If the trailer — or, certainly, the title — had left you in any doubt about the kind of film Hell Gap may 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 via 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 working rampant via 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 come back.

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 as a result of some close by flooding. They begin digging, uncover a still-alive man preserved underground in some type of subterranean slimy substance. Then the hell hinted at within the film’s title rapidly breaks unfastened.

Yep, this can be a subgenre of horror you are accustomed to. 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. In contrast to Ridley Scott and John Carpenter’s chilling classics, although, there is a wriggling tentacle of comedy twining via Hell Gap‘s horror. The gore, and the monster, have a foolish B film really feel. The query is, does it work?

Hell Gap is to not be taken too critically.

Hell Gap is the type of horror film that’d be straightforward to get pleasure from on a Saturday night time with buddies. 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 should you’re on the lookout for one thing light-hearted and enjoyable that the Adamses clearly had enjoyable making, then you might do worse.

The way to watch: Hell Gap is streaming on Shudder from Aug. 23.