Hell Hole

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 the 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.

This movie could have been cult status if it would have taken itself more seriously. It puts you In the vein of The Thing, Hidden, Alien,, and so many other Scifi cult classics. The special effects was excellent, everything we want and need in these Science fiction movies. The acting was somewhat ok, the storyline was cliche but the protagonist creature was original. A fracking crew working deep in the Serbian wilderness uncovers a parasitic creature. This movie is from the filmmaking family behind Hellbender. The creature needs a human/body to host. Toby Poser and her husband John Adams true to the horror genre.

This has some good elements but it ultimately disappoints. The good elements include a fairly novel monster that's well-utilized; some gory, gross and darkly funny splatter effects; and reasonably good performances. But they're ultimately outweighed by the bad elements: a rather lackluster premise that's like a throwaway X-Files episode; unlikeable characters; and a tepid ending that sputters to a lackluster conclusion. Worst of all is repetitive and redundant expositional dialogue. The characters talk and talk about everything that's happening and they over-explain the nature of the monster, its lifecycle and biology.

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.