“Hell”
Year: 2012
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Stars: Hanna Herzsprung, Stipe Erceg, Lisa Vicari
Studio: Arc Entertainment
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 89 Mins
Even though I liked “The Divide” and “Stake Land, the post-apocalyptic genre isn’t one of my favorite types of subgenre. I was really going into this film thinking that this is going to be a very awful film, but was curious anyway. Thankfully my curiosity turned me on to “Hell”.
The film follows Marie, a young woman who’s traveling with her young sister Leonie and her companion Phillip through the ruins of a scorched earth. They are heading to the mountains, where there it is rumored to contain one of the last sources of water. On the way, they meet a mechanic who joins them in their search. But can they trust him, as he might have his own plans. The situation gets worse, when they’re ambushed, by a group of people. This leads them to fight for their own survival.
I had doubts going into “Hell”, since it was being produced by Roland Emmerich. Yes, the same man behind awful films like “Godzilla” and “2012”. But I was surprised that those doubts were put to rest in the first half hour of the film.
Director and co-writer Tim Fehlbaum does very job keeping the tone of the film very dark and intense. He’s able to do that, by making the way that he makes the film’s shots have an apocalyptic feel and look to it. Some of the shots were very dark and gloomy. It was needed, so you buy into the fact that the world has in fact gone to hell. If the shots didn’t look that way, it would’ve been tough to believe the story. The other thing that makes his direction good, he’s able to get the performances to fit the film’s tone perfectly. Fehlbaum does a very good job getting the actors to put a lot of energy into their characters, while not turning you off with the film’s very dark tone. It makes the film move at a good pace and doesn’t make you turn the film off.
Post apocalyptic dramas usually never work well for me. They tend to be very boring, but there are exceptions like this film. The screenplay written by Fehlbaum, Oliver Kahl and Thomas Wobke does a very good job making the story very dark. One of the things that I liked about the screenplay, it did a very good job setting up and building towards the action sequences. I like it, when the film’s screenplay doesn’t rush into an action sequence. The story takes its time and allows the focus to be on its characters and the dark scenery, which is quite evident throughout the whole film. When that’s effective, it allows for you to be interested in the conflict.
Honestly, I was very surprised with this film. I truly thought that this was going to be a “Screener from Hell”. “Hell” does a very good job developing the story, while not letting you feel bored. It’s proves the point on how to make an effective film of this nature work. When you have characters that caught in a conflict and the setups keeps you interested, the end result is a film that never drags and keeps your attention.
Review Rating: Four Stars
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