1/13/2024 0 Comments Poser debut serial forgotWhile the film’s casual mythology may strike some as unfinished or deliberately opaque, it also encourages viewers to develop their own explanations and backstories. This coincides with the theme of voyeurism baked into Hellbender ’s premise: Mother watches Izzy, Izzy watches Amber, and anyone who unexpectedly lays eyes on the women in the woods runs the risk of becoming ash. Similarly, when the women perform their occult spells in the woods, the camera adopts a hazy iris lens to evoke the point of view of objects floating up into the sky. These visions of the future are full of fiery, smoky, melting imagery, captured in rapid-fire, music video-style editing. Despite this, they have maintained the same hallucinatory visual aesthetic, evident in the dream-like visions that Izzy and Mother experience when they touch a mysterious book. Hellbender ’s narrative is more accessible than The Deeper You Dig, the Adams’ surreal film that rocked Fantastic Fest back in 2019. Regardless of how the women identify, once Izzy’s power is unlocked, all hell breaks loose. It’s never confirmed, but the words witch and demon are both references (and the film’s fixation on blood as a powerful and captivating elixir offers another potential reading). Hellbender is more than the name of their band: it’s also a description of what mother and daughter are. It quickly becomes clear why Mother keeps a close eye on Izzy, though. There she meets a teenage girl named Amber ( Lulu Adams, Zelda’s sister) who, despite Izzy’s immuno-compromised state and slight home-schooled awkwardness, befriends her and encourages Izzy to break out of her shell. While Mother ensures the man won’t talk, Izzy latches onto an offhand remark he made and for the first time, ventures over to a neighbor’s property. Soon enough, a chance encounter between Izzy and a lost stranger (John Adams) in the woods sets the plot in motion. And when Mother ventures into town for supplies, she’s recognized by an elderly man who swears she’s much older than she looks. Still, there’s something not quite right in the way that Mother refuses to allow Izzy to come into town with her, or how the road to their property is marked off with a warning sign. Izzy’s (Zelda Adams) relationship with Mother (Tobey Poser) is affectionate and easy-going they have their own rock band ( H6LLB6ND6R), they’re vegetarians who live off of the flora in the woods, and their lives are relatively peaceful. The film follows a mother/daughter pair who live a solitary life on an isolated mountain. Their latest, Hellbender, is an exciting new addition to the “horrific female coming-of-age” subgenre and bears more than a few similarities to Julia Ducournau’s Raw. None of this would matter if the films weren’t any good, but they’re suitably impressive. The family is truly a one-stop-shop for film production. They also act as editor, cinematographer, DP, costume designer, music composer, and producer. The trio – composed of John Adams, Toby Poser and their daughter Zelda Adams – write and direct all of their films collaboratively. The Adams Family are doing the kind of pioneering DIY work that most low-budget independent filmmakers can only dream of.
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