Don’t fall into this aptly-titled horror mess
Stop messing with the environment! The world is in a terrible state, thanks to the pollution caused by big factories and our own litter-dropping habits which are responsible for the rise in global warming.
Those involved in the fracking business also need to take stock of the damage they’re doing. For those not in the know, fracking is a method of extracting oil and natural gases from rock formations found deep underground. It’s a revolutionary way to access valuable resources but the toxic chemicals used in the process have a negative impact on the land and its wildlife.
Hell Hole tells the story of one particular fracking team who mess with Mother Nature and learn the error of their ways when they discover a centuries-old Napoleonic soldier cocooned beneath the rocks with an an octopus-like monster living inside him. When this tentacled terror breaks out of its human host (who bizarrely is still living and breathing), all hell breaks loose when it makes the drilling team its next victims.
It’s hard to feel sorry for this bunch of frackers. Their small group is threatened with extinction in as much the same way as the world is thanks to their environmental tampering. Some might say they get what they deserve! Unfortunately, horror fans and protectors of our planet don’t get what they deserve as Hell Hole is an incredibly boring monster movie that foregoes scares and any allusion to mankind’s world-ending ways in favour of dull conversation and scientific babble about monster eggs.
The premise of Hell Hole isn’t bad, however. It’s not too dissimilar to that of John Carpenter’s The Thing or Ridley Scott’s Alien as, like those movies, the monster in this film inhabits the bodies of others to stay hidden. It then shows itself, in all its monstrous glory, by bursting out of the body of the person it has inhabited and causing them to die in a bloody, splattery mess.
The movie sometimes impresses on a visual level, especially when the monster shoots its tentacles out of every orifice belonging to its human hosts. These scenes aren’t particularly frightening but they may disturb those of a squeamish disposition. Less impressive are the scenes when the monster scuttles along the ground. It’s rubbery and consequently quite unrealistic, but this can be excused, considering the movie’s low budget.
It’s rare that we see the monster anyway as most of the movie’s running time is devoted to the inane chatter of the fracking team who never seem to be as scared as they should be considering they have a parasite living among them. Rather than come up with an effective way to defeat the menace, they joke around and bicker with one another, in scenes that are slugglishly paced and deadly dull to watch.
It’s the acting that is the biggest problem in these scenes as the actors constantly flub their lines and pause awkwardly. Two of the biggest acting offenders are Toby Poser and John Adams, the writer/directors of the movie, who also take the lead roles as the heads of the drilling team. They are as stiff as the rest of the cast but somehow come off worse when it comes to line delivery.
The pair’s direction isn’t great either, as there’s never a moment when they generate feelings of dread or tension. They manage to create one jump scare in the opening sequence but thanks to the talkiness in the rest of their script, there’s very little else in the movie that will make you leap from your seat in terror.
Hell Hole is not a good movie, so isn’t worth your time. The recent Alien: Romulus had its problems too, but at least the people behind that disappointing sequel had some degree of talent behind of and in front of the camera. Hell Hole comes across as more of an amateurish home movie in comparison, so if you’re only going to watch one 2024 monster movie, choose the former if you want something that occasionally manages to scare.
Read More: Hell Hole Ending Explained
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Verdict - 3/10
3/10