On paper, Hellbender should be utterly terrible. Made by the Adams Family, two parents who make films with their teen daughter, a Gucci model. You expect to see low budget nonsense, a glorified home movie, not a moody, slow burn, original horror.
Izzy (Zelda Adams) and her mother (Toby Poser – Zelda's actual mother), live a remote life in the mountains. Izzy is homeschooled. She has no friends, and spends her time exploring the local landscape, eating slightly odd vegan food and playing in a band with her mother. The on disc description of the film suggests they are a heavy metal band… they aren't. It's more akin to industrial by way of Bjork, but it's actually surprisingly good.
Anyway, Izzy begins to be frustrated by her isolated existence, and during a longer walk than usual strikes up a friendship with a local girl, Amber. Through this friendship Izzy takes her first taste of “life” – a worm in a cup of tequila – and it unlocks something in Izzy that her mother has spent her life trying to keep hidden.
On the surface, it's quite exploitative. Izzy spends a fair chunk of the film in a bikini (albeit a modest one). But Zelda seems completely integral to the writing and directing process in such a way that it feels as though she is unlikely to do anything she doesn't want to. You have to wonder at the compromise involved in a family working together like this. Creatively, constantly, in between Zelda's schooling and what one assumes must be day jobs. That alone makes it fascinating, even without it actually being quite good.
And good is what it is. A darkly comic and crude coming of age story has Izzy gradually overtaking her mother in strength, power and determination, and becoming the matriarch. Bizarre imagery is inconsistent, with some of the effects being more successful than others, but the flaws are easily forgiven.
Shudder is the perfect place for this. With Hellbender being the sort of film we used to stumble across in the middle of the night on Channel 4, a routine of the past now unfortunately. It's one of those films where you wake up the following morning trying to remember the name, and you struggle to describe it in any way that makes sense. Hellbender sticks in the mind though, with it's bizarre concept and disturbing imagery.
Not to oversell Hellbender in any way, it does have flaws. There is perhaps not quite enough plot for it's short 88 minute runtime. But what it does do is suggest that Zelda Adams is one to watch. To be writing and performing to this standard at 18? Incredible.
The disc has a pretty cool selection of bonus features. The short video by their video effects guy describes how they created their visuals for less money than most of us spend on a takeaway. Additionally there are music videos for the Adams Family songs, some of which are sadly quite short but still worth a watch. It's a small selection of bonuses but they are worth looking at.
Hellbender is a surprising, unusual film that sinks it's teeth into your subconscious. But the real question is, what will the Adams Family do next?
Shudder Original Hellbender from genre trailblazers the Adams Family arrives on DVD & Digital 5 September
