Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Hellbenders 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

The road to hell is paved with three dimensions.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 17, 2014

The Catholic Church has not had an especially good few years with regard to reports coming out about rampant forms of abuse by various priests around the world, a situation made even worse by the fact (or at least the perception) that the Church itself was not all that concerned by this abuse for far too long, and not only turned a blind way, in many cases appeared to actually aid the abusers by simply transferring them to new positions (where of course the abuse simply started over again in a new location). And so with that in mind, it may seem a bit unseemly, if not downright distasteful, that Hellbenders 3D is built upon a conceit of a bunch of rogue priests who are actually out to break as many Commandments as possible. The film is played for raucous, almost National Lampoon's Animal House-esque laughs, along with a certain kind of faux sci-fi fantasy ambience which may in fact remind many of Ghostbusters, but anyone who has either read or seen any of the innumerable news reports about actual miscreant priests over the past several years may find it hard to laugh that hard at this lo-fi affair. As intentionally potty-mouthed as Hellbenders is, and as potentially off-putting due to its bad boy priest conceit, what really ails this admittedly fitfully amusing tale is a certain slapdash quality where one bit may land relatively well, while the next simply lies there like an errant demon, waiting to be put out of its misery.

To be fair, it’s part of Hellbender’s extremely high concept that these bad boy priests have a reason for their bacchanalian behavior: they are exorcists, out to rid the world of demonic possessions, and their “fail safe”, in case they can’t cast off the demons with more or less traditional methods, is to invite the demon into their bodies, at which point they will kill themselves. Since they’ve lived a life of debauchery, they’re guaranteed to go to hell, pulling along their tag along demon in the process. (Someone evidently didn’t think that suicide is a mortal sin in Catholicism anyway, so they would have gone to hell in any case, bad behavior be—ahem—damned.)

The leader of this ragtag bunch of errant frat boys (and a couple of frat girls) is Angus (Clancy Brown, Cowboys & Aliens), a hard drinking priest whose drunken shenanigans often leave him slightly confused (at one point he’s not sure if the birthday being celebrated is his own or Christmas). Second in command Larry (Clifton Collins, Jr., Crank 2: High Voltage) is perhaps less experienced in exorcism than Angus (at one point he forgets to bring enough holy water to get the job done), but is probably the most aware of keeping all the priests on the “crooked and wide” (as opposed to the straight and narrow) to make sure they are breaking as many Commandments and engaging in as many mortal sins as humanly possible, to make them the best candidates to be swept to hell should the need arise.

New acolyte Elizabeth (Robyn Rikoon) has attracted the interest of these not exactly chaste priests, and it’s revealed she actually had a one night stand with Larry the year previously, despite the fact that he’s supposedly happily married (hey, sin might as well be enjoyable, right?). That has raised the hackles of Eric (Dan Fogler, Fanboys), who has designs on the comely lass himself. When an old possessed man vomits up “thirty pieces of silver” (which looks amazingly like a pretty necklace), Eric mistakes it for jewelry and gives it to Elizabeth as a courting present. That of course makes the inexperienced young exorcist more vulnerable to demonic possession, and it probably doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next.

The film has a rather disparate approach to comedy. There are sight gags—a reenactment of The Last Supper includes Eric holding up an iron onto which a scorched image of Jesus has been imprinted—to more ostensibly “adult” fare, when a middle manager of sorts from the Church comes to investigate their expenditures. This of course happens right when New York City is hit with a demonic plague by some creature named Surtr, a name which provides more juvenile humor when a Hispanic gentleman thinks some demons are talking about shirts.

For an obviously low budget, lo-fi comedy, Hellbenders actually has probably more laughs than some might expect. At the same time, it’s wildly uneven, and never ends up truly capitalizing on what is admittedly a fun concept. The film is rowdy, to be sure, but quite oddly, it also wants to have a little heart as things wend toward their Apocalyptic conclusion. That might be the worst sin a film like this can indulge in.

Hellbenders 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hellbenders is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This Red Epic shot feature is hampered somewhat by director J.T. Perry's decision to film almost all of the big demonic set pieces in very dim lighting, perhaps to hide his less than fulsome special effects budget. This leads to a kind of murky overall appearance (with occasional spikes of minimal noise), less than substantial shadow detail, and occasionally unappealingly low contrast. Even the (few) brightly lit scenes seem to have been desaturated or otherwise color graded in post, leading to general loss of fine detail. The film has a number of faux "documentary" sequences, including clips from supposed films of exorcisms as well as first person confessionals or interview segments, and those have been treated to intentionally look distressed.

The 3D experience here is surprisingly good, at least given the built in constraints that this often low light experience affords. Perry and cinematographer Ryan Samul are very good about framing scenes with foreground objects delivering an instant sense of depth and dimension. As with the 2D experience, the film's overall darkness is its biggest detriment. It's quite simply hard to make out spatial planes when things can hardly be seen in the first place. When things are relatively well lit, like an early scene of Larry lighting up a joint while it's aimed squarely at the audience, things pop surprisingly well.

Hellbenders 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hellbenders's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has some requisite surround activity in a couple of the exorcism scenes, though even these don't have the thundering low end that some might be expecting. (It doesn't help that it's fairly obvious the demon voice has been post-looped, with less than adequate lip synching on occasion.) A late in the film conflagration affords some good low end along with nice use of the surround channels. Dialogue is cleanly presented and fidelity is excellent throughout the film. Dynamic range is perhaps unexpectedly narrow.

Hellbenders 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director J.T. Petty and Cast Members Clancy Brown and Andre Royo. This is a fun and sometimes funny commentary, fairly chatty but occasionally filled with bon mots about the filming and various cast members.


• God's Dirty Work: The Making of Hellbenders (1080p; 26:22) is an enjoyable enough EPK with scenes from the film intercut with interviews.


• "Fly on the Wall" Behind the Scenes Footage (1080p; 7:29) is a good primer on how chaotic a film shoot can be.


• Original "Exorcism" Short Films (1080p; 28:14) contains complete versions of the snippets of various "exorcisms" that are shown in the film. This comes replete with a warning preamble that heavy grain, pixelation and other "video anomalies" are intentional and not authoring errors!


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:42)

Hellbenders 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hellbenders has a decent—if patently sacrilegious—concept, and for those who don't mind nonstop F-bombs, not to mention litte moments like a demon chewing off its own fingers and then chewing off a priest's toes, the film may deliver a decent amount of gore along with a few laughs. But the humor here is too inconsistent to ever really take hold. The performances are generally quite good, and J.T. Perry keeps the pace nicely brisk throughout. The film is damnably hard to see at times, which makes its 3D presentation somewhat problematic.