An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at the Netflix-exclusive Hellhole
Father Marek arrives at a monastery that doubles as a sanatorium in Lower Silesia, Poland to assist with exorcisms but quickly discovers that everything is not as it seems.
Is Hellhole (2022) Scary?
Hellhole has a few good jump scares and an extremely predictable and annoying one. Despite this, the movie does have a suspenseful atmosphere but it is sort of overshadowed by the mystery. There actually not a lot of gore in the movie at all but there is a pretty gory scene towards the last third; you’ll know it’s coming before it happens. Overall you won’t leave Hellhole scared unless you plan on vacationing at a monastery in the middle of nowhere.
Plot Synopsis:
The film opens in Lower Silesia, in 1957 as a priest drives up to a small church with a baby at night. Inside, he puts the baby on the altar, prays, lifts up a knife, and is about to kill it when the police show up. You know the trope; the priest stops what he’s doing despite having ample time to stab the baby, and gets shot.
The police grab the baby and we pan over to see it has a strange birthmark on its chest. Outside the camera pans up to the moon and we see there’s a lunar eclipse over a blood-red moon. Oh man, that’s a devil baby, isn’t it?
Time jump! Thirty years later, Father Marek (played by Piotr Zurawski) gets off a bus and enters a monastery where Prior Andrzej (played by Olaf Lubaszenko) says they’ve been expecting him. We learn that Marek is an exorcist and the monastery is also a sanitarium where dangerous mentally ill individuals are kept.
Marek’s luggage is searched and he’s brought to his room where there is no electricity or phones allowed. Before he leaves, Andrzej tells Marek everyone stays in their room after dark and that “The Evil One” shows up within the walls all the time, so that’s comforting.
Marek changes into his robes and it’s revealed that he is the baby all grown up! He also opens a secret compartment in his luggage and we see he has a gun and flashlight.
From his hidden compartment, he takes out a newspaper article about a missing woman and it looks like she’s one of many who have gone missing. The next morning at 6 am all the monks file into a room and watch Prior Andrzej and Monk Piotr (played by Sebastian Stankiewicz) prepare for an exorcism on one of the patients.
Piotr starts recording as Andrzej begins the exorcism. The patient screams out and strong winds blow through the room leaving Marek in disbelief. The bed the patient is tied to starts shaking and the crucifix Andrzej is holding engulfs into flames. The eyes of a nearby painting of Jesus tear open and multiple flies pour out of them so even he can’t believe what’s going on.
Interestingly, the entire time this is happening, Marek is the only monk who looks visibly shocked. You would think if he was an exorcist, he would be used to this.
Later, Marek is in his bathroom washing the shock off his face when his mirror cracks on its own. The wardrobe in his room opens on its own as well as we hear growling coming from inside, and I can bet it ain’t going to be a Narnia-level adventure. Marek closes the wardrobe and just carries on with his day like it’s normal.
At dinner, all the monks gather around a table and eat some disgusting-looking food that looks like beef stew. One of the monks doesn’t want to eat and Andrzej sends mini-Andre the Giant Monk Dawid (played by Rafal Iwaniuk) to talk to him. Dawid says something to the monk and the monk eats through tears. Cut to Marek vomiting the food up in his bathroom and pulling out a tooth that breaks open letting out a fly.
That night Marek pulls out a locking picking kit hiding his rosary beads and, after a click on two, he breaks into Andrzej’s office. I’m beginning to think Marek isn’t actually a priest. Entering a hidden closet, he finds a bunch of tapes of exorcisms and decides to investigate the exorcism room.
There, he finds a syringe under the bed with an unknown liquid, discovers the bed shakes when someone steps on nearby tiles, the wind was actually caused by a hidden fan, and the crucifix has a mechanism that causes it to ignite. It was all fake!
The following day at prayer, Andrzej has Marek recite the prayer but Marek is unable to complete it in Latin. Realizing the jig might be up, after lunch where he finds a clump of hair in his food, Marek returns to his room and grabs his gun. He attempts to leave the monastery but the front doors are locked behind a gate.
Walking past a window he spots several monks burying a coffin and Marek rushes to the room of the patient they performed an exorcism for. There, he finds it empty but notices a small pool of blood on the ground.
Piotr shows up and tells Marek to wait for him in the confessional booth. A short time later, Marek meets with Piotr inside the booth and Piotr warns him that “they” are watching him. He also says that they’re trapped there and Piotr tried to escape but what caught and beaten.
Marek reveals he is an undercover cop sent in to investigate the disappearance of 8 women who were thought to be possessed. The police were tipped off after an anonymous tip but were unable to launch an official investigation. Piotr explains that the exorcisms are all fake and the tapes, which make them look real, are shown to the Vatican which gets them funding.
The Vatican is told the women die during the course of the exorcisms but Piotr says it’s not true yet, doesn’t know what actually happens to them. So if it’s all fake, how did they fake Marek’s mirror breaking and the fly coming out of his own damn tooth?!
Marek returns to his room and searches for hidden cameras or recording devices. Moving his wardrobe is finds a wet, moldy hole in the wall behind it and reaches in completely forgetting he has a flashlight. Unfortunately, Marek finds something and pulls out a weird piece of wood with a tooth and eyeball attached to it. The eyeball then moves.
Marek vomits up black bile and drops the eyeball stick as we see it continue to move. Also, it’s hairy and that’s somehow worse. Terrified, Marek watches as flies emerge from his black bile vomit and then turns to the door when he hears someone outside. Turning back, there’s a cheap jump scare when this weird nun pops out shrieking in an annoyingly loud volume.
The nun ghost disappears and Marek steps on the eyeball thing, killing it. That night he enters the cemetery and digs up the coffin he saw the monks bury the day before. After finding it empty, Marek is attacked by Dawid and we cut to black.
The next morning Marek wakes tied to his bed under the watch of Dawid. Andrzej enters with four bowls of food and tells Marek he has to eat all four bowls for medicinal purposes. Marek refuses but Dawid beats him and holds his mouth open as Andrzej feeds him.
That night Marek wakes up and sees Dawid asleep while on watch. He carefully unties himself but Dawid wakes up. Marek is able to grab his gun on the table as Dawid grabs him and the two fall onto the ground. After striking him with the butt of the gun, Marek places a pillow over Dawid’s head and shoots him.
Unbelievably no one hears the gunshot and Marek continues his search for the missing women in the kitchen. There he finds all the women… except they’re all dead and hung on hooks. Also, they’re missing parts of their bodies because guess what’s in that beef stew? It ain’t beef. Marek turns to leave but bumps into Piotr.
Piotr says he has something to show him in the library and Marek reluctantly agrees to go with him. In the library, Piotr opens up a thousand-year-old book that tells the legend of a chosen one who, after eating 7 sinners and drinking the blood of the innocent, will become a demon and bring about the end of the world.
Piotr says the fanatical Andrzej believes Marek is the chosen one but despite finding the drawing of his birthmark in the book, Marek thinks it’s just a fairytale. Piotr suggests the two escape through the underground passage that he attempted to use before. Sure, let’s use a route that you were caught using and severely beaten for using but, with no other choice, Marek agrees.
To the surprise of no one, not even Marek, it was a trap. Marek is attacked by several monks and knocked out. A short time later, he wakes up tied to a pole and surrounded by the monks in red robes. Andrzej reveals that he knew Marek was a cop the entire time and orchestrated his arrival. Andrzej is the one who put in the anonymous tip and then bribed Marek’s superiors to have them give him the case.
It’s revealed that Andrzej is planning to complete the ritual so the devil can come to earth and punish humans. Once the devil arrives, those that completed the ritual will become his apostles and get to serve by his side.
Several monks bring in a patient they consider innocent and slice her neck open, collecting her blood in a bowl. The monks each drink her blood which I’m pretty sure was not part of the legend Piotr detailed earlier. Andrzej and Piotr then force Marek to drink the blood of the innocent.
Andrzej completes the ritual by calling upon the devil… but nothing happens. In a funny scene, Andrzej and Piotr wonder what went wrong and tell the rest of the monks they probably made a mistake.
Before the monks leave for their rooms, one of them points out that the police will come looking for Marek so Piotr stabs him in the stomach. As Marek dies, the monks throw his body down a well. Later, a dejected Andrzej gets drunk in his office and doesn’t notice the crosses on his wall turning upside on their own.
Piotr walks in and helps him to the couch where Andrzej falls asleep. Seeing an opportunity to take over as Prior following Andrzej’s failure, Piotr grabs a pillow and suffocates Andrzej. The next day as the monks are burning all the bodies of the women they killed, Piotr delivers the news that Andrzej died in his sleep.
A fly emerges from Andrzej’s body and flies all the way down to Marek which causes him to wake up. Before he can even say “what the fuck”, Marek’s flesh burns away.
As the monks gather at the chapel and Piotr leads a prayer, he begins to choke and is lifted into the air. His head starts to deteriorate releasing hundreds of flies and the rest of his body disintegrates.
The devil enters the room and the monks start to run despite this being exactly what they wanted.
The devil screams and everyone freezes in place. The monks are lifted into the air and flipped upside down as if being crucified. We see that everyone in the monastery throughout all the rooms are also floating upside down.
Outside we see dead flowers come back to life which I guess means the dead have returned. The camera flips upside down as a large crack forms along the monastery ceiling. Panning towards the sky, we see the sky explode and crack open. Thunder is heard as Hell begins to emerge from the hole.
The film ends as the world, presumably, ends.
Hellhole Explained
Although Hellhole is pretty straightforward forward there are some lingering questions, so let’s go over some (if not all) you might have by the end:
Who is Father Marek? “Father” Marek is actually not a priest and is actually part of the police force sent in undercover to investigate what happened to several missing women who were sent to the monastery for exorcisms. Marek also happens to be the baby from the start of the movie that the priest unsuccessfully tried to kill.
Why is Marek undercover? At one point while talking to Piotr, Marek explains the police couldn’t launch an official investigation because of the incident from 30 years prior. That “incident” was the police killing the priest who was attempting to kill the baby. Apparently, the police force didn’t want to create further tension between it and the church.
Why are Andrzej and the rest of the monks trying to bring about a demon/the devil? Andrzej briefly explains that heaven and hell basically have an agreement and God allows the devil to punish humans every now and again. Andrzej believes that if he is the one that completes the ritual then he and his fellow monks can serve the devil in the new world.
How did Andrzej know Marek was the chosen one and how did he get him to the monastery? It’s not explained how Andrzej knew Marek was the chosen one but he gave the police a few anonymous tips about missing women who were possibly dead in order to have them want to investigate. He then bribed the police so they could send Marek to be the undercover cop. This also explains why, despite them watching Marek, they let him continue wandering around the monastery.
What happened to the missing women? Those women were mentally ill and brought to the monastery to have exorcisms performed on them. Andrzej recorded these fake exorcisms in order to obtain funding from the Vatican. Since part of the ritual also required the chosen one to eat seven bodies, the monks kept their bodies frozen until Marek arrived and they all ate parts of each woman. It’s clear the monks don’t eat people on the regular since after the ritual is thought to have failed, the bodies are burned and at one point, one monk was crying because he had to eat the food.
Why didn’t the ritual work immediately? It’s not clear why the ritual took some time to work but it could be that the ritual required both the chosen one and the one performing the ritual to die first. Since Marek doesn’t turn into a demon until Andrzej is dead, this appears to have been the case.
Why did Piotr kill Andrzej? Piotr appeared disillusioned with Andrzej after the ritual failed and his story of trying to escape at some point appears to have been true. It’s possible the ritual not working was just the last straw and knowing that Andrzej’s death meant he was in charge, he took the opportunity to change things.
Who was the dead nun in that jump scare? Fuck if I know. It’s never explained who it was or why they were there. It’s possible that Marek was starting to experience hauntings since he was fulfilling the ritual but no other hauntings happen after this.
What was with the flies in the vomit and the tooth? That’s never quite explained but it’s also a trope when it comes to demonic hauntings. Like the nun, it might just be things Marek is experiencing as he gets closer to fulfilling the ritual. There’s is another explanation that’s sort of hinted at and that’s the rotten food he’s been eating. It’s clear the human stew he’s being fed doesn’t taste or smell good and it might be infested with maggots. This doesn’t explain the fly in the tooth or how it survived his stomach acid when he vomited them up. This makes me lean toward demonic haunting trope
Review:
Hellhole is pretty good and the last half is good. There are some predictable plot points but there are also some reveals that catch you off guard. The acting is good and the dialogue works. If you’ve seen enough possession or demonic “chosen one” movies or tv shows, a lot of the movie will be predictable until the last 20 minutes or so. The ending is what really elevates the movie because it chose to bring about the end of the world after it seemed like the ritual failed.
While Hellhole is a horror mystery, it does its mystery better than its horror. A lot of the horror elements feel like they’re shoehorned in just for the sake of a jump scare. For example: the bundle of sticks with hair and an eyeball that Marek found in his wall is never explained.
It’s implied that this is how the monks are watching him but they never use a tactic like this again and it’s never mentioned that it was actually them. Immediately after he finds it there’s that jump scare with the nun demon thing, why? It never reappears, it’s never mentioned, and it has no reason to be there.
Overall I recommend giving Hellhole a watch, it’s an entertaining horror mystery that does a pretty good job and might surprise you.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
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