Hell (2012)

just watch it!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

An action-packed slog

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Hell isn't a terrible movie. I've seen far worse, particularly in the post-apocalyptic genre. However, it doesn't really try too hard either to better than all the rest.A group of survivors, caught in a world that has been overheated due to the Sun going haywire, tries to make it to a promised land of milk and honey. Or... in this case a land of water and erm...more water.Using simple over-saturation techniques to portray the blistering world works better than it really should and does get across the feel of a world that is slowly dying.What is not so good are the characters. Though acted decently, the characters per se are bland, bitchy and lacking anything like any real smarts. Yet we are supposed to believe that they have survived in this Hell for three years or more. Other than the ability to wrap themselves up against the sun's dangerous rays and siphon petrol, all of them are lacking in the survival skills that you would think such a group would acquire after three years.The story moves along decently and is fairly interesting right up until the inevitable Hills Have Eyes plot sets in, with our group falling afoul of a family of mountain dwellers who have developed a liking for Long Pig. Queue the inevitable (and sadly, rather tiresome) capture and escape and rescue motifs common to such story elements.Most of the group survive this ordeal (which isn't shown in as much graphical detail as it really required to make it stand out) and move on, escaping the grasp of the cannibals and .... the end.Hell is a rather formulaic movie which suffers from bland, charisma-free characters doing less than sensible things in a world that is poorly defined and realised.As I say, there are plenty of worse movies out there, but this one will not rank amongst the best. The low budget aside, a lot more could have been done with this feature to improve it, but it just wasn't. The result is a movie that feels like it was written by committee and not by someone with any passion for writing, let alone the genre.SUMMARY: Low budget, poor characters, weak story. Watchable, but very forgettable. Wait...what was I talking about again?

Masterful and chilling, Hell is a film that was tragically overlooked when first released. Despite winning the Fantasporto award and being acclaimed at several festivals, it deserved a wider and more appreciative audience. The director has certainly embraced the style of the great German auteurs of silent and early sound film and made their genius his own. In his hands, the cast gives performances that are virtually breathtaking. Working within a minimal budget with imagination and skill, the crew make the situation seem all too real. One of the better films to come out of Germany in the last few years, do not deny yourself the incredible experience that is Hell.

It is a relief to see a movie of such genre with no blood and gore. More directors should follow this example. There is strong tension within the film, all done with no over empathized violence and crunchy fleshy sound effects. There is the expected unpleasantness and danger, generated only from the elements of raw film making alone, that is great acting, writing, direction, editing, design, images, sound and music. The lead actress did an outstanding job, and the script had her carry out clever and logical actions that one would expect from a non-perfect but intelligent person with regards to the obstacles she was faced with. It's refreshing to experience such an apocalyptic film without bucket loads of violence.

The idea of the Sun scorching everything is interesting and also an excellent pretext to make a low-budget movie that doesn't look low-budget (see also Blair Witch etc.). Beautifully shot, it is unusual enough to be worth seeing. The problem is the film isn't, in fact, about surviving in a time when the Sun destroyed everything, but this excellent idea is just an excuse for yet another "Wrong Turn" movie. Had they stayed on the idea of a scorched Earth movie, it could have been a memorable one. But they didn't, so you'll just remember it as "that European Wrong Turn with very strong light".Also, the ending isn't an ending, it just looks like they spent all money and had to go home, or they went as dry of ideas as the world in the film and had to go home. A film that won't bore you at all, but in the "end" you'll be disappointed it didn't have better ideas.