“Hellbender” is an American horror film about a confused teenage girl who is yearning to discover her family’s dark secret.
The family that makes films together, stays together. The saying rang throughout my mind as the credits ran on the Adams Family’s no-budget horror film. “Hellbender” attempts the brooding mystery of previous arthouse horror entries while solely created at the hands of four or five people at any given moment. The film itself drags significantly, often feeling unfocused and meandering, but the innovative self-assured eye of this family stands out.
“Hellbender” follows Izzy (Zelda Adams) and her Mother (Toby Poser) as they exist alone out in the wilderness. This wild pair eat pine cones for dinner and play in a heavy metal band. When Izzy encounters a new friend her world begins to crumble and she learns the dark secrets of her family origins.
This story of isolation, parental overprotection, and demonic children rings true time and time again because of that inner core of parent-child trauma. A parent’s fear for their children’s future causes them to isolate their monstrous child and in so doing prevent them from functioning within the larger society. Once that world comes knocking it rocks the child’s world and drives them to destroy their guardian-nee-jailor. It’s a familiar story, and the Adam family hits all the beats.
This film drags out in edits of almost entirely experimental sequences. Long sections of actors wandering the woods or dancing or just spitting up blood litter the center of this film. Its opening carries enough weight to hook audiences, but the momentum completely halts by the last thirty minutes. Normally I wouldn’t gripe about such elaborate moody sequences, except they roll out particularly too long almost feeling like cinematic filler at certain points.
“Hellbender” offers promise in the form of the gorgeous woods. The two women traipse through beautiful glens, awe-inducing waterfalls, and jaw-dropping mountains. The sheer beauty is staggering, but it wears down after a while. The film itself features deft cinematography, with a washed-out color grade. As a matter of personal taste, I didn’t like the color grade, but I can understand the effort that went into maintaining a consistent scheme.
Zelda Adams and Toby Poser play the central characters with only a dozen extra actors surfacing. Zelda’s performance mesmerizes us with her shy demeanor slowly developing into a gleeful menace. We don’t know at what point she became terrifying but we understand, by the end, she is as dark as they come. Toby’s aloof Mother buoys Zelda’s performance but together their scenes feel dry. Despite the familial relationship their chemistry feels stifled by their own choice to make the film a quieter terror. Lulu Adams stands head and shoulder above the rest, mostly because she plays a perfectly normal human. Her responses are our responses and even though she rushes the plot along, her perspective feels particularly valuable in a film that’s more centered on mood than anything else.
“Hellbender” looks like a movie the Adams family had a blast making. Rolling around in the woods, spitting fake blood at each other, making some props, and learning a handful of practical camera tricks might be the perfect exercise to bring a family together. The last fifteen minutes offered an impressive narrative, and if that’s anything to go by then there’s a chance this family might do better with a strong producing hand. That being said, “Hellbender” itself feels a bit too much like a copy of an A24 horror film than a genuine original.
“Hellbender” recently had its World Premiere at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival
