... because she was a sheep.
Hellbender is a 2021 horror film by and starring the aptly named Adams Family.
The film tells the story of Izzy (Zelda Adams) and her mother (Toby Poser) who lives a secluded life in the Catskills mountains. Izzy lives a sheltered existence, as she has a rare genetic disorder that gives her a very weak immune system. Their lives are turned upside down when Izzy discovers the family's ties to witchcraft.
This film provides examples of:
- Above Good and Evil: Arguably, Mother's biggest mistake is when she comforts Izzy that whatever killed a nearby animal isn't evil, just doing what's in its nature. Because Hellbenders are by their very nature servants of Hell, Izzy ultimately rationalizes that there's nothing wrong with embracing her powers and using them to kill and torture anyone she pleases.
- All for Nothing: All of Mother's efforts to raise Izzy and teach her to be a good person are ultimately rendered all for nought when Izzy decides to live up to Hellbender's title as servants of Hell.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Izzy is more powerful than her mother and will continue to kill people. Her mother is completely at her mercy.
- Bad Powers, Bad People: After Izzy is outright told that Hellbenders are evil by nature, her response is to take this as fact and run with it.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Mother is trying to be this. She tries to only use her powers in ways that allow her to keep an eye on Izzy and only deliberately hurts trespassers. Unfortunately, as she herself says, Hellbenders are evil by nature and using their powers at all puts them at risk of becoming evil.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: The first hint that Izzy and her mother are not human.
- Burn the Witch!: The opening prologue.
- Downer Ending: Izzy fully embraces her nature as a Hellbender, kills an innocent girl, and traps Mother in their home until she's ready to kill her and have her own Hellbender child.
- Drunk with Power: After experiencing her Hellbender powers for the first time, Izzy becomes addicted to them very quickly, even demanding Mother feed her larger animals so she can use more.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire / Vegetarian Vampire: Izzy's mother is revealed to be this. She decided that her mother was evil due to her feeding on humans to access the strongest black magic and killed her and tried to raise her own daughter to feed on plants.
- Game Face: At the end of the film Izzy forces her mother to show her quite hideous true form. She thinks it's beautiful.
- Good All Along: The first half of the movie sets up Mother as a villainous figure, controlling Izzy, spying on her, and using dark powers to kill a trespasser. However, the second half flips this on its head when it turns out Mother is doing all this because a Hellbender getting used to her powers is extremely dangerous, and Izzy proves all of the creepy things Mother was doing to keep her under her control were absolutely necessary.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: What the plot eventually comes down to.
- Infinite Supplies: Though Izzy's mother makes regular supply runs, it's never really clear how she conjures up money to pay for anything. Or that may be just what she does.
- Mistaken for Gay: Due to Izzy's weird interest in her (which is really Izzy being fascinated about meeting another person her age for the first time) Amber thinks she is gay and even offers to introduce her to a few people.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The film implies that Mother's efforts to keep Izzy from turning evil, isolating her, not telling her about her lineage, and killing anyone who she deems a threat, are ultimately what lead to Izzy's Face–Heel Turn, and she might have had a better chance of succeeding had she taught Izzy to empathize with humans, rather than avoid or kill them.
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No Budget: A quintessential DIY-production. Most of the filming was done by married couple John Adams and Toby Poser and their teenage daughter Zelda. - No Name Given: Izzy's mother is actually never named in the film.
- Non-Nude Bathing: When Izzy goes to swim, she does so fully clothed. When she is later talked into putting on swimwear by Amber, she is clearly uncomfortable with being seen in a state of partial undress.
- No Social Skills: Izzy is very awkward around people she does not know.
- Our Witches Are Different: The Hellbenders are a witch race which can feed on any sort of organic matter to survive, but eating live animals gives them access to greater magic depending on the size of the life consumed. They can also only procreate after killing their mother, appear, to live forever unless killed, and are a One-Gender Race.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: The story follows Izzy's discovery that she and her mother are Hellbenders, humanlike beings capable of drawing magical power from killing and eating living animals. At first, she only wants to see the outside world, but as she becomes increasingly addicted to her powers, she becomes deceptive, selfish, and cruel, and cements her turn to villainy by murdering an innocent girl and trapping her mother in their home until she's ready to kill her as well.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Though Izzy has fully embraced the dark nature of being a Hellbender and will continue to murder humans, she assures her mother that she has no intention of killing her because she loves her.
- Reality Subtext: Beside the Real-Life Relative cast, the film is inspired by the life of the actual Adams family. Zelda Adams is homeschooled like her character, the house in the film is the Adams' residence, and they have their own garage band. And the idea of the story came from Toby Poser realizing she did not know her actual biological father, much like the Hellbenders reproducing without the identity of the father being left open.
- Teens Are Monsters: Played in every way of the trope.
