In the year 2014 a series of intense solar flares have destroyed the atmosphere and turned the sun into mankind’s greatest enemy. Sisters Marie and Leonie, along with guardian Phillip, make their way into the mountains in search of water and refuge, collecting mysterious mechanic Tom along the way. The party soon fall into an ambush and, as their captor’s intentions are revealed, their struggle for survival takes an even more horrific and terrifying turn.
There have been times when the apocalypse has been, to a degree, quite good fun. Mute, dog like children, maimed mohawked savages with razor sharp boomerangs. Talking ape-men captured Charlton Heston in a big net. David Carridine ran over nurses for sport. You know, fun? Recently however, at a time when the end of the world seems as if it could be just around the bloody corner, post apocalyptic flicks have become much more sombre, serious affairs. Hell is a film that falls into this category (the title is a subtle clue as to how fun this particular barrel of laughs will be). It strongly resembles John Hillcoat’s excellent Cormac McCarthy adaption The Road in terms of it’s quite gorgeous, bleached out visuals and portentous, doom laden atmosphere, but lacks the heart and soul that made Hillcoat’s movie such a powerful experience, which is a shame as the first twenty minutes or so promise something much more interesting than the movie ever actually delivers.
It seems for a while as if Hell is going to be a rather neat fusion of two horror/thriller subgenres, a post apocalyptic road movie and a psycho thriller flick. As the mysterious Tom joins the group there are hints of an interesting dynamic developing. Tom is a bit of an alpha male, capable, strong, a little dangerous, but also helpful and attentive. Phillip, who it would seem has been the girl’s loyal guardian for a while, is whiny, fussy and cold, but cold in such a way that he will perhaps make tough decisions that others might not to ensure their survival. I thought at this point that the movie might focus on the rivalry between these two characters and the girl’s decision as to which one would be most capable of protecting them. Unfortunately, this promising direction is abandoned immediately and, as the group are ambushed and then separated, the movie becomes just another standard survival horror. At this point it becomes a case of “been there, seen that”. Elements of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre are ‘borrowed’ and the clichés start flying thick and fast, it’s not bad, it’s just not very original or interesting.
One major reason that the final third of the film fails to provide much in the way of tension is the lack of any real characterisation, the decision to abandon any group dynamics and separate the characters leaving very little to identify with. The actors are all fine, promising even, but these movies live or die based on the relationships between the characters, and these are too faintly sketched to be of any real interest and we simply do not get enough time with them together.
Hell is by no means a bad movie, it looks great and has a few effective moments, it’s just a bit disappointing that it started out with what seemed to be a strong idea, only to fall into clichéd territory we’ve all seen many times before.
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Stars: Hannah Herzsprung, Stipe Erceg, Angela Winkler
Runtime: 89 min
Country: Germany, Switzerland
Film Rating: 
