Hellbender (2021) - Movie Review

What do you get when the Adams Family is locked up during Covid?

Another fun, original Genre indie.

Let’s discuss.

Hellbender is a 2021 coming of age horror film brought to us by the Adams Family comprised of writer/directors Tobey Poser, Zelda Adams, and John Adams. Those names may sound familiar, as we reviewed their 2019 effort The Deeper You Dig, a few weeks ago (Review). I had seen this film’s thumbnail on Shudder for weeks, not realizing it was a film made by the team quickly becoming some of my favorite filmmakers. Their productions are low budget, single location films—but they have a unique character to them. There’s a wonderful stillness and quiet that feels wholly unique. It also helps that they keep bringing original stories to the table.

This film focuses on a mother and daughter who live in the remote wilderness of upstate New York. The daughter Zelda is coming into womanhood and beginning to feel those all so natural feelings of cabin fever. Her experience is made worse due the isolation her immunodeficiancy disorder requires. And while her mother does her best to keep her stimulated and happy through playing in their own house band to an audience of no one, Zelda yearns to experience the world. But when a chance meeting with a remote neighbor triggers a violent series of events, her mother is forced to confront the horrifying reality she’s tried so hard to bury. Will she find a way to quell the oncoming horror, or will she be forced to fight fire with fire? Find out in Hellbender.

This film feels like a huge leap forward for the family of filmmakers. While The Deeper You Dig was a barebones, emotional journey into mysticism—Hellbender is a bareknuckled, brutal dive into the occult.

There are more special effects, more camera angles, and an obvious upgrade to the sound and video quality of the production. The editing is a standout here as many of the in-camera trickery utilized is nearly flawless in its execution.

Shoutout to the reversed footage key from hand trick, a special effect cheat that goes all the way back to the silent film era.

All of the special effects look incredible, because for the most part they are all practical and elegant in their simplicity.

The acting is solid, with the family provided almost all the roles. Toby is magnetic as always and exudes an almost mystical calm in her performance. Zelda performs a much different role than in their previous film, as in this one she is much more awkward and gets more screen time to stretch her acting chops. She has this fantastic and gory transition from awkward teen into vicious woman and she really shines in the third act.

This film isn’t for everyone. Indie arthouse movies rarely are, but the originality of the concept and the wonderfully nuanced world building made me yearn for more stories from this universe.

I can’t wait to see the next installment from the Adams family, 2023’s Where the Devil Roams. With each film, the leap forward in their craft. It’s so much fun to see what they come up with next. I’d love to license one of my short stories to them in the future. Maybe from my upcoming 2024 release, Emo Song Titles and Other Drawn Out Horrors.

A man can dream…

If you want to check out this stellar indie, it’s streaming exclusively on Shudder as of this writing.