★ 4 / 10
*Hellbender* has all the furniture of folk horror
FolknHell
*Hellbender* has all the furniture of folk horror: witches, woods, sigils, inherited powers, strange rituals and a mother keeping her daughter far away from…
*Hellbender* has all the furniture of folk horror: witches, woods, sigils, inherited powers, strange rituals and a mother keeping her daughter far away from ordinary society. The problem is that the furniture never quite becomes the house.
Izzy has been raised in isolation, supposedly because she is unwell. Her mother knows the less reassuring truth: Izzy is a hellbender, a witch whose power grows through consuming living creatures and their fear. When a teenage drinking game ends with Izzy swallowing a worm, what should be a fairly insignificant dietary error becomes her supernatural puberty.
That is where *Hellbender* is most interesting. Izzy discovers that the thing she has been protected from is herself, and that her mother’s restrictions have not removed her nature, merely postponed it. Their recurring meal-time chant about one season consuming another neatly prepares the ground. Daughter follows mother, appetite follows awakening, and eventually the question becomes whether inheritance can ever be responsibly contained.
Unfortunately, the filmmaking too often softens the very ideas that ought to bite. Izzy’s first threatening encounter with her new friend should make her emerging power frightening, but the moment barely lands. Later transformations, magical effects and sound cues announce strangeness without generating much unease. Even the gloriously horrible notion of a key emerging through Izzy’s hand is accompanied by a sound effect so emphatic that the moment becomes less uncanny than oddly squelchy.
There are striking images. A figure perched above another character on a lamppost is exactly the sort of peculiar visual that makes us want the film to become stranger than it does. But *Hellbender* remains surprisingly linear, its witchcraft more about Izzy embracing power than confronting something ancient, communal or genuinely destabilising. The woods provide isolation, but there is no real isolated community and little sense of an older system pressing into modern life. What emerges is less folk horror than a supernatural coming-of-age story wearing folk-horror jewellery.
There is ambition here, and considering its tiny family production that should not be dismissed. But *Hellbender* repeatedly introduces ideas sharper, nastier and more unsettling than the film it ultimately makes from them.
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Reviewed by FolknHell, the folk horror film podcast · folknhell com
Hear the full FolknHell podcast discussion of Hellbender: folknhell com/hellbender-review along with our other reviews, transcripts and episodes.
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★ 10 / 10
Set to the tone of rockin' soundtrack, this
Dan S
Set to the tone of rockin' soundtrack, this film utilizes some very creative editing, visual effects and unique story beats. It looks and sounds way better…
Set to the tone of rockin' soundtrack, this film utilizes some very creative editing, visual effects and unique story beats. It looks and sounds way better than most bigger budget films.
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★ 6 / 10
Familiar Rituals Wearing Thin. Hellbender has its creepy
Sam p
Familiar Rituals Wearing Thin. Hellbender has its creepy moments, but never commits to being truly unsettling. The Adams family delivers their trademark indie…
Familiar Rituals Wearing Thin.
Hellbender has its creepy moments, but never commits to being truly unsettling. The Adams family delivers their trademark indie horror. Witchy rituals, isolated settings, DIY punk energy but it's feeling increasingly formulaic.
Watching the same small cast cycle through similar occult themes keeps you aware you're watching a movie rather than being pulled into one. Where's the moment that makes you hide behind your fingers? It's not here. Everything telegraphs itself too clearly.
There's atmosphere and some eerie sequences. But "kind of creepy" doesn't cut it when horror needs to genuinely unsettle. The ritualistic witchcraft that felt fresh earlier now feels like autopilot.
Not terrible. The Adams family has vision. But this feels like spinning wheels in familiar territory rather than pushing into anything genuinely frightening. Watchable, but forgettable.
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97%
TOMATOMETER
· 66 reviews
57%
AUDIENCE
· 250 ratings
5.8/10
8.2K
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seems most "horror" movies now are written by someones mom with no imagination and fear of absolute stupid things.