“Hellhole” Shows the Brutality of Men
Or how many priests does it take to end the world?
👿👿 (out of 👿👿👿👿👿)
Director: Bartosz M. Kowalski
Screenplay by: Bartosz M. Kowalski, Mirella Zaradkiewicz
Cinematography: Cezary Stolecki
Starring: Piotr Żurawski, Olaf Lubaszenko, Sebastian Stankiewicz, Lech Dyblik, Rafał Iwaniuk, Krzysztof Satała, Malwina Dubowska, Zbigniew Waleryś
The 2022 Polish film “Hellhole” (Ostatnia wieczerza) is an interesting take on the evil of men who seek power (and in this case, I mean men and not humanity because the only women in this film are traumatized or dead ones who have been brutalized for the men’s gain). While billed as a horror film, I’m not sure it really classifies as that. It’s dark and atmospheric, and there are some creepy happenings, but it’s less scary and more…gross. Plenty of disgusting things happening in this one, so if you’re squeamish, this probably won’t be one of your favorite flicks.
The film begins in the 1950s with a priest about to murder a baby he refers to as the “evil seed.” Alas, the priest is thwarted, and we’re immediately whisked off to the 1980s. This is where we’re introduced to Marek, a member of the Milicja (essentially a police officer). Marek is going undercover as a priest to infiltrate a sanatorium where women keep disappearing. Once he arrives, he meets several other priests, all of whom are pretty off-putting and more than a little sketch. He witnesses the exorcism of a female patient, eats some truly horrifying food, and proceeds to sneak around, trying to figure out what’s happening. And then, things go sideways fast.
There’s obviously a religious aspect to this movie, considering it stars a bunch of priests, but as I said up top, it seems to be more about the evil of men seeking power. There’s a reason the women of the sanatorium keep disappearing, and that reason is the priests want more power than they currently have. It isn’t enough to be horrible to the people stuck in this hellhole; these guys want everyone in the world to suffer. In fact, their theory is that humans are the true evil in the world, not Satan or demons, etc., and a new world order should be brought about (but not THE New World Order, just a new world order…I think).
The movie also offers a variety of tropes. The gloomy sanatorium setting of a crumbling monastery full of candles (because electricity isn’t allowed) is the perfect Gothic backdrop. The sanatorium is located miles away from anything else and hosts a community of cultists/conspiracy theorists, lending it some folkloric horror flavor. And, of course, there’s the religious bent with a focus on the demonic that gives us a hint of the supernatural. It almost feels at times as if “Hellhole” is trying to be several different films at once.
The set of the movie is the best thing about it. Acting-wise, everyone does fine, but there are no true stand-out performances. Not even Marek, the supposed protagonist, really caught my attention. Whether he lived or died (or ended up somewhere in-between) was shrugs. Honestly, I was more concerned about those poor women, as well as how many people were going to come down with food poisoning at any moment (the food looked amazingly disgusting—although for good reason).
The ending is a bit disappointing, too. The movie is fairly short at only 88 minutes, and the majority of those minutes don’t involve much until one reaches the penultimate scene (which, when it finally arrives, is short and underwhelming). I would have liked to have seen more there.
Overall, though, “Hellhole” isn’t an awful film if you can suffer through the terrible foodstuffs (and the use of women’s bodies as fodder to further terrible men’s stories…ahem). It’s atmospheric as fuck and has a couple of genuinely creepy moments. It just doesn’t follow through entirely on its premise, leading to an ending that is a little more than lacking.
What did you think of “Hellhole?” Let me know in the comments!