Folks Lend A Hand in “HELL HOLE”, The New Film From The Adams Family (REVIEW)

“Todd and Trey have been playing in the neighbor’s yard again.” (Image: Shudder)

If you give a mouse a cookie, the mouse will ask for a glass of milk.  If you give a DIY filmmaking collective a real budget and a crew, they’ll give you a gooey good time.  That’s what the Adams Family has brought us with this year’s Shudder exclusive, “Hell Hole.” John Adams, his wife Toby Poser, and their daughters Lulu Adams and Zelda Adams are known for making handmade, but striking horror films in upstate, New York.  They write, direct, score, act in, and edit their own films, and have been doing so for years.  This time, they've moved production to Serbia to tell a creature feature, Adams-style.

A blue-collar crew led by Emily (Poser) and John (Adams) is fracking in the isolated mountains of Serbia.  They’re hard-working, but good-natured Americans in charge of a group of Serbians in conjunction with a pair of conservationists.  This motley crew is just trying to get through a day’s work when their equipment unearths a creature mankind hasn’t seen.  No, not the French soldier, who’s been in a form of suspended animation since the 1800’s.  It’s the many-tentacled monster that wants to be left alone. Before you can say “first goddamn week of winter,” Emily and John isolate the Frenchman while they figure out what’s going on.  It goes about as well as a movie named “Hell Hole” can allow.

Should’ve just let him sleep. (Image: Shudder)

In addition to a full crew, with a production company behind them, the Adams are once again joined by their go-to effects wizard and “fifth Adams,” Trey Lindsay, who ups his game considerably, yet sparingly.  We don’t see many shots of the creature, but it’s hard not to flinch every time we catch a glimpse of an unexpected tentacle (great name for your next album, Hellbender.  Just sayin’).  Lindsay’s increasingly-impressive particle effects are augmented by FX legend Todd Masters (”Men In Black,” “Night of the Creeps,” and so much more).  Lindsay and Masters make a great pair, who spread out the carnage for maximum impact.

Adams and Poser once again direct but without their daughters.  Zelda is attending college, but Lulu wrote the first draft, which her parents revised.  As a result, the familial themes take a bit of a backseat but still exist in the form of Emily’s nephew Teddy (Maximum Portman), the on-site cook, and comic relief.  The real inventiveness of the script comes from the reversal of so many tropes we see in similar films.  Yes, you’ve seen films like this before,  but how often are the “corporate drones” considered the heroes and the conservationists viewed as more than a little overzealous?  They’re not made out to be the “bad guys,” or even antagonists, but if your passion, or at least your job, was to protect beings found in nature, wouldn’t you rail against the killing of a newly-discovered species?  So what if it burrows into humans to protect itself?  It just wants to be left alone!

There are more than a few scenes of characters standing around and talking about what to do, but that does feel pretty real for a lot of jobs, even in the most dire of circumstances.  “Hell Hole” delivers the goods when and where it matters, while showing the Adams family are capable of making indie horror at a higher budget level than they’re used to.  Here’s hoping they include their daughters more next time because you know the FOMO is real.

Out now (Image: Shudder)

“Hell Hole” is out now on Shudder.  For more on the film, check out our latest interview with them here.

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