The creative output of the Adams Family seems to be endless, and something as simple as a long road trip is enough to inspire their next big movie idea. It hasn’t even been a full rotation around the sun since the release of their last feature Where The Devil Roams, but husband and wife team John Adams and Toby Poser still somehow managed to make another, Hell Hole. The Adams proved to be experts in crafting witchy and supernatural horrors with The Deeper You Dig and Hellbender, but this time, they’re trying out something different with a creature feature far from the comforts of their home country.
Americans Emily (Toby Poser) and John (John Adams) are overseeing the beginning stages of an oil fracking operation in the Serbian countryside. They’re joined by Emily’s nephew and camp cook, Teddy (Maximum Portman, The Hatred), a duo of Slovenian environmental scientists, Sofija (Olivera Peruničić, Subspecies V: Bloodrise) and Nikola (Aleksandar Trmčić), as well as crew of bitter and bored Serbian roughnecks. While digging up a garbage pit, the team makes an impossible discovery. A French Napoleonic soldier (Anders Hove, Nymphomaniac Vol. 1) who has survived in the dirt for 200 years, encased in some sort of embryonic sack.
“I continue to be impressed by [the Adams’] willingness to try new things and push their boundaries.”
The soldier begs to be killed, but the only person in the camp who has the closest grasp on French is Teddy, and he still struggles to understand the soldier’s request. Fed up with playing charades, John tries to beat some sense into the soldier, only to find out that the soldier’s body is host to a parasitic tentacled creature that, when threatened, will jump to another human body in order to survive. The camp soon descends into madness, in a spray of bullets and exploding corpses.
Missing from this picture is daughter Zelda Adams, who has previously acted in seven of her family’s films but had to sit this one because of college. However, her sister Lulu helped write the early drafts of the script, with her parents fine-tuning it afterwards. In addition to giving the characters a backstory and defining the biological monstrosity, the script also includes a few humorous quips. One scene in particular that tickled the Quebec audience of Fantasia Fest was Teddy’s poor attempt to translate the French soldier’s pleas for death.
“As so many filmmakers have done before them, the monster is a metaphor for a political issue that they can’t criticize outright.”
But the real laugh out loud moments for me were in the subtle and unspoken reactions of the cast, such as the confused looks on the Americans’ faces when the scientists are explaining their findings, or the collective annoyance of the Serbian crew when receiving orders from the Americans. The fact that whole scenes are delivered in more than one language is a new accomplishment for the filmmaking family.
The story of Hell Hole can be interpreted as a commentary on the environment or the American exploitation of natural resources, but one issue that comes to the forefront is the question of bodily autonomy and abortion. There’s no doubt that the overturning of Roe V. Wade was present in the minds of Poser and Adams as they were developing the script, though they cleverly reversed the genders in this situation. As so many filmmakers have done before them, the monster is a metaphor for a political issue that they can’t criticize outright. But by introducing this extreme scenario, they highlight the absurdity of the arguments of the pro-life side.
“Fans of the music in Hellbender will love John Adams’ doomy and bass-heavy hard rock score”
Returning effects artist Trey Lindsay completes the Adams’ vision mixing practical and digital methods, with the help of Todd Masters (2019’s Child’s Play). The beauty of The Deeper You Dig and Hellbender was manifested in the magical manipulations of nature but dealing with an alien organism presented new challenges. In up close struggles, a giant puppet of the creature was thrown at the actors. In wider shots, the monster jumps around quickly, and the eruptions of gore happen so fast that you might miss it if you blink. This strategy was necessary, because had anything moved a fraction slower, the seams of the computer effects would show and break the illusion. Anyone familiar with the Adams’ ability to make a movie on a modest budget will be forgiving of the quality of the CGI, though newer viewers might be quick to complain in the Shudder comment section.
Fans of the music in Hellbender will love John Adams’ doomy and bass-heavy hard rock score, punctuating each scene with transitions that play out like a music video. The camera zooms in and out of the scenery abruptly to the beat of the drums. During scenes of intense action, the distortion kicks in and the snare hits ramp up to thrash metal speeds. It adds to the film’s moody tone and will have you banging your head between scenes.
“Having achieved the creature feature subgenre, there’s no telling what heights they will shoot for with their next project”
As someone who has been following the Adams Family for the past five years, I continue to be impressed by their willingness to try new things and push their boundaries. They could have easily filmed in the forest of their home state again, but they took a major risk flying across the sea, hiring a crew of non-English speakers, and doing principle photography at the site of an old Soviet factory. Having achieved the creature feature subgenre, there’s no telling what heights they will shoot for with their next project. Chances are, we won’t have to wait that long to find out.
John Adams and Toby Poser’s ninth feature Hell Hole had its World Premiere at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival. It will be available to stream exclusively on Shudder on August 23rd. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the fest and let us know if you’re a fan of the Adams Family’s movies in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
