Hellmington is a 2019 thriller about a detective who investigates her father’s dying words.
Troubled detective Samantha Woodhouse (Nicola Correia-Damude) gets a call from her Uncle Rupert (Michael Ironside) that her father isn’t doing well. She reluctantly heads to her hometown and the hospital where his dying words are that of a girl named Katie Owens, a classmate of Sam’s who disappeared years earlier while in high school. She decides to stay in town and do some checking, digging into the past, uncovering an old satanic book with plenty of secrets. She’s soon spiraling deeper into a mystery with local cultists and the power of the number 9. As visions take hold, her past creeps back into her life and it becomes a fight for her life as she slowly connects a terrible truth to that of a missing girl.
Writers and directors Justin Hewitt-Drakulic and Alex Lee Williams feature length directorial debut is a curious effort, the small studio film packed with a clever story that begins with a ripe riddle that’s undeniably hook-worthy. Just who is Katie Owens (Angelica Stirpe) and why would a dying old man know anything about her? You’ll genuinely want to know as the start of Hellmington is not just compelling, it’s smart.
The best thing the movie has going for it is its sense of displacement, where it’s not really made clear if this is a straight up horror film or a taut whodunnit. Maybe both. It follows Sam around from clue to clue, travelling us through a series of encounters with a collection of odd characters, each who seem to know something but with everything they say, make the big picture a little less clear. That’s kind of fun, trying to stay a step ahead while the movie strives to keep you off kilter.
It’s not always successful in making it stick or sometimes even impactful, the plot getting bogged down in some sticky corners, but the filmmakers at least do so with good style, allowing moments of jarring and disconcerting imagery do a lot of the story telling. While it all falls into a few obvious trappings of the genre, with some needless jumps scares and bangs in the score, there are other razor sharp moments that earn their keep, with sudden adrenaline-thumping violence and sturdy twists in the road.
Limited by its budget but not its ambition, Hellmington doesn’t quite have the weight the complex story demands, even with a solid, noir-ish-esque performance from Correia-Damude, who plays weathered and skeptical as well as she should. It’s a rough, physical role for the appealing actress, and she’s easily every reason to stay tuned.
This isn’t a fast-paced slasher, and while there are bits of horror here and there, this is rather a bleak chiller that finds its fears not in the cliché but in the darkness of its haunted past. No, it doesn’t always work, but kudos to Hewitt-Drakulic and Williams for the effort, staging some very convincing and effective moments that never let this not be interesting, combing good direction and an unconventional score (by Cults). I doubt you won’t see the ending coming, where it nearly jumps the proverbial shark, but this is far better than it should be and well worth a watch.