Hellbender (Blu-ray Review)

• Reviewed by: Dennis Seuling
• Review Date: Sep 15, 2025
• Format: Blu-ray Disc
• 

Review

Hellbender, a dark coming-of-age tale set on a remote mountain, is the second film made by the family of Zelda Adams, Toby Poser and John Adams, who established a name for themselves with the success of The Deeper You Dig (2019). They’re involved in all the major stages of filmmaking, including directing, acting, cinematography, editing, sound design, and scoring.

Hellbender finds sixteen-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams) living an isolated life in a mountainous area with her overly protective mother (Toby Poser). Forbidden to travel outside their property because, her mother says, she has a sickness that could endanger other people, Izzy spends her days mostly reading and hiking. She also jams with her mother on loud rock music, Izzy doubling on drums and vocals. Izzy believes they’re good enough to play a live gig but her mother, of course, won’t allow it.

Things change when Izzy spots a nearby house and sees a girl lounging by the pool. Izzy tentatively approaches, and meets crass, brazen Amber (Lulu Adams). Izzy enjoys talking with someone her own age and begins to rebel against how totally cut off and hidden from the world she’s been. Venturing back later, she finds Amber with some friends, and joins them in a strange drinking game in which Izzy takes their dare to eat a live worm. Izzy soon enters a trance-like state and lets out an ear-piercing scream. The “game” has unleashed in the young girl a voracious hunger.

Hellbender is about witchcraft. A prologue sets the tone, with a woman being hanged while long-faced spectators stand and watch. She squirms for a while. Then her movements cease and she appears to be dead but, after some time, her foot shakes. The witnesses are surprised and alarmed. A man takes out a gun and shoots her several times, but the body self-immolates and shoots skyward.

The hanged woman is a hellbender—a combination witch, demon, and predator. Izzy, like her mother, is a hellbender.

Izzy elicits sympathy because of her naive trust in her mother. Living like hermits, they’re each other’s sole companion. When a lost hiker wanders onto their property and the mother (whose name is never mentioned) sees him speaking to Izzy, she promptly exercises her powers to dispatch what she regards as a threat to her daughter.

Izzy feels drawn to self-assured, confident Amber and intrigued by a world of young people she’s never known. Her powers eventually begin to develop even as her mother tries to prevent her from becoming a dark entity. But the forces of heredity are strong. Izzy’s mother tried to defy the legacy of her own horrific mother, but now it’s questionable whether she’ll be able to abort her daughter’s descent into evil.

The Adams family’s do-it-yourself brand of filmmaking has produced an intriguing premise and an interesting spin on the witchcraft tale, but their treatment is too subtle for a horror film that calls out for at least a few big chilling moments that never materialize. The early scenes of the relationship between mother and daughter set the groundwork, but subsequent scenes of them loudly jamming are odd and interrupt the narrative flow. Why are they included? Is it only to provide the thought of performing for a real audience as the motivation for Izzy’s desire to experience more of the world? If so, they’re as unnecessary as they’re jarring, because the encounter with Amber is motivation enough.

Some of the best moments, thematically and visually, take place in the forest. Sometimes mother and daughter walk amid fire-blasted trees with bare trunks reaching up like ghosts. At other times, they stroll through lush vegetation. Either way, their sheer isolation is emphasized. It wouldn’t be easy for Izzy to make her way out of such a vast, uninhabited expanse.

It’s to their credit that the Adams have been able to put together a reasonably effective horror yarn “in house” on a low budget. What the film lacks in razzle-dazzle special effects, it tries to make up in atmosphere and suspense. There are creepy images throughout, judicious amounts of blood spilled at intervals, and a few surprises along the way.

When a film focuses on a standard horror character—vampire, ghost, demon, witch—the challenge is to work it into something original. Hellbender goes that sort of character one better by creating the hybrid hellbender creature and commands attention by building a sense of unease and anticipation as it doles out information bit by bit.

The film benefits from fine performances by Zelda Adams and Toby Poser. Their actual family bond translates nicely to the screen and their chemistry solidifies the fantasy-based story. Zelda Adams’ transition from hermit to socially engaged teenager is believable, and Poser’s intense protectiveness of Izzy, though smothering, also comes across as motivated by love. Poser adds her mother character to the annals of horror matriarchs with a combination of vigilance, defensiveness, and mysticism.

Hellbender was captured digitally with Canon cameras by cinematographers John Adams and Zelda Adams and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The picture quality on Arrow Video’s Blu-ray release is sharp. Scenes in the forest are shot during the day, an unusual touch for a horror film. The vegetation in the woods is either lush and verdant or stripped and blackened by forest fire. Color palette varies from bold greens of the trees and bushes on the mountain to darker hues for burned trees and the clothing of Izzy and her mother. Multi-faceted psychedelic images appear as visions when Izzy places her hand on a mystical book. When Izzy and her mother play their instruments, the lighting becomes club-like and their faces are painted in garish patterns of color.

The soundtrack is English 2.0 LPCM. English SDH subtitles are an option. Dialogue is clear and distinct. There are long stretches in which visuals drive the story. The songs performed by Izzy and her mother are heavy metal. The score by John Adams conveys an otherworldly sense and a pervasive atmosphere of dread. Sound effects include teenagers splashing in a pool, screams, garbled incantations, flames, gunshots and assorted squishy effects.

Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from Arrow Video include the following:

• Audio Commentary with Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams
• From the Forest She Rises (12:37)
• Black Magic Tricks (10:13)
• Behind-the-Scenes Footage (6:54)
• Fort Worden Short Film (:58)
• Hit and Run Music Video (3:20)
• Drive Music Video (2:03)
• Lovely Music Video (2:42)
• Black Sky Music Video (2:24)
• Trailer (1:53)
• The Deeper You Dig Trailer (2:14)

Audio Commentary – Filmmakers Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams introduce themselves and conduct an upbeat, shared commentary. They speak about filming a key prologue sequence the day before the COVID lockdown. They discuss how various special effects were created. The band element, they believed, would drive the “fun” of the film. They bought a drone in order to make several high-angle shots. Many of the outdoor scenes had to be reshot because of inconsistent lighting. Several scenes were shot in the eastern Catskills Mountains. Other forested areas were used based on their appearance. A mossy forest was a find the family was proud of. Zelda Adams was homeschooled during filming. The owner of the house and swimming pool offered the property as a filming location for the thrill of having it featured in the film. Research was done to make the film’s horror element seem grounded in folklore tradition. The camaraderie of the family and their joy in working together are apparent in their enthusiastic recollections and the anecdotes they relate.

From the Forest She Rises – Filmmaker Jen Handorf offers an academic discussion about the forest as a key component of ancient myths. Women not only worship nature, they get strength from it. Izzy moves from cultural restraints of civilization to opposing the raw power of nature. She longs for freedom and develops into a “literal devourer of worlds.” References are made to other films about witchcraft. The cabin serves as a portal between the human world and something older and more elemental. Izzy’s home is more prison than safe haven. True terror isn’t what lurks in the woods but what the woods liberates.

Black Magic Tricks – VFX artist Trey Lindsay explains the film’s visual effects. His goal was to make the effects subtle. He talks about the hanging scene, gunshots, the burning witch, a man disintegrating, a key emerging from the back of a human hand, book visions, how he made stage blood, and the hellbender face transformation. Detailed step-by-step illustrations accompany his explanations.

Behind-the-Scenes Footage – This is a collection of scenes showing the setting up and filming of particular shots. There’s no narration to fill in details.

Fort Worden – In this short film by Zelda Adams, a girl holds a lantern and walks through a dark corridor, sees an impression of a human hand on a wall, and the lantern shines on a masked, demonic figure emerging from the darkness holding flowers. Weird music accompanies the film.

Booklet – This 40-page booklet contains the article Hellbender – Filmmakers’ Statement by producer Toby Poser; the essay Growing Up Is Hell by Natasha Ball; the essay Spring Eats Winter, Winter Eats Fall by Kat Hughes; cast and crew list; and 20 production and behind-the-scenes photos.

Hellbender plays like a tale from the archives of darkest folklore with its remote, woodsy setting, unconventional characters, and Izzy’s mysterious affliction that keeps her far from other people. The filmmakers avoid addressing witchcraft directly, which keeps the viewer wondering about Izzy and her mother. The film has a disjointed quality that hurts narrative flow but the script manages to tie together disparate elements by the time the end credits roll. The horror builds slowly, with gruesome touches and a decent but not overwhelming payoff.

- Dennis Seuling