Hellbender Trailer: Growing Up Is Hell In This Shudder Original

Growing up is hell in "Hellbender," a new horror film headed to Shudder next month. The film is a family affair, literally – it comes from the upstate N.Y. filmmaker family The Adams: Toby Poser, John Adams, and Zelda Adams. "Hellbender" was written, directed, produced, scored, and edited by the Adams Family (no relation to the Addams Family), who also star alongside Lulu Adams. The story follows a teenager who has been living in isolation on a mountain for her entire life. Everything changes one day when she eats a live worm that awakens "an insatiable and violent hunger awakened within her." Man, don't you hate when that happens after you eat live worms? Watch the "Hellbender" trailer below. 

I haven't seen "Hellbender" yet, but gosh, this looks good. Sure, there's a rough around the edges/low-budget quality to what's on display here. But that doesn't mean "Hellbender" should be ignored. If anything, it looks much more inventive than most of the big-budgeted dreck Hollywood pushes out. And I'm always down for some inventive horror. Here's a synopsis: 

In Hellbender, 16-year-old Izzy (Zelda Adams) suffers from a rare illness that has kept her isolated on a mountaintop with her mother (Toby Poser) her whole life. As Izzy begins to question her sickness, she pushes back against her confinement and secretly befriends Amber (Lulu Adams), another girl living on the mountain, but her newfound happiness is derailed after she eats a live worm as part of a juvenile game and finds an insatiable and violent hunger awakened within her. To understand the hunger, Izzy must learn the dark secrets of her family's past and the ancient power in her bloodline.

"Hellbender" will arrive on the horror streaming service Shudder on February 24, 2022 – and if you're a horror fan, you're not going to want to miss it.