The Hemsworth brothers are acting without Chris.
William Eubank introduced his name to field viewers with two horror films during the “COVID years”. The Trench was an undersea HP Lovecraft folklore-glazed adventure that couldn’t be hated due to the appearance of Cthulhu, and a year later he directed the latest piece of the Paranormal Activity series, a potential spin-off: it was Paraphenomena: Connection. The latter was so misguided that Jason Blum (CEO of Blumhouse) briefly closed the question of potential sequels shortly after its release.
Eubank broke with horror, this time he sat on the action-thriller line: it became Hell Itself, for which he managed to attract actors such as Liam and Luke Hemsworth, Russell Crowe, or Milo Ventimiglia, known from the series Heroes. This change of genre turned out to be particularly entertaining for Eubank, who, in addition to directing, also served as co-writer.
An American special unit carries out a secret mission on an island. In addition to its veterans, the brigade also introduces a newcomer in the form of JJ (Liam Hemsworth), whose excitement somewhat affects the others as well. The mission is supported by drones controlled from the American continent, one of whose operators is Reaper (Russell Crowe), who takes his work seriously even on the verge of retirement, unlike many of his colleagues at the base. The mission goes well in the beginning, but unexpectedly some bad guys appear on the field who were not really counted on before. And the situation takes a tragic turn when unexpected guests open fire on their hosts.
Based on the poster, what immediately catches the viewer’s eye is the certain red 18 hoop. Unfortunately, we are in Hungary in 2024, and this can mean the conventional reasons (excessive violence, sexuality), but a film can also get such a flak because a homosexual or other sexually oriented character appears in the story. Action fans can relax: in the case of Hell Itself, it is the former, classic reason.
Probably because of the horror history, William Eubank was more courageous in a project that depicts the “real” nature of a mission that ends in a firefight. We’ve gotten used to both the good guys and the bad guys unreasonably sparing the main characters, because how does it look like the A-list actor survives after falling into the first trap?! However, screenwriters Eubank and David Frigerio wanted to realize a story in which even the experienced veteran special forces could break their knives.
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Deadly Battlefield, which debuted on Netflix a few years ago, showed the 21st century phenomenon within the military, how indifferent drone operators become to their comrades fighting on the battlefield. Hell itself dissects this problem: Russell Crowe’s heart becomes the mission after things go wrong, but his direct colleagues and superiors are more interested in the basketball game on TV, so he remains the only one who can offer a real solution on the island stuck to survivors.
Hell Itself skillfully maneuvers between more serious dialogues and action sequences. This Chihipuhi is much more elementary and real than the well-choreographed scenes of the John Wick films, and this is exactly what will make this work one of the fresh colors of the 2024 field for field spectators. It doesn’t offer anything more than the trailer suggests, but at least it keeps its promise in an entertaining way, with one or two unexpected twists, which can be said of fewer and fewer films these days.
