Filmmakers Toby Poser and John Adams made waves with their film Hellbender, released on Shudder in 2021. The film has a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the witchy coming-of-age story. Hell Hole, a new horror film directed by Poser and Adams, debuted on Shudder last month.
The film, which is not light on gore, follows an American-led fracking crew who discovers a living French soldier frozen in time during a Napoleonic campaign. Unfortunately for those who made the discovery, the body contains a parasitic monster.
We talked with Poser and Adams about working with Shudder, the film’s practical effects, and what’s next for the duo.
Horror Geek Life: This is your second feature to release with Shudder; how is that relationship?
Toby Poser: Pretty damn beautiful. They’re nice people. They’ve been really good to us. They just planned this showcase in New York, where we were, and in Chicago, where we weren’t, but we saw, and they’re doing great stuff.
Something I love about Shudder is that I’m in touch with a lot of female filmmakers, and there’s a lot of talk about where and where not women are getting support. And Shudder is really up there in terms of the support they’re giving and the exposure to women filmmakers. Shudder has a real understanding of the horror community. The fact that it’s open-minded and inclusive and that we all love talking about these subjects, but while covered in blood.
John Adams: They also treat us as what we are, which is just a tiny family, and they don’t expect more from us, and they don’t expect less. And that’s really important to us because we enjoy what we’re doing and. We feel lucky to do it. So they really celebrate that.
HGL: Hell Hole is super bloody, gory, gooey, goopy—all of those words apply, plus some. Can you talk a bit about the practical effects?
John Adams: Yeah. So, we were lucky enough to work with Todd Masters, who is a master of real organic practical effects. He makes monsters. When we got that opportunity, we were so excited. Our effects guy, Trey Lindsay, has always looked up to, read about, and worshipped Todd Masters. So, the way they worked was that Todd made three monsters. He made one animatronic monster that was quite big. It probably weighed 70 pounds, at least. Then he made another monster, the exact same size, that could be puppeted by a human. He also made Trey a very little but exact duplicate of the big monsters so that Trey could do stop-motion filming to get the monster to move in bigger environments.
So, it was all practical effects. There are no computer-generated images. There’s some blood composites that hit the camera, but otherwise, it’s all filmed real and compositive together.
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HGL: I love Todd Masters, and it’s great seeing him attached to Hell Hole. He’s the King of VOD and practical effects!
Toby Poser: Well, Melissa, he was out there with us. Todd was really on the ground, making sure everything made sense. He was super involved with that intention. What’s great about Todd, besides the fact that he’s a great artist, he’s the best human being you want to be doing art with. It’s great to work with happy, good people.
John Adams: Another thing that he was really good at was saying, “This is how you have to do this.” For example, there’s one scene where a tentacle reaches out of a man and grabs another man’s leg. That’s Todd’s design of how to shoot it, which is in reverse. He’s like, “We’re going to shoot this all in reverse. So everybody has to act in reverse,” and all this stuff. Todd had all the tricks up his sleeve, and it was great to learn from him.
HGL: I can imagine! He can make an entire movie for $7! I’ve noticed in reviews that what critics and audiences take away from the film varies, whether it’s environmental concerns, a statement on abortion, etc. What are your thoughts on that?
John Adams: I think it’s really interesting to create something, and people can take different things away from it. That’s our favorite thing about horror, and the horror community, is that it’s an inclusive community. It’s an open-minded community, and we’re all talking about bigger issues, but we’re covering them up in blood so that they’re more fun and easier to talk about.
It is really nice to see the themes that are important to us being picked up by these writers, and now, we can talk about them. But it’s not vicious talk or angry talk. It’s more like, let’s talk.
Toby Poser: Also, my personal model is I always want someone to want to walk out of the room because then I feel like I’m not playing it safe. I want people to like our films, obviously, but I don’t aim to please everyone. Otherwise, you’re not making your art. You’re making someone else’s art. And how are you going to grow with that philosophy?
John Adams: Another interesting thing about the reviews is we’ve noticed with our films, half the audience has a great time, and half the audience will say, fuck this. We’ve come to be like, you know what? That’s kind of our badge of honor because it’s like the line right down the middle of “I really don’t like these people. The other half is, “I’ve got to like these people.” That’s really fun. I grew up on punk rock, and punk rock never tried to hit the radio.
HGL: It’s funny you mentioned that because I have it written in my notes: “This has a punk vibe!”
John Adams: We just saw it with two audiences, and you think you know what movie you just made until you sit and watch it with an audience. Then you find out what movie you made. We were happy people enjoyed the punk vibe to it.
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HGL: I know Hell Hole is just coming out, but I must ask if you’re already thinking about what’s next. Is there anything you can share?
Toby Poser: Hell, yeah. Times two! One is called Slug, and the other, what do you think of the title, because we’re chewing on this one: Mother of Flies.
HGL: I love that title! It sounds like something I would see.
John Adams: We’re excited to apply the lessons learned with Hell Hole and all the lessons learned from our other movies. We’re really having a great time with these two movies. One’s basically in the can, and the other’s filmed but not edited yet.
HGL: The titles sound like eco-horror films…
John Adams: Well, actually, it’s funny. One is more about a man who has a car accident and wakes up and realizes he has a demon inside of him that is trying to kill everything he loves. That’s been really fun, and we’re applying a lot of the practical effects we learned with Todd to that movie.
The other movie is really fun because it’s very much about dark magic, family, and things that we’re super comfortable with and love talking about. Basically, all of these are documentaries on our lives, but covered in blood and fun.