Hell Hole

If you’re familiar with the Adams family’s work then the opening of this film, in a forest whose tall trees allow plenty of light through but also provide plenty of cover, may suggest another dark supernatural thriller. Only expert silvologists will notice that this is not upstate New York but, in fact, Serbia – like the Napoleonic soldiers whom we watch stumbling through these trees, the filmmakers are far from home. The difference is that whilst the soldiers are in mortal peril, they are enjoying a break from normal life, and they shared that fun with the folks at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival when they brought along this wildly entertaining monster movie.

Prehistoric parasites, tentacles and terror might not sound like what you would expect in a light-hearted romp, but the mood here is decidedly upbeat despite the unpleasantness experienced by the characters, and there are multiple layers of humour. It’s no mere B-movie, however, having well defined characters, sharply edited action scenes and top level special effects courtesy of Trey Lindsay and the legendary Todd Masters. There are also strong contributions from the Serbian effects crew, notably a viscerally organic-looking membrane which surrounds one of those soldiers when he’s dug out of the earth, still alive, by a modern day engineering crew exploring the area as a potential fracking site. This sets the tone for the gruesomeness to follow.

Also on site alongside the fracking team (whose US bosses are played by writer/directors John Adams and Toby Poser, with Maximum Portman as an over-eager nephew/assistant/chef) are two members of an ecological group who want to check the area for pikas (there’s an at-risk subspecies in the region) before any serious work can begin. One of them, Sofija (Olivera Perunicic), happens to be a parasitologist, and her observations prove critical after something very peculiar begins to happen to the Frenchman, whose desperate pleas are lost as a consequence of mistranslation. Some viewers may be disappointed that there are no cute pikas in the film, but there’s plenty of cute cephalopod action – and being parasitic, this particular species is eager to get intimate with the humans.

Turning the usual cinematic rules of cephalopod/human interaction upside down, Hell Hole picks up a popular line from recent political debates and interprets it very literally, exposing hypocritical attitudes in the process but also having tremendous fun. It also explores the interesting dynamic between the Americans and the local Serbian workers, who have their own distinctive humour. A budding romance between Teddy and Sofija adds a note of sweetness and a different kind of comedy. Once the group – who have no phone or internet signal and are cut off from the outside world by a flooded road – begin to try and fight back, there are splatter effects galore.

Too silly to be upsetting, too well crafted to be dismissed, Hell Hole strikes just the right balance and does a great job of sustaining it throughout. Poser impresses with an unusually gentle kind of performance, though it’s notable that her character doesn’t need a lot of persuading to abandon others to their fate. Adams takes one for the team where some of the more intimate effects are concerned. The rest falls into place nicely, and although this may not be their most sophisticated work, it’s a natural crowd-pleaser.