John’s Horror Corner: Hellhole (2022; aka Ostatnia Wieczerza), this intriguing Polish mystery-horror burns slowly then closes hard in dark religious horror.

MY CALL: While not so especially unique or original, it definitely doesn’t feel unoriginal either. This hopeless, dark and dreary slowburn deserves your time, and will reward you with a wild finale. MOVIES LIKE Hellhole: Not to be confused with Hell Hole (2024). For more Polish horror, I’d point you to The Shrine (2010).

Visiting a remote monastery, Brother Marek (Piotr Zurawski; The Thaw) has come on a mission. This monastery serves as a sanitarium for the demonically possessed, and Marek is warned that the Evil One manifests within the monastery walls. However, the Great Deceiver is not the only one with a secret, as Marek comes with recording devices, an undercover investigator looking into recent disappearance of several female… patients.

Exorcism is a regular rite performed before the snarling and afflicted possessed. Marek realizes all too soon that he may be in over his head. But while snooping around the exorcism site, he discovers a spring-rigged bed, a self-torching crucifix, and hidden levers and fans—perfect for “simulating” a supernatural exorcism (a la The Last Exorcism). Yet as Marek finds cracks in the foundation of the monastery, so, too, does the head monk (Olaf Lubaszenko; Night Silence) find faults in Marek’s credibility (e.g., his poor grip on the Latin language for prayer).

Eventually, Marek does learn what happened to the women that disappeared… but even worse, he learns his role in a dark prophecy from a 1000-year-old theological text.

This film is dire and a bit mean. Not in terms of torture or brutality. Although maybe conceptually and tonally brutal. You feel a sense of hopelessness—but not like Baskin (2015) levels of dire and hopeless. It’s just hard to imagine the protagonist pulling off a win.

The final 20 minutes delivers strongly with effects scenes of creepy levitations, pestilence, gross transformation, a monstrous demonic presence, and perhaps the beginning of the end of days.

For all the dark ritual, dark cult, and possession/exorcism movies I’ve seen, this one really stands out. I’m not sure it’s original. But its grave and dreary execution feels fresh in the genre. I don’t feel like I’ve seen much quite like this, even though it’s certainly not unfamiliar. Either way, I quite enjoyed it. It’s not a fun popcorn horror. But a dreary, well-made slowburn mystery that blossoms into something wild. Now I’m curious to see more films from director Bartosz M. Kowalski (Night Silence, 13 Days Till Summer).