Hellbender

Made by one family during lockdown for almost nothing, and it looks better than films with fifty times the budget.

A mother and daughter live alone on a mountain. The daughter is told she has an illness that means she cannot be near other people. They are in a band together. The band is called Hellbender.

The Adams family, John Adams, Toby Poser and their daughters Zelda and Lulu, wrote, directed, shot, scored, performed and edited it themselves, with a cast of about five.

The result is striking: the forest photography is superb, the music is real and good, and the coming-of-age story underneath is about a mother controlling a daughter through fear.

The worm sequence is when the film announces itself.

It is proof that the equipment stopped being the constraint some time ago.