Hellmouth (2014)
8/10
A Gravekeeper Goes to Hell, Convincingly.
27 July 2020
I'm not a professional but I think this review is fair. *Zero spoilers*

The film reminds me of Dante's Inferno. The main character gets dragged confusingly into Hell, and he basically stares each demonic figure in the face and says "I dont know why Im here, but you dont scare me." The main character definitely hogs the limelight, but he is the perfect person for the role. The pacing is good. What I really liked this movie for though is it's sense of setting. This movie stands out as one of the best uses of budget CGI I've ever seen. I think this movie had almost no budget whatsoever- I saw that their Indiegogo (kickstarter) raised some $2,000 with a $45,000 goal. They got pennies. I couldnt see more info than that because I dont have imdb pro (yeehaw), but they really went all out with the CGI regardless, never shying away from animating some ludicrous demon on screen. That's always a peeve of mine- when they hide the epic monsters in the shadowy bushes etc and try to use the excuse of "oh its all mysterious bc you cant see it yet," when theyre obviously just cheaping out.There were literally only 2 times that I would call the CGI bad: one being some blood against metal (again, only one time this happened), and the other being sadly right at the end, where the greenscreen was painfully obvious. I was really disappointed by that, how they left one of their worst greenscreen shots in right at the end. There was also one small issue with props selection, but Im not going to spoil what it was. Youll probably know when you see it. Other than that though, the CGI is extremely effective dollar for dollar, and it's easy to feel like they really shipped this man and a camera-strapped drone to Hell to shoot these scenes. I also thought the ending itself was kind of bad for being too sudden and how they got there to be the most confusing part of the entire movie, aside from the final scene itself and brief soliloquy which was pretty good. I'd give this movie 7.5, and if you enjoy things demonic then you'll definitely find this a good watch. I didn't think it was too confusing, and it isnt aimless. If nothing else, it was a well visualized journey to the depths of Hell, featuring one bad ass old man, a pretty girl, some interesting villains, and a handful of demons.
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