[review:] Hellbender is A visually stunning folk horror trip

One of the reasons I started this blog is that some movies make me want to paint. Hellbender is one of them.

The film follows Izzy (Zelda Adams), a teenage girl living an isolated life with her mother (Toby Poser) deep in the woods. Izzy seems happy but restless, yearning for something she can’t quite put her finger on. While it initially seems obvious that she’s lonely, the filmmakers offer hints that something more may be going on here. Perhaps her mother is keeping her away from other people for good reason… 

Shot in New York’s Catskills Mountains during the pandemic on a tiny budget, Hellbender is a masterclass in DIY filmmaking. The film is a true family affair: its leads are mother and daughter in real life, the rest of the family also make appearances, and the whole clan worked behind the camera when they weren’t in front of it. This fact makes the push-and-pull relationship between Izzy and her mother all the more compelling. A coming-of-age story at its core, Hellbender leans on the authentic connection between Adams and Poser to make Izzy’s act of pulling away feel stressfully real. 

Of course, this is a horror movie, so the character’s burgeoning urge for independence isn’t just about going to parties, though they do play a key role. It’s at a gathering with new friends that Izzy first tastes the blood of a living creature, having lived off twigs, pine cones, and other gatherings from the forest floor her whole life. That blood awakens something in her, both physically and metaphorically, emboldening her to start questioning her mother’s rules, rejecting the lifestyle imposed on her, and exploring her own feminine power.

While Hellbender has its own terminology and mythology for what Izzy and her mother are, it certainly plays with the transgressive figure of the witch. There’s something modern and queer about Izzy’s desire to openly live her life as she wants to live it, almost as a reaction to her mother’s more cautious and closeted approach that is informed by persecution and trauma. The film foreshadows this early on when Izzy expresses a desire to take their mommy-daughter band public. Playing dress-up at home is no longer enough: Izzy is ready to be seen.

For all its modern touches, Hellbender is also firmly rooted in the folk horror tradition, with some shots that wouldn’t look out of place spliced into the likes of The Blood on Satan’s Claw. Izzy and her mother cast spells, create sigils, and, in a particularly effective piece of camera trickery, even pull keys from their own flesh. The witchy imagery—interspersed with some trippy psychedelic visions and a few stark moments of gore—is endlessly intriguing, ensuring that the eye never wants to stray from the screen. 

Clocking in at under an hour and a half, Hellbender crams a mighty big punch into a small package. Always engaging, yet patient in revealing its hand, it’s an assured, eerie little film that will leave you breathless to see what this filmmaking family does next. Catch it on Shudder from today.