The 2024 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is coming to a close and ComicBook has some fresh reviews out of the festival’s genre and international film premieres. This time we’re reviewing action thriller Steppenwolf from Kazakhstan and Hell Hole, the latest horror offering The Adams Family.
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Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf, an action-thriller out of Kazakhstan, is the hidden gem of this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Writer/director Adilkhan Yerzhanov plunges viewers into a dark world where a mundane approach to extreme violence is a survival mechanism, forcing a desperate mother to align herself with a nihilistic enforcer to help find her son. The plot itself has an immediate hook, but Yerzhanov’s masterful direction keeps you engaged and doesn’t allow you to look away.
Berik Aitzhanov takes on the role of Brajyuk, whose performance as a savage mercenary is never not engaging from a visual sense. There are layers to it though and not just a wanton psychotic killer, like moments where he has to connect with his fellow man and it appears to cause him physical pain to be remotely human; but the second he allows his nihilism to return to the driver’s seat of his mind, he functions without fault; it’s a fascinating dichotomy.
Steppenwolf is a two-hander, though, and Anna Starchenko as Tamara walks away as its MVP. From the moment she arrives, Tamara is wandering in a haze, a shell-shocked stupor that borders on comical, at times, and makes others perceive her as weak. One moment sees a group of men she’s traveling with all react to gunfire by falling to the ground, and her non-reaction immediately makes her stand out not only within the narrative, but as a performer.
Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s direction reveals him to be a commander of the camera, with a clear understanding of scene blocking, storytelling patience, and knowing that sometimes what we don’t see is more powerful than what we do. One moment, a nonverbal sequence of communication between the lead and a henchman, is not only expertly crafted as a visual gag but is hilarious to watch unfold. The tiered effectiveness of his visual language confirms he’s a voice to study and eagerly anticipate.
If there is a fault to find in Steppenwolf it’s a minor one, but it’s the foley work, which even casual moviegoers will notice uses almost every generic sound effect that you’ve ever heard, often multiple times. But when every other facet of the film is aces, it’s easy to let that go, and after the first 20 minutes, this issue vanishes. Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s Steppenwolf is a tense film that doesn’t lean on its callbacks to other iconic movies, instead taking iconic things like the doorframe shot of The Searchers and building on it to create an all-new meaning. There’s a universal appeal in Steppenwolf, and I hope it finds its audience.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Hell Hole
The Adams Family have made a name for themselves in recent years for their creative indie horror efforts like 2022’s Hellbender and last year’s Where the Devil Roams. Now they’re back with another Shudder original, the midnight monster flick Hell Hole. Taking clear inspiration from both The Thing and Tremors, there is a kernel of an idea that’s eager to be explored around autonomy, but very little depth beyond a surface-level concept.
Drillers in Serbia uncover a mystery in the ground, which leads to tentacled terrors that make their way through their isolated camp. The moments where the beasts at the heart of Hell Hole take center stage are a hoot to watch, but they are fleeting, and are seldomly as frequent as one might expect, given the title. Unfortunately, stale writing and dull musical cues haunt Hell Hole, making its 90-minute run time an exercise in tedious characters. There are some minor standouts in the cast, including Olivera Perunicic taking on the role of Sofija and exuding charm and charisma every time she’s on screen, and Anders Hove, whose role we dare not spoil but which largely kicks off the scares.
The camera does know to linger on the unique setting, a desolate building in the midst of the woods, but even that can’t prop up interest too long. All the sequences with the monsters drastically shift the tone of the entire movie, though, delivering an uneven final product. There’s no shame in low/no-budget horror, but without a compelling lead to anchor us through a good story, then it becomes an endurance test instead of a movie.
Rating: 2 out of 5
