Hell

Decent, If Not Great, Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
The year is 2016. Because of the increasing solar activity, the earth's temperature has become higher by 10 degrees Celsius. The land has dried up and crops have perished. Modern civilization has collapsed and the earth has become an uninhabitable place for humans. Few survivors keep travelling under the scorching sun, looking for water. Two young sisters Marie and Leonie are among them, travelling with a man named Phillip driving around in a dust-covered car.

Executive-produced by Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day" and "2012"), the low-budget post-apocalyptic thriller begins with an interesting premise, but without developing the sci-fi theme, "Hell" quickly shifts into a familiar formula about the travelers and their predicaments in the backwoods. In short, you have seen this in "The Road" or other horror films.

Tim Fehlbaum's direction is slick once action gets started, but details of this catastrophic disaster remain vague at best. The cinematography of the...

Great post-apocalyptic story
With no opportunities to rent this film, besides iTunes, I decided to purchase the film on the strength of the trailer. These days I seem to be a good judge of what I will like based on a trailer.

Hell is a post-apocalyptic film set in the near future 2016. Solar flares have caused mass overheating of our planet laying waste to the environment. With no way to sustain plant or animal life and with natural water supplies all but gone; people will now do anything to survive.

Visually the movie sells the idea the earth is burnt out and desolate. The acting is good, albeit this american version defaults to an over-dubbed english soundtrack. I suggest watching it with subtitles.
For a film like this simplicity is important. All our characters need to do is survive. There are a few little twists and turns that keep it interesting.
Overall a fan of films like this will be more than entertained. And I'm happy to add this film to my collection.

Don't go in expecting a timeless piece of cinema and you'll have a good time with it.
Hell (Bright) (Tim Fehlbaum, 2011)

Hell reminded me a great deal of another, even lower-budget, German film for no real reason I can put my finger on, Jens Wolf's Noctem. While this one has more plot, better acting, and an even bleaker outlook on life, while I was watching it, my mind kept stealing back to Wolf's 2003 effort, which I found quite good given its lack of professional talent both in front of and behind the camera; "a labor of love" is, at least when I use it, often a synonym for "unrepentantly amateur", but Wolf transcended that and came up with something, if not deathless, quite watchable and a good deal of fun. I got that same vibe from Fehlbaum (Nicht Meine Hochzeit)'s second feature, though I rush to add that with both of these films I'm using the word "fun" in a rather loose sense.

Fehlbaum's movie gives us a makeshift family--Tom (Unknown's Stipe Erceg), Marie (The Reader's Hannah Herzsprung), and Leonie (Hanni and Nanni's Lisa Vicari)--living...

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