Hellbender
directed by John Adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams
starring Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, Lulu Adams
Arrow Video
Working on shoestring budgets in and around their home in the Catskill Mountains in New York, the Adams Family (Toby Poser, John Adams, and daughters Lulu and Zelda Adams) have created a number of memorable and effective horror films over the past decade. Their 2023 coming-of-age witchcraft fable, Hellbender, was originally picked up by the Shudder streaming network, but has been given physical life by Arrow Video in an extras-laden Blu-ray release.
Hellbender is an exquisite bit of heavy-metal folk horror set in and around a secluded house in the Catskill Mountains of New York. Teenage Izzy (Zelda Adams) lives with her mom (Toby Poser) and spends her days exploring the forests and streams. By night she practices with her mom in their drum and bass metal duo H6lllb6nd6r (which is an actual band in real life). Izzy has been raised to believe that she suffers from a rare disease so she must be quarantined from other people, but during a chance encounter with another teen girl, Amber (Lulu Adams), Izzy discovers she isn’t sickly, and her mother has been shielding her from a dark secret. Izzy and her mom are both descendants of a race of witches known as Hellbenders who can absorb the essence of animals and people to gain power and live for centuries. After a couple of psychedelic trips involving earthworms and maggots, Izzy decides that she is through with hiding in the forest and wants to fully embrace and explore her calling as a Hellbender, consequences be damned.
So much of the appeal of Hellbender and the family’s other films is in their intimate weirdness. They are quirky and at times self-indulgent, but these are features, not bugs. Too many micro-budget filmmakers fail because they are trying to do huge productions with no money, where the Adams’ ethos is all about telling their own stories on their own terms, but with astonishingly high production values. They make great use of their Catskills location and maximize the talents of the clan members. It can be tempting to speculate what the Adams clan could do with a serious budget, but more resources may actually work to undo the immeasurable charm of their bespoke productions. The film boasts beautiful photography, striking, often surreal visuals, and impressive special effects that are all fortified by fascinating characters wonderfully brought to life by the actresses who are also working behind the scenes when not on camera.
Arrow Video’s release of Hellbender is a treasure full of extras, including an audio commentary with Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams, a video essay by Jen Handorf, Fort Worden, a delightfully spooky short from Zelda Adams, H6lllb6nd6r music videos, and more. The entire package is a testament to the magic the family Adams continues to create on the fringes of modern horror.
