Hellbender speaks directly to my non-existent teenage goth self. Which makes the movie a real mood with some very cool dark tunes… witches who rock, basically. But all this walks a tightrope between being a just a little goofy and very cool. I landed on the cool side but there were definitely some eyebrow raising moments.

Hellbender is about teen girl being raised by her witch mom. And this isn’t some metaphorical or subtle witchcraft… this is some roll-up-your-sleeves and dust someone with the powers of h-e-double-hockey-sticks blood magic. The daughter is kept from the rest of the world, home-schooled, not allowed to have friends… which starts to annoy her, as you might expect. Teenagers, man… they just want freedom… and to practice their dark arts.

There’s a lot to admire about this film but there’s also something dissociated with it. Is it a movie about rock ‘n roll goth queen witches or is it about a lonely teen girl who wants friends? Or about that same girl discovering her powers… because the bit about the friends is randomly abandoned for about forty-five minutes before circling back around at the end. I don’t have a big problem with this since the movie is more a vibe than an overall story.

I did appreciate not being sure where the flick was going and part of that is due to this distinct Carrie overtones. I mean, teenage girl protected from the outside world by a weird religious mother? Except the mom is pretty cool and they behave like genuine friends… it’s Gilmore Girls if they were witches and living on the side of a mountain. The outside world would have reason to fear them, but they are a couple of cool chicks who just want a normal, isolated life. So that made me wonder if that was going to change and how… would it go Carrie or would they find some other angle?

I dig this movie’s dirt but kind of came away wishing for a bit more. It’s a fairly short movie but, I fear, even if it had been longer, it might have never really circled around to having a greater point. It’s still an interesting flick though and certainly different from what I expected going in.

And, yeah, cool soundtrack. That inner goth kid who never existed was really vibing on it.

Score: 84