A Horror Film That Was Almost a Classic for Me

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MOVIE REVIEW
Hellbender
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Genre: Horror
Year Released: 2022
Runtime: 1h 26m
Director(s): John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser
Writer(s): John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser
Cast: Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, Lulu Adams
Where To Watch: on DVD and digital on 5 September

Wow, what an experience. I don’t know if it was amazing or not. This, by definition, is when I use my 2.5-star rating, I will normalize using that rating for films that you didn’t love but didn’t hate. There were so many great moments in the movie, specifically the performance of Zelda Adams, but there was also a huge disconnect in the film as it tried to balance too many different styles. Had they chosen one specific style or genre, I think the movie would’ve been incredible. Instead, the film roams from folk horror to modern horror to art-house horror, all within a breath at times. Ironically a review from Bloody Disgusting mentions its similarities to the film RAW, which I just watched for the first time a few weeks ago, and I have to agree.

One of the most exciting aspects of the film is the team behind creating it. It was done by “the Adams Family” no, not that one! “The sixth feature from the family collective who write, direct, produce, score, edit and act in all of their films.” That is an impressive stat line, no matter who you are.

I would never attempt to use Rotten Tomatoes to gauge any film I was interested in, but I found it interesting how I tend to almost always side with the audience score on movies instead of the critics. While the film is generally liked by critics, sitting at 97%, the audience score reflects my rating closer to 54%. Ultimately, we’re all an audience, and I think that’s probably the most significant difference between myself and an average critic.

As I mentioned previously, the real standout here is Zelda Adams. At the same time, her real-life sister Lulu Adams also gave an excellent performance, but Zelda just had that extra something, being the main character of the film and, in turn, where the majority of the focus was. I would say that three-quarters of the film was on the verge of being excellent, but when the back story of some of the characters came into play, it almost felt like the focus was lost.

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