I ALMOST didn't review Hellbender. I'd picked it to view and review after hearing good things about it and then, at the end of my first viewing, I couldn't figure out how I felt about it. That happens sometimes. So I figured I would choose something else to review instead. Then I managed to fit in a second viewing, hoping that things might click for me. Things clicked.
Directed by, written by, and starring Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, and John Adams, with a supporting role for Lulu Adams, this is very much a DIY movie, and very much a family affair. I can understand why the idea of that may scare some people off. Those kinds of movies often end up as little more than barely-competent vanity projects, but Hellbender just feels like the right people gave themselves the right jobs (almost all of them) for the material.
A phrase that has been bandied around often in recent years is "we are the granddaughters of the witches you could not burn", and Hellbender takes this slogan quite literally. Because it starts with a witch who refuses to die. Things then move to the present day, where Izzy (Zelda Adams) lives a sheltered life with her mother (Toby Poser). Izzy and her mother also play together in a band, rocking out some great tunes, but that is probably the very limit of her allowed excitement. Which all changes when Izzy starts to yearn for the wider world outside, makes friends with a young woman named Amber (Lulu Adams), and is soon given a history lesson about her powerful family tree.
Although obviously made with a low budget and limited resources, Hellbender shows how that isn't an excuse for an unimaginative and lazy final product. It all depends on whether or not you want to buy into the central concept, but at least it's one that feels interesting enough and ripe with potential for material that easily fills this runtime, and could (hopefully) lead to a sequel, or at least another film that could complement this one.
Adams and Poser are both excellent in the lead roles, carrying almost every scene between them, with the focus being on one or the other, or both together. Lulu Adams is also very good in her supporting role, and John Adams gets himself onscreen as a character who has a memorable encounter with the leading ladies.
As for their work in the directing and writing departments, well, let's just say that the family prove themselves to be sickeningly talented. I'm really looking forward to whatever they do next, and I am also excited to go back and check out The Deeper You Dig (their 2019 film that got some praise when released, but just didn't ever become a high priority on my ever-expanding "to watch" list).
Witty, consistently interesting, nicely blending some fleeting scares with some artistic imagery, and focused very much on the power within women that so easily scares off men who mistakenly equate femininity with weakness, Hellbender is a film I will easily recommend to anyone looking out for a new horror movie to watch. Even if, like me, you only fully appreciate it after giving it a second viewing.
8/10
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