Hell Hole

I found the cover for this movie interesting enough to make me stop up and take notice. And with "Hell Hole" being a horror movie that I had neither heard about, much less actually seen before, of course I would sit down and give the movie a fair chance. I am a huge fan of the horror genre after all.

The storyline in "Hell Hole" was pretty straight forward, and it sort of semi-entertaining. However, writers John Adams, Lulu Adams and Toby Poser didn't exactly revolutionize the horror genre with this 2024 movie. If you are a diehard horror fan, then you might get a small kick out of this movie, just keep in mine that you're not in for anything grand. I have to say that the narrative is slow paced and there isn't really a whole lot going on to drive the movie forward, which means parts of the movie are rather sluggish and difficult to sit through.

The only familiar face on the cast list, for me at least, was actor Anders Hove. He was only in the movie for a short time, but it was still a nice thing to have a horror icon such as Anders Hove showing up in a movie such as this. The acting performances in "Hell Hole" were fair.

There was some pretty fun and enjoyable gore in the movie, especially when people were blowing up when the alien parasitic creature would burst out of the host bodies. That was actually quite fun to watch.

When you have a movie that is starring, written and directed by the same two people, you just know it is not going to be a stellar viewing experience.

My rating of directors John Adams and Toby Poser's 2024 movie "Hell Hole" lands on a three out of ten stars, with the gore actually dragging the movie up from an otherwise two out of ten stars rating.

This has some good elements but it ultimately disappoints. The good elements include a fairly novel monster that's well-utilized; some gory, gross and darkly funny splatter effects; and reasonably good performances. But they're ultimately outweighed by the bad elements: a rather lackluster premise that's like a throwaway X-Files episode; unlikeable characters; and a tepid ending that sputters to a lackluster conclusion. Worst of all is repetitive and redundant expositional dialogue. The characters talk and talk about everything that's happening and they over-explain the nature of the monster, its lifecycle and biology.

I can't help but think that they spent more money on the film poster than the production itself. Had it not been for the quality of the poster I'd have not even given this a second look.

I had high hopes, but quite quickly I felt let down and watched this with a mix of apathy and disappointment.

Sure, it's 'fun' in a certain sense, but really feels like a series of unrelated scenes stitched together in the editing room without the editor having a copy of the story to hand.

You expect somewhat wooden acting in low-budget films, but some of the abundant trees in this film had more character to them. Sorry, but not one for me.

Overall I found this to be an entertaining experience, despite some flaws. This was a fun sci-fi creature feature that enjoyably didn't take itself too seriously while retaining some creep factor and intrigue.

The Adams family are always enjoyable to watch, despite some stiff and stilted dialogue at times throughout the film. Some of the CGI and practical effects were more successful than others but I enjoyed and appreciated the concept and intention behind all of it. The acting was decent from most of the cast, with a particularly solid performance from the actor playing Danko.

I wish we could've gotten a little bit more as far as plot goes. I feel like we lightly touched on a lot of different storylines, but nothing was really delved into. Regardless, this is enjoyable for what it is... a fun cat and mouse monster flick with some cool visuals and a lighthearted vibe. 5.5 rounding up to a 6, would recommend.

Well . . . If you can sit through the clumsy writing, pregnant pauses and 90s-style soundtrack, this will do as a creature feature that you can watch while doing laundry, vacuuming, or making bird houses. The basic plot is familiar: a team of frackers, joined by scientists and eco-types, unearth a critter that time had forgotten, therein accidentally unleashing a monster on the land.

Nobody in HH can act, with the exception of director/actor Toby Posner, who does the best she can with the limited material. (Frankly, had the delivery of the lines by the other actors been tightened up a few notches, this movie would have been fairly decent.) What budget was on hand was spent on the creature, which is admittedly pretty decent for a low budget movie.

Can''t say I recommend it, but if it is the only thing on, you could do worse.