satan) in a way is more terrifying than multitude of slashers inhabiting only the realm of fiction.