In This Is Spinal Tap, one of the eponymous rock band’s hits is called Hell Hole. As the song has it, “It’s better / In a hell hole / You know where you stand / In a hell hole.” The sentiment applies perfectly to this amiable low-budget effort from the Adamses, a self-taught film-making family, that hits all the notes required of this type of movie, to mostly satisfying effect.

The subgenre of horror here is the rampage of the eldritch beastie: think HP Lovecraft, The Thing, or The Blob. These critters usually come from above or below, winging their way in from outer space or emerging from a long snooze beneath the surface of the Earth. In this instance, it’s the slumber party option, as environmentalists and a crew of US-led frackers encounter a freaky octopoid parasite while drilling in a remote part of Serbia. Soon enough, the octopoid baby is worming its way into their inner circles, quite literally.

The gang of potential victims include John, played by co-writer-director John Adams, doing a nice line in hardass cynic, co-writer-director Toby Poser as auntie Em, also doing a nice line in hardass cynic, and Maximum Portman as Em’s tagine-cooking nephew. The Serbian location is a colourful touch, with drone shots of bombed-out communist-era architecture hinting at ideas of shells and power structures that map on to the parasitic creature that is intent on invading its host and setting up shop.

The subtext should not be overemphasised, however; this isn’t aiming to be intellectual film-making and is way more concerned with being a fun creature feature, in which it largely succeeds. Employing a mixture of computer FX and tangibly syrupy blood, Hell Hole operates at the level of a modest TV show, but, you sense, on a tenth of the budget, which helps make the film endearing. Existing as a labour of love isn’t enough by itself to earn any film a pass mark, but when the result is a committed piece of indie genre work with a suitably silly sense of the macabre, this gets the job done.

Plot

The Adams Family are something special in the world of indie horror. John Adams, Toby Poser and their daughters Lulu and Zelda have risen to prominence on the independent scene over the past several years with DIY productions that highlight their creativity as a family. The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, and Where the Devil Roams saw the family grow by bounds with each film and as they’ve expanded their productions to accommodate larger casts and crew, they’ve only gotten better.

Hell Hole is their most ambitious venture to date, taking the family to Serbia for a gory, darkly funny creature feature with some pointed messaging. Premiering on Shudder this week, the film is their most mainstream to date but maintains some of their rock & roll sensibility and, most importantly, their unique voices.

After a prologue in 1814 whereupon a group of lost Napoleonic soldiers in Serbia encounters a monster, Hell Hole brings itself to the present day where American couple Emily (Poser) and John (Adams) are overseeing a fracking operation. Things aren’t going great for them; they must deal with conservationist Nikola (Aleksandar Trmčić) and his assistant Sofija (Olivera Peruničić) while keeping their Serbian crew happy. Emily’s nephew Teddy (Max Portman) is along for the trip and serves as cook when he’s not pining after Sofija.

When their latest attempt at drilling runs into some strange-smelling organic matter, the work is shut down so Nikola can investigate. At the same time, Teddy and Sofija encounter an impossibility as a French soldier is unearthed while a garbage pit is being dug. This solder emerges from a gooey cocoon, somehow still alive despite being buried. As Nikola and Sofija try to determine how that’s possible, the soldier reveals that he’s not entirely himself, as the parasitic monstrosity he encountered over 200 years ago has lain dormant all that time, and it’s on the lookout for somewhere new to shack up.

Creature Feature

Hell Hole comes from a script by three of the four Adams (Zelda took this one off), and the film feels like a natural extension of what the family has been doing for a while. They love giving well-worn horror conceits their own unique spins, and with this film they’re giving us a bloody monster movie with shades of The Thing and Shivers. While it doesn’t have the letter’s horniness, there’s a twisted sense of humor in the monster’s method of possession that could come off as sophomoric but instead just hits the humor just right.

The plot is pretty basic at its core, but it’s the shades of thematic resonance and little character details that help it stand above what could have been just a mildly fun gorefest. The wormy parasite allows the film to wryly flip the script on themes of body autonomy and environmental issues without ever feeling the need to hammer them overtly home. Meanwhile, the characters are fleshed out enough that Adams and Poser are able to let them stand on their own while they get down to the silly fun of the body-hopping.

Performances

The cast is all doing fine work here; Poser gives Emily a take-no-shit vibe that makes her easy to root for, while Portman and Peruničić conjure up very solid chemistry as the young would-be couple. Trmčić takes up the role of the most villain-esque of the humans and he gives an off-kilter performance that suits the tone well. The workers are all quite good and game for what’s required of them, which is admittedly not a lot until later in the film when things start to get messy.

Special Effects

And get messy it most certainly does. Adams and Poser are clearly working with a bigger budget here, and that shows not only in the increased production values but the creature and gore effects. It’s a mix of practical, stop-motion and more, played for laughs more than scares. Exploding bodies, tentacles worming out of ears and eyes, and a nasty little creature design combine to make things a lot of fun courtesy of Todd Masters’ MastersFX and Cinergy FX.

Energy and Editing

While much of the film plays out in a way that fits more to mainstream horror audiences’ tastes, Hell Hole still contains some of the family’s trademark energy. John Adams’ composed music for the film is as metal as ever, and the editing keeps that energy which is both a blessing and a curse, as it livens up the film when it breaks away from the talkier moments that are the albatross around the film’s neck earlier on, as it’s trying to explain what’s going on from a scientific bent. On the flip side, it also results in some transition scenes that are glaring enough to take the audience out of the film, though the cast rarely has trouble bringing us right back in.

The Final Act

As it moves into the final act, Adams and Poser struggle just a bit to keep the momentum going. The higher stakes mean that the dark comedy ends up taking a bit of a backseat, but fortunately by this point we’re already invested enough that we don’t mind if not every I is dotted or every T crossed. Hell Hole may lack the thematic focus of their apex thus far in Hellbender, but it provides a viscerally squirmy good time in its own right.

Hell Hole premieres on August 23rd on Shudder.

Final Thoughts

Hell Hole is the kind of horror movie that'd be easy to enjoy on a Saturday night with friends. As they perfected in 2021's Hellbender, horror stalwarts the Adams family have instilled the film with a decent amount of tension — not enough to make it genuinely terrifying, but enough for plenty of pantomime it's-behind-you suspense. The comedy isn't exactly laugh-out-loud, either, but the film is silly enough to prompt plenty of grins, groans, and grimaces.

If you're looking for something light-hearted and fun that the Adamses clearly had fun making, then you could do worse.