Hell Hole

Hell Hole is yet another classic example of a decent concept for a horror movie bogged down by bad writing, lackluster acting, lazy production design, and crappy visual effects.

Clearly, this is supposed to be a monster movie primarily, but it has so much needless, boring, and repetitive dialogue that ultimately moves the plot nowhere and gives the characters no real depth at all.

This could've been really good if it were actually exciting and not so dull. It's also worth mentioning that it's basically a cheap knockoff of The Thing or other movies of that ilk, which makes it even less impressive when you look at the bigger picture.

I wish I could've gotten into it, but I just couldn't care enough about the story of the characters to really be invested for more than five minutes at a time.

I'd only seen one other film from these creators before (that being Hellbender), which struck me as an attempt at a folk horror / coming of age story with nice cinematography but not much substance. Hell Hole continues the tradition with terrible generic dialogue, but at least it was quite entertaining in its campiness, making up for the equal lack of depth and characterization with over-the-top gore and patently silly interactions. It reminded me a bit of the Resident Evil game series (in more ways than one), which got good once it started leaning into its more ridiculous aspects and trying to have some tongue-in-cheek fun with them.

Hell Hole's too repetitive to watch more than once, but for a one-time-thing, the practical effects, cool setting (Here's to post-Soviet industrial decay!) and comedic elements (which I'll charitably hope were intentional) make it worth seeing at least once, even if it's just when you come home from the bar and feel like watching something disposable.

Overall I found this to be an entertaining experience, despite some flaws. This was a fun sci-fi creature feature that enjoyably didn't take itself too seriously while retaining some creep factor and intrigue.

The Adams family are always enjoyable to watch, despite some stiff and stilted dialogue at times throughout the film. Some of the CGI and practical effects were more successful than others but I enjoyed and appreciated the concept and intention behind all of it. The acting was decent from most of the cast, with a particularly solid performance from the actor playing Danko.

I wish we could've gotten a little bit more as far as plot goes. I feel like we lightly touched on a lot of different storylines, but nothing was really delved into. Regardless, this is enjoyable for what it is... a fun cat and mouse monster flick with some cool visuals and a lighthearted vibe. 5.5 rounding up to a 6, would recommend.

As a big fan of creature features, I was excited to check out Hell Hole. While the movie still had some fun moments, it was mostly a disappointment. The biggest issue with the film concerns the amount of dialogue that neither advances the plot nor meaningfully develops the character. The movie's plot is very basic, so there wasn't much to develop. Similarly, almost all of the characters are underdeveloped. These dialogue scenes feel as though they stretch on for forever because the action scenes are either very brief or poorly executed. So it movie often seems as though it's 90+ minutes of redshirts chatting with only brief breaks for action. Another big issue concerns the ending as I felt like it was wrapped up way too quickly with the fates of a few characters not fully understood. Ultimately, Hell Hole is a movie that falls well short of its relatively high potential.

Well . . . If you can sit through the clumsy writing, pregnant pauses and 90s-style soundtrack, this will do as a creature feature that you can watch while doing laundry, vacuuming, or making bird houses. The basic plot is familiar: a team of frackers, joined by scientists and eco-types, unearth a critter that time had forgotten, therein accidentally unleashing a monster on the land.

Nobody in HH can act, with the exception of director/actor Toby Posner, who does the best she can with the limited material. (Frankly, had the delivery of the lines by the other actors been tightened up a few notches, this movie would have been fairly decent.) What budget was on hand was spent on the creature, which is admittedly pretty decent for a low budget movie.

Can''t say I recommend it, but if it is the only thing on, you could do worse.