HELL HOLE
Starring: John Adams, Marko Filipovic, Bruno Veljanovski, Anders Hove, Maximum Portman, and Toby Poser
Directors: John Adams and Toby Poser
This film has been reviewed by Nick and Quentin as part of Bitesize Breakdown's coverage of the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival.
QUENTIN
Hell Hole has a certain can-do charm that makes you want to root for it despite its flaws. The premise is legitimately brilliant, using the basic story construct of The Thing to explore ideas around abortion through gore, heavy metal, and a very dry sense of humor, but the movie is undermined by its low-budget trappings. The effects and performances are in line with what you’d expect from a movie of this caliber, which can be distracting. Admittedly, it’s genuinely admirable what filmmaking clan The Adams Family managed to wrangle out of seemingly very little, but it’s just not enough to make Hell Hole recommendable.
NICK
On one hand, Hell Hole did enough to maintain my attention throughout. In particular, the way the directors (John Adams and Toby Poser of The Adams Family) use the template of John Carpenter's The Thing to explore different themes is admirable. On the other hand, a smaller budget leads to a cast unable to give this story the performances it deserves, and for a film so focused on its gory moments, the effects are sorely lacking. I'd love to see a re-exploration on a larger budget, but as things stand, I commend The Adams Family for what they are able to do with limited resources.