MY CALL: A bad movie that I’d skip in lieu of more enjoyably bad movies. These aren’t the Lovecraftian tentacles you’re looking for…
MORE MOVIES LIKE Hell Hole: Not much directly compares really. Perhaps the internal symbiont movie Bad Milo (2013), the horror-comedy story of a rectal demon. Another bonkers wacktastic Bad Movie Tuesday featuring parasites and odd side-effects is Growth (2010)—which is much more satisfying as a bad movie selection. If you want the serious version of this movie, I’d recommend The Superdeep (2020), followed by Oats Studio’s Zygote (2017) and Harbinger Down (2015).
Oil-drilling crew leader John (John Adams; Hellbender) is having a tough time getting his latest drilling project started at a remote site in the Serbian wilderness that has an interesting history. In 1814, French soldiers lost in this Serbian territory were exposed to a squiggly parasitic monster. Two hundred years later the fracking crew digs up the somehow surviving remains of a French soldier encased in a slimy, organic membrane. He is clearly infected with something, an occasional CGI worm emerges from his orifices, and he desperately wants to die.
These rubber tentacled monsters are more than a bit silly-looking—like demonic octopus Muppets. But their comically erratic movement earns them some forgiveness. We see a CGI tentacle-worm-thing emerge from the Frenchman’s derriere a la Dreamcatcher (2003) and enter a crewman’s mouth. This butt-worm occasionally lassos out to defend its host a la Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011). Bad movie connoisseurs may rejoice. But this bad movie just didn’t deliver enough enjoyment for me.
Sofija (Olivera Perunicic; Subspecies V) is the endearingly geeky biologist assigned to the project. Her specialty is parasitology, and this knowledge is most appropriate for this flick… not that it helps. Apparently, cephalopod DNA is recovered from the Frenchman’s slimy membrane. In a panic, the parasite literally explodes out of a human host, leaving a pile of guts where the man once stood.
The movie boasts some chunky, fleshy gore. But these scenes are infrequent, quick, and heavily CGI-complemented. And while the tentacle stuff is fun, the CGI skittering monster is less enjoyable. So, overall, this movie’s flaws noticeably outweigh the endearing campy effects. Not surprisingly, the writing is more than a bit dry, and the acting is rigidly unnatural-not that I don’t appreciate the effort.
There’s a cameo (Anders Hove; Subspecies V) of a major Full Moon icon. But it’s joylessly squandered. Comparisons to Lovecraftian movies feel quite misleading in that this is simply an octopus monster that lives inside its host. So, in the words of a Jedi driven to madness by gazing into the void until something gazed back: “These aren’t the Lovecraftian tentacles you’re looking for.”
Directors John Adams and Toby Poser (Hellbender) have certainly made something serviceable here in the “bad movie” realm. But I’m not sure I want to give it any real compliments. Hell Hole lies on the verge of regrettable. I didn’t hate it. But there was little to like. Or, more accurately, there just wasn’t enough of the things worth liking.