The Rules Keep Changing in the Woods

Read Time:5 Minute, 52 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Hellbender [Limited Edition]
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Genre: Horror, Folk Horror, Coming-of-Age
Year Released: 2021, Arrow Video Blu-ray 2025
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director(s): John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser
Writer(s): John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser
Cast: Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, Lulu Adams, John Adams
Where to Watch: available September 16, 2025, pre-order your copy here: www.arrowvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: HELLBENDER is the rare micro-budget indie that treats constraint as an invitation. What begins as a portrait of a teen and her mother making loud, messy music in the woods steadily reveals itself as a story about inheritance—what we protect our kids from, what we pass down anyway, and the dangerous thrill of figuring out who you are when every rule you’ve been given stops making sense. The Adams family—John, Toby Poser, and daughters Zelda and Lulu—built a world with their own hands, and the film is strongest exactly where that do-it-yourself confidence and intimacy are allowed to run wild.

Zelda Adams anchors the movie. Her performance carries a curiosity that reads as both an adolescent push-and-pull and something feral awakening. The mother–daughter dynamic is the core: it’s protective, tender, and then—slowly—untenable. The way conversations turn to confrontation gives the film its pulse. There’s a believability to how boundaries get tested: a visit with a new friend, a game that goes too far, a moment where appetite outruns etiquette. You feel the shift as the parents’ warnings transform from “this is how we live” to “this is what we are,” and that is where the movie gets most interesting. The story isn’t asking whether power corrupts; it’s asking what power even is when your identity and your instincts don’t line up with the version of yourself you were taught to perform.

Practical flourishes and simple compositing lend the world a tactile quality; it appears to be the sort of sorcery that would occur if you tried it at home. That tactile approach matches the theme: this isn’t witchcraft as ceremony so much as witchcraft as biology, a talent that behaves like hunger. When the imagery tilts, it works best as a visualization of a young person’s interior—those sequences aren’t about spectacle so much as sensation.

Music runs through the film like a second script. The tracks from the family’s band function as both texture and text. That continuity suggests that growing up can resemble rebellion, even when it’s simply honesty finally being acknowledged. The score’s jagged edges and chant-like grooves also keep the movie from drifting into preciousness; this world has splinters.

Performance-wise, the ensemble is exactly as large as it needs to be. Lulu Adams brings a charm as the friend who serves as a catalyst, giving the protagonist someone to mirror besides her mother. John Adams appears in a way that gestures at a wider community without dragging the film out of its intimate scale. But everything circles back to Zelda and Toby, who make their scenes together feel genuine. There’s a mother’s grief tucked into the control, and there’s a daughter’s compassion tucked into the defiance. That’s the film at its best: complicated love expressed as hard choices that get harder.

For physical-media collectors, the Arrow Video limited edition is a perfect match for a handmade movie. The commentary with Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams is the sort of track that typically turns a good disc into a go-to reference—hearing this family unpack choices tends to unlock the film. The new video essay (“From the Forest She Rises”) and the VFX featurette (“Black Magic Tricks”) enrich what’s on-screen without mythologizing it. Behind-the-scenes footage, music videos tied to the film’s sound, and Zelda Adams’s short Fort Worden broaden the Adams’ creative universe in ways that make the film feel less like a one-off and more like another chapter in an evolving family project: reversible art and a booklet with fresh writing round out a package that feels curated, not padded.

HELLBENDER is a confident, original spin on the coming-of-age nightmare: intimate rather than expansive, thorny rather than glossy, and delivered with the conviction of artists who know exactly what they’re making and why. It’s a story about growing up and growing dangerous, about a parent’s fear of what a child can become and a child’s realization that becoming is the point. Imperfect? Yes. But the kind of imperfection that lingers and makes you curious to see what this family does next (spoiler warning, it only continues to get better from here!)

Bonus Materials:
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY CONTENTS
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original lossless stereo 2.0 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with filmmakers Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams
From the Forest She Rises, a brand new video essay by filmmaker Jen Handorf
Black Magic Tricks, a featurette on the visual effects by VFX artist Trey Lindsay
Behind-the-scenes compilation footage
Fort Worden (2021), a short film by Zelda Adams
Four music videos: Hit and Run (2024), Drive (2021), Lovely (2021), and Black Sky (2020)
Original trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Beth Morris and original artwork by Sister Hyde
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Natasha Ball and Kat Hughes

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[photo courtesy of ARROW VIDEO, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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