Hellbender

Via Nightstream Film Fest

When I first started this movie, I hadn’t realized it was the same family behind The Deeper You Dig which I absolutely loved!!! Once I realized I was even more over the moon, because I think what these folks are doing together as a family is absolutely outstanding work. I love how they’re taking their love of film and their family bond and creating such personal, passionate work from it all! It’s absolutely divine work.

It’s the perfect movie for fall! Plenty of magical witchy vibes: overhead shots of the mysterious woods, dizzying dreams, crumbling bones and blood and feathers, mossy wild earth, Rainy and foggy moods, and woodland off grid hippie wardrobes.

This movie combines the hazy fever dream vibes of the 60s and 70s cinematography with modern energy and elements; it’s just a little colder and more blue hued with only pops of jarring warmth or psychedelic vibes. It’s got little by way of special effects or overwhelmingly heavy edits, but when they are employed it’s done so deftly and everything flows so naturally. The dreams and spell work sequences are really something special, and I can see this aesthetic becoming their sort of trademark stamp as they keep creating together. 

The bond between mother and daughter character is so fluid and natural, and their actual and natural chemistry is so genuine! The authenticity behind their IRL familial bond shines, and it adds a magic all of its own. The two of them truly cast a spell on their viewers in the best way. It’s a captivating element, for sure.

I love the ways it uses its supernatural story elements to tackle topics in feminism, relationships between women, mother and daughter bonds, growing up as a teen girl, finding personal spiritual practice, making a connection to environments etc. But all of those “more complicated” things aside, it is also just a really great, solid coming of age witchy horror flick.

It all looks and sounds great, it flows well as a story, and it has some great creative elements in filmmaking. I love the energy that this family bring to not just the genre, but filmmaking in general. Brilliant. Anything the Adams’s want to put into the world for viewing, I’m going to greedily consume with fervor!!



TW: execution by hanging on screen, flashing imagery and hallucinatory visuals, underage drinking and substance abuse, self harm, blood, witchcraft and religious ritual, implied murder, implied cannibalism, vomiting, ableism, mental illness

Review by Ellen Avigliano
Twitter.com/imaginariumcs
www.imaginariumarts.com

Watched as part of Nightstream Film Fest