If the trailer — or, certainly, the title — had left you in any doubt about the kind of film Hell Gap is likely to be, then the movie’s opening sequence rapidly dispels any uncertainty.
With a caption putting the motion in 1814 Serbia, we see two of Napoleon’s troops stalking by a misty forest. They’re given a horse by an odd girl which they take again to camp to eat, however — shock! — an octopus-like creature bursts out on the final second and begins operating rampant by their camp whereas heavy guitar kicks in.
It is all very foolish, gory, and tongue-in-cheek from horror family and filmmakers the Adams household (Hellbender, The Deeper You Dig) — and it units us up completely for what’s to return.
What’s Hell Gap About?
The majority of the story takes place at a present-day Serbian fracking web site, the place a small workforce — plus a few scientists — are trapped because of some close by flooding. They begin digging, uncover a still-alive man preserved underground in some form of subterranean slimy substance. Then the hell hinted at within the film’s title rapidly breaks unfastened.
Yep, it is a subgenre of horror you are conversant in. Like Alien and The Factor, Hell Gap will get its pressure from trapping a core group of characters and watching them get picked off — or decide one another off — one after the other. Not like Ridley Scott and John Carpenter’s chilling classics, although, there is a wriggling tentacle of comedy twining by Hell Gap‘s horror. The gore, and the monster, have a foolish B film really feel. The query is, does it work?
Mashable Prime Tales
“Hell Gap” isn’t quick on explosive physique horror.
Credit score: Shudder
Hell Gap is to not be taken too critically.
Hell Gap is the form of horror film that’d be straightforward to get pleasure from on a Saturday evening with associates. As they perfected in 2021’s Hellbender, horror stalwarts the Adams household have instilled the movie with an honest quantity of pressure — not sufficient to make it genuinely terrifying, however sufficient for loads of pantomime it’s-behind-you suspense. The comedy is not precisely laugh-out-loud, both, however the movie is foolish sufficient to immediate loads of grins, groans, and grimaces.
The characters, too, are comfortingly acquainted. There’s the inevitable pressure between the oil drillers and the scientists, the star-crossed lovers romance between driller’s son Teddy (Most Portman) and environmental intern Sofija (Olivera Perunicic), and the inevitable rise up from the employees when their colleagues begin getting picked off.
The dialogue is strong, as are the performances. The directing delights in, and makes essentially the most of, explosive physique horror impacts.
Hell Gap is not aiming for IMDB high 100 standing. However if you happen to’re on the lookout for one thing light-hearted and enjoyable that the Adamses clearly had enjoyable making, then you possibly can do worse.
Methods to watch: Hell Gap is streaming on Shudder from Aug. 23.
