Jul 30

Fantasia Film Festival 2024 Review: HELL HOLE Will Make You Clench Your Cheeks

By Sarah Musnicky

Between climate change, fracking, and melting permafrost, there's plenty of exploration to be had in the horror realm with these subjects. When you have news of long-frozen Arctic microbes waking up, the horror is just there for the taking. Thankfully, the Adams are back with their brand new film, HELL HOLE, that puts a spotlight on the horrors just waiting to be pulled out from the earth.

Set in an isolated fracking outpost in Serbia, Emily (Toby Poser) leads a team of local workers eagerly waiting to start drilling. Emily is burdened with keeping the ship running smoothly, but it's only a struggle ahead. When she's not dealing with the local crew and their superstitions, she's trying to placate environmental scientist Nikola (Aleksandar Trmčić) and his intern (Olivera Peruničić) in make sure they don't do anything to poison the local environment. No amount of foresight could have prepared them for what resides underneath the shale.

A tie into the wild, explosive opening arises along with some goopy discoveries. It's all weird and only gets weirder when things go south under John's (John Adams) choice decisions. Soon, it turns into a race against time to figure out what's going on, clean up some concerning messes, and try to keep their resurrected discovery from getting out to the public.

Comparisons to The Thing and Body Snatchers are difficult to avoid. HELL HOLE's creature, crafted by SFX maestro Todd Masters and his team, along with Trey Lindsay's VFX skills, is intent on finding any orifice to slither up into for its survival. On the surface, its antics are a laugh riot. But Toby Poser's, John Adam's, and co-writer Lulu Adams' humor and comedic timing undercut the seriousness of the situation at hand. It's an almost perfect tonal representation of how environmental threats are handled in real time until it's too late.

The Serbian cast, as expendable as their characters are, are great. Despite language barriers, their performances highlight the skills of the actors but also the quality direction. If you've seen Subspecies V: Bloodrise, there are quite a few familiar faces in the cast. Petar Arsić's Danko nails varying levels of hilarity, seriousness, boredom, and fear, evolving a character that easily could have been written off. Aleksandar Trmčić and Olivera Peruničić have the hardest task in making scientific exposition resonate. While not entirely successful, their characters' nerdy earnestness is palpable.

Where HELL HOLE starts to sputter out is in its need to explain the science behind what's going on. Moments of exposition drops occasionally lean into the humor, particularly during a well-edited takedown-fest. But more often than not, the info-dumps are hell on the pacing, putting an immediate stop to the naturally growing momentum. A shame because the film itself is a barrel of silliness and laughter otherwise.

There's also a matter of humor. It's going to be subjective to the viewer as to whether or not the jokes land. There's a lot of sexual innuendo and references to the butt that will generate some eye rolls. However, despite the jokes being of questionable taste, the humor made the film.

HELL HOLE highlights the consequences of fracking in bonkers, anal-probing fashion, giving plenty for viewers to clench their cheeks about. While it does spend more time than necessary diving into scientific exposition, there's plenty of hilarity and explosive surprises to be had in this creature feature venture.

HELL HOLE had its world premiere at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival. It will be released on Shudder August 2024.