From the early days of amateur auters grabbing a cheap camcorder to record themselves and their families, to the here and now where directors like Steven Soderbergh are using their own phones to film major studio productions, DIY filmmaking has always been an essential foundation for storytelling. And with billions of people now having instant access to not just good cameras but also impressive editing programs (just take a look at any number of at-home YouTube or TikTok content creators), it seems like there’s never been a better time to go all-in on your own movie projects.

It’d be difficult to find a group that celebrates and excels at the medium more than the appropriately-named Adams family. Consisting of couple John Adams and Toby Poser and their children Zelda and Lulu, the tight-knit unit has been making their own movies together seemingly since the kids could walk and talk. Their latest creation, Hellbender, was shot throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as the group traveled the shuttered United States in an RV. It’s grassroots filmmaking as its finest, with John, Toby, and Zelda serving as their own directors, writers, actors, and cinematographers (John also handles sound and score duties while Toby does costume design).

While Hellbender was almost entirely made in the midst of a road trip, its story is one of isolation. The film follows a mother (Toby) and her teenage daughter Izzy (Zelda) as the two go about their days foraging for vegetarian meals in the endless forest that surrounds their modest farmhouse. The two are seemingly shut off from the rest of the world out in the wilderness, but this is exactly how Mother seems to want it. The film’s opening scene lets us in on the secret she’s harboring: Both she and her daughter possess strange, occult, witchlike powers that can cause serious harm if not properly controlled.

Izzy is kept in the dark about all of this. She’s been told that she has a rare immune disorder which prevents her from being around other people. Her mother ventures into town alone for various needs, so Izzy spends most of her time exploring the vast woods and creeks that make up their mountain home. The young woman has understandably grown a bit restless as she’s gotten older, and even though she loves her mother, she obviously desires much more than what that mutual love can give her. One day, when she stumbles across an outgoing, pool-loving and beer-drinking potential friend named Amber (Lulu), Izzy’s world finally begins to open up. So do the gates to demonic horrors that not even Izzy’s mother could’ve predicted.

Hellbender’s setup is somewhat familiar, a recent example would be Hulu’s 2020 hit thriller Run, which also saw an obsessively protective mother confining her teenage daughter to the house and also lying about what diseases she may or may not have. But just when it seems obvious which way Izzy’s dark coming-of-age story is going, the Adams family pivots to having the revealed secret bring mother and daughter closer together rather than tear them apart. Izzy’s desire to learn as much as she can about her newfound powers drives her mother to give up the ghost and embrace that curiosity.

The film then becomes morbidly sweet as the two bond over strange incantations, getting high off maggots, and puking blood into each other’s faces. Hellbender is grotesquely beautiful just to look at, with stunning shot composition throughout that captures the dark splendor of various scenes of nature, seemingly untouched by humankind. The film’s deeply saturated look adds a layer of intensity to its more psychedelic sequences and has the powerfully unsettling effect of making the copious amounts of blood appear thick and black. The whole thing is strangely mesmerizing.

Of course, the good times can only last so long. Izzy’s mother still can’t bring herself to divulge the full truth to her daughter, but Izzy is withholding plenty herself. In a horrifying display of the pitfalls of parenthood and newfound youthful freedom, Hellbender saves its best and most gruesome tricks for its final stretch. It’s a wicked finale to a wholly fresh and visually stunning take on woods and witches, made all the more impressive by its limited, traveling production. Funny how often a literal homemade family movie like this looks superior to blockbusters with budgets stretching to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Oh, and the in-film band / actual Adams family band that goes by the name of H6LLB6ND6R? Absolutely rips. Check out our interview with the Adams family.

‘Hellbender’ is now streaming on Shudder.