Hellbender

On it's surface, it's a decent supernatural "coming of age" story of a young girl, raised in isolation by her doting mother, who slowly learns of her true nature. It's a slow burn, with steadily increased tension as the pacing ramps up to a suitably bloody and chilling close. Extremely nice camera work and visuals and decent acting, even with some fairly clunky dialog. The soundtrack - with songs performed by the characters - are impressively good for the genre. But the real standout aspect of this film is that the three female leads and one secondary male character are an actual family: The father, John Adams, wife Toby Poser, and daughters Zelda and Lulu Adams. John, Toby and Zelda are listed as writers/directors. John composed the songs which apparently Zelda and Toby performed (though I'm not certain on that part, it could have been dubbed). This is a real family effort, and they are to be admired for it. I can only imagine what fun this crew has making these movies, and hope they continue. They have a real knack for the genre, and are a lot of fun to watch.

Usually movies where everyone is involved with everything aren't good.

Ex: the movies where the writer, director, producer, and main actor are all the same person.

This appears to be an exception to that rule

This is a movie that needs a bigger budget treatment. If mixed with some 60s or 70s European horror, it would have been an EASY 10.

THINK Suspiria. As I was watching I was getting those vibes. These people need more funds because they used minimalism and made it work. I'm hungry for more!! (but only the berries please)

If you want a minimalist witch movie with great music, this is it!

"It's all in the pumping blood"

A low budget independent quality horror film by the Adams family. I loved the visuals, cinematography, atmospheric setting, elevated music and a well defined sound. I'm impressed by how they showed many meteorological seasons flawlessly and believable explanations for the secrets of witches and dark magic.

It's such a shame that indie horror films like this struggle to find proper budget they deserve. Imagine the possibilities if this film had a decent budget for VFX.

For years you've been taught one thing from your mother, that your condition means you can't be around others, you've been hidden far away, a two girl band you like to play, in the woods where you've behaved and been no bother. As you grow older you sense changes happening, you make some friends and they seem really interesting, until they make you twist and squirm, after swallowing a worm, then life becomes a bit more challenging (and rewarding depending on your perspective).

Well made and well performed, as Izzy discovers all is not what she had been led to believe and new opportunities are opened to her once she changes her diet.

That is a weird film.

Funnily, it looks like a rough sketch of something bigger to come, but that would never exist - a bigger feature film, or a series, something that would offer the space needed to develop the ideas the creative crew (all members of the same family it seems) only touch on during the brief moment of the movie.

The framework is very simple: it's the story of two outcasts lost in a space and a time they don't fit in. Graphically, the film is a joyride, really: many are the good, inventive ideas of cinema, great are often the way the camera moves, the pace, the editing, the settings.

Yet, Hellbender's plot is then full of holes.

The center of the film, the relationship between mother and daughter, is interesting, thanks also to the two actresses whose simple, almost blank acting contributes a lot to the alchemical mystery. However, it's also very fustrating to be given so little clues. The screenplay invite us viewers to share for a brief moment their geographical as well as cultural isolation, but without telling us too much. So ethereal and vaguely suggested are the whys and wherefores that in the end these two figures escape us completely - which might also be a good thing as it deepens even more their out-of-place, otherworldly idiosyncrasies. Fustration can be intellectually and emotionally fruitful, it's always a matter of balance between what is showed, what is hidden, what is intelligible, what stays puzzling.

And puzzling Hellbender is. The film could be compared to a tapestry, but the spotlight would only be focused on a couple of pieces of fabric; of the rest you'll know nothing; it lies in the shade only to materialise briefly in some occasional suggestive scenes one can take a glimpse of in the course of the story; these snipets of an aborted, more ambitious work are quite thrilling, really, but in the context of this very film as an object, that's only what they are: flourishes to drool over, never completely daring enter the heart the tale to make its pulse more vivid.

This reluctance to reveal the whole of the tapestry is really too bad. I don't disaprove ellipsis: it's fuel for the imagination, but Hellbender uses them in excess. I hope one day I'll eventually see these vain teasers give birth to that greater, more complete narrative thread they're calling for.