By Shannon McGrew
In HELL HOLE, an American-led fracking crew working deep in the Serbian wilderness find themselves at odds with government assigned environmental advisors. When they get approval to drill, the workers uncover the unimaginable: a dormant parasitic monster entombed deep in the frozen rock. Now awakened, it tears through the mining facility in search of the perfect host.
For the release of HELL HOLE, Creepy Kingdom's Shannon McGrew spoke with half the Adams Family team, co-directors John Adams and Toby Poser. During their chat, they discussed everything from the inspiration for the film to creating their first creature feature.
Thank you both so much for speaking with me today. To start things off, what inspired the story for HELL HOLE?
John Adams: A drive from Montana to Alaska. We were driving through the fracking camps of Alberta. How the Adams family works is wherever we are, we're always like, what kind of horror movie could we make here? We came up with an idea about what would happen if a man camp nailed a monster with a drill and that monster got pissed. That morphed into HELL HOLE.
The film is set in Serbia, and you all traveled there to shoot it. What was that experience like?
Toby Poser: It was really cool. The cast was so lovable and so great in their roles. They really jumped into it, and if you're going to make any movie, you have to believe in the mythology, and they were so great. The crew was wonderful.
John Adams: Serbia was such a nice opportunity to go to a place and work with the people rather than just being American, eating at McDonald's and drinking Starbucks in Belgrade. We're out in the middle of Serbia with Serbians, and that's a real lucky gift.
How difficult was finding the Soviet-era mining structure where the movie takes place?
Toby Poser: One of our producers nailed that and was familiar with the Serbian production team, so they all set that up. It was cool.
John Adams: I drove around with the guy who found it. He said he had pitched it to so many movies, but everyone was like, Nah, it's big and ugly. When they pitched it to us, we were like, okay, yeah, we'll actually rewrite the script just to use it!
How did you approach dividing the responsibilities when it came to writing and directing?
Toby Poser: For this film, Zelda sat this one out entirely because she had started college. Lulu, living in South Korea then, was really gung-ho to jump in and write that first draft. We then took it over and adapted it for Serbia because it wasn't initially written for that location. That added a needed element, thematically. I think it enhanced what was already there.
A highlight of the film was the exceptional practical effects used. Can you talk about bringing this tentacle monster to life?
John Adams: We were super lucky that the production team got Todd Masters to be involved. What's great about Todd Masters is everybody knows he's a practical effects monster-making genius. The best thing about Todd is that he's a great human who stands next to you, and you do art with him. He's like a 12-year-old kid in his spirit. Trey Lindsay, our effects guy, worships Todd and had the opportunity to work with one of his heroes. They built three monsters, one tiny little monster that was perfectly detailed, and then he made two big monsters, one animatronics and one that somebody had to climb into to use with their hands. It was fascinating for us. Todd taught us so much.
Toby Poser: The animatronics part of that base is a skeleton from Men in Black. It was cool that it was recycled, and its ghost was on our production. There were Serbians who worked with us, too, as part of Synergy FX. They had worked on the most recent Hellraiser that was shot out in Serbia. They also brought a lot of the gore, which was really fun.
Other than the use of a creature, what do you think it is about HELL HOLE that sets it apart from your other films?
Toby Poser: From an outside look, it's super different because there was a crew, and we had to entrust all the hats we are used to wearing to someone else. The color of this film is more broadly humorous than our usual work, in which we write very darkly and hope that humor pokes through. But in this case, it was a great exercise to try to have some absurdity and humor in a creature feature.
John Adams: We met the production crew at Joe Bob, and that whole crew had all worked together at Troma. When they asked us to make a movie with them, we thought this would probably be the only opportunity we would ever have to make a monster movie and wade into that kind of horror, which is rebellious yet humorous. It was a really neat chance, and we took it, and it was a lot of fun.
Having put on two screenings of HELL HOLE, I enjoyed hearing about the audience's reaction. What has been the most enjoyable part of watching this film with an audience?
John Adams: We were so relieved that they laughed at everything we were laughing at. With all of our movies, you think you know what you've done, and then you play it with an audience, and that's when you really realize what you've done. We are very happy that it played well in a French audience up in Montreal and that it played well in a New York American audience as well. What was most important was that they enjoyed the splatter and they enjoyed the humor.
Toby Poser: Horror is a great way to bring up difficult conversations, and the questions are always more important than the answers, of course. It's nice that while people are having fun, they're also looking at some of the more relevant social commentary while they're eating their popcorn.
Lastly, do you think another creature feature could be in your future?
Toby Poser: Why not?!
John Adams: It was a really joyful experience. What's great about horror is that there are so many niches in it, and there are so many fun things to explore. I don't think there is even one niche we wouldn't want to try!
HELL HOLE is now available to stream on Shudder.
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