This hellhole will get under your skin… literally!

In the world of super low budget horror, it would be hard to find anyone more popular than the Adams family, and I don't mean Gomez and Morticia. I'm talking about the filmmaking team of Toby Poser, her husband John Adams, and their children. They have made some of the best indie horror films of recent times, such as The deeper you dig And Where the devil wreaks havocso when I heard they were back with a monster movie called HellholeI knew I had to see it. I didn't get a chance to cover the film's world premiere. fantasybut I was able to get a screener in front of his Shudder Release and I can tell you, it's a lot of fun.

Hellhole The film was directed and co-written by Toby Poser and John Adams. It stars Toby Poser, John Adams, Max Portman, Anders Hove, Olivera Perunicic, Aleksandar Trmcic, Petar Arsic and Bruno Veljanovski. The film is about a fracking crew working in a desolate part of the Serbian wilderness. When these guys start digging, they come across a parasitic monster that jumps from host to host in a cruel and deadly way.

Right at the beginning, Hellhole has completely captivated me. In typical Adams family fashion, almost everyone in this film is super likable, but I have to make a small reservation here. Do not go into Hellhole expect an Oscar-worthy script and acting. This cast has the quirky charm you'd expect from a B-movie, so if that's not your thing, you'll probably find the entire crew unbearable.

But if that sounds like something you'd enjoy, you'll love this ragtag ensemble, and one character in particular will stand out: Emily, the head of the fracking company. She's played by Toby Poser, one of the co-writers and co-directors, and as always, this woman seems like a super fun person. When you see her on screen, it feels like you're hanging out with her, so I could probably watch an entire movie of her going about her normal, everyday life.

In addition to these outstanding characters, Hellhole also contains some great horror scenes. At first, we don't know what this creature is or what it's capable of, and that makes it one of the most compelling low-budget monster mysteries in recent years. Then, when we finally learn about this deadly parasite, the questions surrounding it fade into the background and the film starts to move toward monster movie fun.

As a super low budget indie project Hellhole doesn't have the top-notch special effects you'd expect from a major Hollywood production. Instead, the monster looks more rubbery than organic, so if you're looking for photorealistic imagery, you won't get much out of this film. But if you can accept the creature for what it is, it's an absolute blast.

It gives us the kind of ridiculous B-movie fun that the major studios have long since stopped caring about, and when the monster kills its victims, directors John Adams and Toby Poser let the blood flow pretty freely. They also show us the gory aftermath of some of the creature's murders, and just like their previous films, these shots are full of the gooey goodness that many horror fans crave.

Last but not least, I would like to talk about the message Hellhole. There's more going on here than you'd expect from a very low-budget monster movie, but the most important theme revolves around motherhood, abortion, and bodily autonomy. Even before the fracking crew digs up the parasitic creature, there's a line where Emily describes pregnancy as if a monster were living inside you, and as we find out the creature's modus operandi, several characters describe it as if it were a fetus growing in the womb.

Unsurprisingly, almost every host of the Thing wants it taken out of them, and that's a pretty obvious metaphorical plea for a woman's right to abortion. But if you look closely, the film oddly undermines that message. At one point in the story, the Thing's host asks his comrades to kill him, but they refuse. Later, some of his colleagues approach Emily and say they want to kill the guy, and again, her answer is a resounding no.

In this way, Hellhole stresses that it is wrong to kill an innocent human being, but that is exactly what abortion is. It is the killing of an unborn human being who has done nothing wrong, but the film never addresses that tension. It can only make its case for bodily autonomy because the parasitic entity terrorizing this fracking crew is not human, so the story feels a bit thematically disjointed.

This is a pretty big mistake, and it keeps Hellhole from reaching its full potential. But thankfully, it's not nearly enough to ruin the entire experience. Overall, Hellhole is still a super fun monster movie with great characters and excellent B-movie horror, so if you're a fan of low-budget monster movies that look like they came straight out of the 1980s, I think you'll have a lot of fun with this one.

Hellhole will be available to stream on Shudder starting August 23rd.