We’re heading back into the woods for another installment of SAW IT FIRST AT ANOMALY, our series revisiting films we first discovered at Rochester’s Anomaly Film Festival before they found a bigger audience!

This time, Mike and Kenya (@reviewsmayvary) are digging into Hellbender, a witchy, metal-fueled folk-horror nightmare about mothers, daughters, family secrets, and what happens when protecting your kid starts looking a whole lot like keeping them prisoner.

We’re talking creepy woodland vibes, killer music, generational trauma, and some seriously questionable parenting choices. Plus, we’ve got a handful of books that pair perfectly with this strange little gem.

Books mentioned in this episode:

● Salt Bones — Jennifer Givhan

● Dark Sisters — Kristi DeMeester

● Lobizona — Romina Garber

● Little Eve — Catriona Ward

Come for the witches, stay for the family dysfunction and heavy metal!

Hey, y', all, and welcome back to the Hellscape Literary Society, where we are talking about surviving this current Hellscape through the use of books, film and genre fiction.

I'm Kenya @reviewsmayvarry on Instagram and all other platforms and I am joined with my co host, Mike.

I'm Mike.

I am at Pages from the Shadows on Instagram and nominally on Facebook.

Yeah.

And I'm a producer Christmas for the Lunch Order podcast network.

So lunch order.org for all of the shows, including Hellscape Literary Society and the Anomaly Presents podcast.

If you are into this movie that we are discussing today, which is Hellbender, you know, this is a great reminder to go to anomalyfilmfest.com to join for November 11th to the 15th in scenic Rochester, New York, at the Little Theater and the Dryden Theater.

Get your tickets anomalyfilmfest.com thanks so much.

Yeah, so this episode is part of our We Saw it first at Anomaly series.

The last one, hopefully that you heard about was who Sarah.

And today we're going to talk about Hellbender, which was released in 2021 and part of the 2021 Anomaly Film Festival series.

So both Mike and I. Chris, did you see this one also?

Absolutely.

Saw it that year.

Excellent.

It was my favorite one of the lineup that year.

I can summarize or you want to summarize?

I. I would love you to summarize it.

So a confession.

I did not see it at Anomaly.

It was.

It was one I wanted to.

And I think my son had a football game at the same time.

So I remember distinctly standing in the rain thinking, I wish I was an Anomaly.

Pretty much always.

Yeah.

But I did see it later on Shutter, because as Kenya mentioned with this, I saw it first.

This is a movie that was big and got a lot of buzz afterwards.

So thankfully it came to screaming and I was able to see it on Shudder.

But for the cool people who got to see it in Anomaly, when everyone online was like, oh, do you see this new thing on Shudder?

Or whatever, you can be like, I saw it at a film festival.

Absolutely.

Well, in the next series might be, I wish I was at Anomaly, where we say the ones that we missed, because I have a number of those as well.

Okay.

All right.

Lots of possibilities.

So Hellbe, it is a folk horror and it is about the primary main character, I think, is the girl.

So this is a teenage girl who lives with her mom.

They are in the middle of Nowheresville in the woods, living all alone, living a vegan lifestyle, which in and of Itself, for me, would be a horror, but that's a different story altogether.

And they're living isolated, and mom basically tells kiddo that she's got an autoimmune disorder, so they have to live out in the middle of nowhere.

And they eat pine cones and grass and leaves and bark and things like that to lead this really healthy lifestyle.

And the other thing that they're doing is creating metal music.

So it's.

There's a tie in to the Addams Family, which is the producer, director, writer, group of this film.

They have a.

A heavy metal band that is also called Hellbender, with threes as the ease in the.

In the title.

But anyway, so the girl, as teenagers do, they do not believe anything or they.

They become very curious, right?

So she's.

She's exploring the woods and runs into.

Runs into a house and meets some other kids who are doing stuff they're not supposed to be doing and ends up taking a shot of tequila that has the worm in it.

Oh, yeah.

And things happen because she eats the worm.

And as the audience were like, whoa, that was a crazy worm.

Well, it turns out that there's some other stuff going on that she learns from her mom.

Mom tells her that they are actually not human.

They are hellbenders.

And so I think we're trying to walk a line of not spoiling too much about the films because we really want you to go and see them and come back and try and chat with us about them because we love to talk about this stuff.

Yeah, I think that was a good spoiler.

Ish version.

Light, right?

Yeah, because it does.

It does tie to where it's going, but all the details, I think that's what makes this such an engaging movie.

It is rich in visual details, it's rich in nature, it's rich in acting, but it's also very lean.

It is not overdone.

It's not over CGI'd.

This is practical, this is simple.

But it's.

All the relationships all feel.

They have a.

They have a reality to them.

Right.

They're awkward sometimes.

They're.

You know, it feels real.

And I think that's the best thing I can describe about their filming style is.

Oh, man.

I'd say generally they're acting like people would act, but in a odd circumstance, that is folklore.

That is odd horror, that is, you know, both feminine and all these other things too, and, you know, witchy in all these interesting directions.

Absolutely.

Well, and so this one, the genre, I would set it in the sub genre of Horror is folk horror.

Horror.

So folklore tends to put you in the middle of nowhere.

There's a high isolation sort of trope that happens there to build the dread and to build that you've got nowhere to go and no one's coming to save you.

And then it tends to also tie in folklore, traditional practice.

There's a lot of witchy references in folklore, I think about the original.

The Wicker Man, Midsommar, the witch.

Those kinds of things are examples of.

Of folk horror.

So you want to start us off with a book recommendation?

Sure, I will.

I am going to start with one of like, my surprising favorite books that I've read this year.

And new favorite author is Salt Bones by Jennifer Givan.

So great story.

Just a really like, short synopsis of the story.

It takes place around Salt on Sea.

And it's this mother male who has these two daughters and a son.

And you know what?

I did not prepare a like plot summary here.

So let's.

We'll cut that part.

No, so that's, you know, start talking about it.

Start talking a little bit.

I'll look up the.

I'll look up a quick summary.

Okay.

So what, what really connected this book to Hellbender is it's really about the mother daughter relationship.

So both, you know, are tied to.

Into have a center on this kind of folklore.

Folk horror with Salt Bones.

Kivon takes the.

This Mexican horror idea of El Cucuy and bases that on it.

But this is really a story of this mother, again in an isolated area.

This is again that Sultan sea, like in Southern California, that the location itself becomes very isolating.

But it's really about the mother trying to protect her daughters from this, you know, this generational horror.

And again, just I saw a lot of ties or where it made me think of Hellbender is that in both cases, you know, the mother, in trying to protect their daughter again isolates them and keeps some of their own history from them.

And but at the time, like, doesn't recognize that like my child, my teenager, my young adult is also independent.

And the more that you try to protect any of us that have had teenagers, like we know or have been teenagers, I guess that's all of us know, like that the more you try to protect the them, the more they're going to strike out for independence.

And you know, there's a lot of conflict in Salt Bones with, with male and especially her eldest daughter in, you know, their daughter is trying to find out there's like a serial killer that they think may be Hap going or happening in this town.

And, you know, she's trying to get to the bottom of it.

You know, Mal is worried about kind of her family's connections to it, so she's trying to protect her from it.

But ultimately, like, you know, that protection starts leaning towards control.

And the story is really about the two them reconciling that, like, while the mother can't.

You can't protect your children from everything, you know, and you can't hide the, like, the ickiness in your past.

Like, that stuff has to come out, and you have to recognize, like.

And come together and recognize, like, no.

Children have to have their own independence.

You know, you can't protect them from everything.

So, yeah, I think the punchy.

The punchy ending of the summary here.

Combining elements of Latina and indigenous culture, family drama, mystery, horror, and magical realism.

A spellbinding mix, Salt Bones lays bare the realities of environmental catastrophe, family secrets, and the unrelenting bond between mothers and daughters.

Yes, I think that's pretty punchy.

Yes, yes.

So if you, like, again, if you've watched Hellbender and you like this story of the.

That mother drama, conflict, slash relationship, that's really the heart of Salt Bones.

And I think as a.

The heart of it is very similar.

I have checked that book out from the library at least twice, so it's my turn to say, oh, that's on my tbr.

I was gonna read that, and I never did.

Exactly.

So maybe one day.

One day.

Well, I will, because I know we love giving plugs here.

I will give a plug to this one for the fantastic Aardvark Book Club.

Okay.

I actually have this because Aardvark had reached out to me ages ago and was like, hey, we would love to send you a package of books.

Would you be interested?

Obviously.

And, you know, we kind of conversed a little bit about what we're into and all that, and this book arrived in that package.

Again, I had never heard of the author before.

I was completely unfamiliar with this book, and I was like, all right, I'll give it a try.

And I freaking love it.

She is, like, one of my favorite authors now.

So thank you, Aardvark.

Aardvark always had really good collections or selections.

And I love, like, again, this is.

Jennifer is a Mexican and indigenous author, and they really like to highlight diverse voices who, you know, I always try to highlight.

So that's awesome.

Kudos, Aardvark.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And we'll have to tag them because I've gotten A box from them as well.

And have loved their selection.

Yeah, they're so good.

They are definitely a leader in.

In that.

Amen.

Okay, so I have a book recommendation for this one as well.

I actually have a bunch, but we don't have time for that, y'.

All.

So find me in the social media and come talk to me about folk horror, because apparently it's something that I read a lot.

Yes.

Partially because of that overlap with witches, and there's often some haunting things going on, and I love when a location also kind of becomes part of.

Of the character list, you know, so come, come, come find me the one that I will recommend, and then I'll try and sneak one in.

As long as Chris isn't paying attention to us.

The one I will.

Will recommend first is the Dark Sisters.

So that One is from 2025, and it's Christy Demeaster and that author.

Oh, well, all right.

It might be her first one.

I don't know.

I am all ears.

So it's told in three timelines, and if you listen to me babble about books, you know that I think that's really hard to do because often there's at least one timeline I do not care about at all.

And I get a little bit irritated that I have to now stop the timeline.

I want to be reading about and read about another one.

But in this one, the first one of the timelines is in 1750.

One of them is in 1960, and the other one is 2007.

So there's something kind of happening in the modern day that's going on with a.

A girl in a town, and there's this tree.

Okay.

And then we get these.

Not flashbacks because it's not the same people, although there is a little bit of overlap because it's the same area, and that tree is there.

Okay.

So some people think that there's a curse around this tree.

Some people think there's a curse related to the family that lives near there.

And there's also something really weird going on with girls in the modern day because there's sort of this purity ritual that happens that our main character has not been allowed to participate in for a little bit longer than most of the girls who live in this town.

So, again, I'm not going to spoil it.

There's a lot of questions within.

You know, it's revealing whether or not these things are a myth or a curse within the town.

And then what.

What is this tree?

And how come sometimes people dream or have nightmares about the Dark Sisters?

Which are these two similar looking women with long hair.

It kind of gave me vibes of Samara from.

What is that movie with the well and the ring.

Yes.

So it kind of gave me.

Gave me that kind of visual that there's two women and they kind of look like that.

Okay.

So lots of exploration about what it means to be a woman, about sisterhood again.

I think generational trauma feels like our whole thing today as we're talking and how these early experiences in 1750 continue to impact the town and these women who live in the town and what the underlying thing that happened that continues to impact this town, which now is making me also think of.

Have you watched that new show Widow's Bay?

I did.

I just finished it.

So I think.

Think that if.

If we were also doing a show tie in, Widow's Bay would probably be a pretty good tie in that would.

That would be a good one as well.

So it just won a whole bunch of awards for best comedy, which some people have been pretty upset about because.

They didn't think funny stuff in there.

I thought it was hilarious.

I think that's, you know, people are also.

People are also very frustrated that they called the Bear a comedy and like, it is just an anxiety fest.

Yeah, it's the most stressful show.

Like it should have.

If you told me it was done by the Safdies, I would completely believe it.

Yeah, well.

And one of the books that just won for best horror this year was Whale Fall.

Oh, yeah, that's.

And I'm not sure that I think that was a horror, but whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think, you know, this idea of genre is not always as cut and dry as we think it is.

I am interested.

So I love folk horror also.

Um, I feel like I have not read enough folk horror, so I want recommendations.

But first, I have a question for.

Because I've thought about this a lot and why I love folk horror.

So I know for me, part of the connection is I grew up in the 3:1:5 and the finger Lakes.

So a lot of that, like, rural area, like, I'll be honest, a lot of rural air and I grew up in it is scary as spooky.

Oh, yeah.

For many reasons.

So I wonder.

Kenny, I don't know, maybe we've.

Because I know we've talked a ton and my brain is Swiss cheese.

Where did you grow up?

Like, did that have a part of it for you?

No, I grew up.

Well, I mean, maybe I grew up in a.

In a big suburb of Dallas.

Oh, okay.

Don't remember that, so.

But I watched a lot of horror.

Right, Gotcha.

Okay.

Bad things happen in the woods.

I think we've all talked about.

If you.

If you go out into the woods alone, I can't imagine how that's good for anyone.

Right?

For anyone.

And I did.

I did grow up going to like my grandparents, and they lived in rural Louisiana.

Oh, okay.

But I was usually inside by dark.

Right.

Obviously.

Right, right, right.

But there is something about an isolation isn't unique to folk horror, but it tends to be a piece of it because there's often this.

What is that?

Nobody can see what I'm doing here because it's a podcast, but I'm making a scooping motion with my hand, I believe.

Insular.

Yes.

Yeah.

Right.

It's either you're out there by yourself or you're out there with people who won't let you leave.

Ooh.

Yes.

Or there's.

You know, I'm thinking about Midsummer, where that girl is just.

She should have just let people leave and stayed home.

But she, nosy as she is, had to go.

And then what happened?

Right?

Bad, bad stuff happened.

Right?

She found community and everybody was happy.

That's how it was.

Everybody's happy, smiling.

At least it is a.

It is a happy story about finding family in different places.

That's so true.

Everybody's happy.

I mean, I kind of think it's a happy ending.

Pretty.

I mean, bears are.

Bears are happy.

Buildings are happy.

It's fine.

I really.

I so glad that I watch are happy.

Oh, my gosh.

Speaking of body horror as well.

So I would recommend that movie as well.

Do you have a favorite folk.

You said that you really like folk horror.

Do you have a favorite?

Oh, yeah.

My favorite folk hor by far is the original Wicker Man.

It is wild.

It is weird.

And actually one of the reasons I'm.

I'm very mid on Midsummer, I love Florence Pugh is this.

She is fantastic.

In general, I like Ari Asteroid.

I actually was watching Hereditary last night again for the millionth time, but I feel like it's a lot of the best parts of that are borrowed heavily from the original Wicker Man.

It's just.

And it's weird.

Like, there's musical parts to it.

It's such like this weird in a bad ways thing.

No, it, like, I.

It.

It is a wild film.

It's to me, like, that will always be what I compare every folklore film against, you know, and just this surprising.

Like, you think one thing is happening and then all of a Sudden, before, like the main character gets.

Figures it out.

Like now he's suddenly discovered he's in something else.

Yeah.

And it's a little different from Midsommar in that, like, I kind of feel bad for.

I don't know, and maybe this says something about me, but like I kind of feel bad for the guy in the Wicker man, but in Midsommar I don't like.

Yeah, you got yourself into this.

You chose this.

There's less of that in Wicker Man.

So again, different.

But that's my favorite.

And I do think that that's.

That's also a.

Often a hallmark of folk horror.

Right.

Because usually there is an outside person coming into this insulated community.

I think cults come up a lot in folk horror or highly.

Whatever it's called, regimented religious groups, that kind of thing.

So usually the reader or the watcher is traveling with this person who's not a part of the in group.

And that person almost always thinks they know what's going on, that they have this, you know, maybe they're coming in to investigate or they're coming in, you know, to figure it out or to expose something.

Like, I'm even thinking about some of the other.

The second or third maybe book in the.

In the Clown in the Cornfield thing.

Right.

Where you've got someone who's coming in because they believe that they know the truth and then somewhere along the way they realize that they're trapped in a situation that they did not have any idea about and it's too late.

I just watched get.

Actually, I've only seen clips of get out really.

But it's a similar, similar thing.

Right.

Like you're, you're in a situation and you've got it handled and you don't want to look crazy.

Yep.

So I, I think we have to, like, when you do watch the whole movie, I think we have to do a.

Just an episode.

Just talking about that.

I love it because it's such a.

It's such a fascinating movie that is so much of now and so much of the history, you know, of the culture and everything else.

And it's just, it's such a.

It's such a well done movie.

It also shows a lot of influence on where horror has gone.

Millennial horror went until we're now hitting like the Gen Z horror thing.

Like that defined the millennial horror, like, I think, aesthetic in many ways.

Yeah, well, and the reason why I'm watching clips now is because I'm taking a Literature of Horror class.

Over at the community college.

And so it's the one film that we're sort of discussing together.

The rest of it is mostly Stephen King.

Don't get me started.

Oh, we can definitely get started, considering I'm definitely a fan.

I'm definitely a fan.

But.

But, like, would you create an entire college course and that's called Literature of Horror and then make 75% of it Stephen King?

Oh, no, I think that's wrong.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Especially since you're supposed to be investigating, you know, different things and learning different things.

And I think if you did the class without it, I think you're also probably wrong.

Right, Agree.

But you're less wrong than if that is the majority.

And then just call it a Stephen King class is my thing.

That's my whole beef.

Agreed.

Anyway, Also fine.

Right.

Which, you know, that's fine.

Right.

So that's really the only reason why I just recently saw some of the clips.

But it definitely has some of that bring somebody out into the middle of nowhere and they're trying to sort of like, figure out why everything feels a little bit weird.

Right.

And then by the time they figure that out, you know, the.

The fan has the poo on it.

I think that's a great sub genre of movie is like, the person going to investigate something.

Yeah, I think that's a great subject.

I think they're so smart.

Yep.

Right.

They're the smartest people in the room and they're gonna figure it out.

Nice.

Yeah, you want to get to get the plugs out for every.

And you said you're gonna try to sneak another one in.

Sneak another one in.

Oh, the other one, I'm gonna say is Lobazona by Romana Garber.

Oh, that's so good.

That is another one.

There's a young girl.

She is an undocumented American.

She's living in this very small apartment for her own safety.

And then she discovers that there's this power within the family.

She's the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter in a row.

It's.

And so she goes to Argentina.

So it's very heavily Argentinian folklore influenced.

And it's basically an Argentinian werewolf story.

Yeah, but like this school for werewolves, like, and.

And witches, like, it's.

It's pretty cool.

It is.

And I, like, slept on.

Like, everyone should be reading this book.

And I like.

If you like Harry Potter but want an alternative because.

Yeah, you know, this is a.

You get kind of this Magical Academy vibe sort of.

Sort of sorta.

It's not as like dark academia as other things could be.

But it's you.

You can get.

You can scratch some of that itch, but discover a lesser known great one.

And I will just plug really quickly the one that I.

Another one that I really like that's similar is Little Eve by Katrina.

And I might be.

I don't know, is it Katrina or Katriana?

I think it's Katrina Ward.

Okay.

And this is one of her early books.

It's similar in that it's also isolated.

In this story, Eve is on this isolated Scottish island and also very culty.

The difference between the two is its uncle that is controlling Eve and where the movie Hellbender, the mother is trying to hide this inheritance, the hellbender from her.

In the.

In Little Eve, uncle is trying to get Eve to recognize her inheritance as like, basically this participant in like a doomsday cult.

But a lot of similarities there.

Again, you can kind of flip.

The roles are a little.

Me too.

So it's, you know, again, a different.

But you get this isolated cult thing and a different look at how this.

The daughter is being influenced, maybe manipulated by, you know, their authority figure and, you know, the inheritance of their role and all that.

So really good book.

I love Ward.

It was not as high on her last book.

Yeah.

But all the other ones I freaking loved, so that's good to know.

I might try a different one.

They are all fantastic and often have, like, wild, wild swings and twists in them.

Great.

So.

But, you know, maybe they will come up in another podcast.

So.

All right.

I think that's good for Hellbender.

All right.

Well, absolutely.

That's it.

Be safe out there.

Yeah.

And again, remember, find us on the Instas or other places.

Our show.

Our show's home is at the Hellscape Society.

I am Mike.

My Instagram handle is at Pages from the Shadows with the dots in between each of those.

Yeah, you'll find me.

And.

And I'm Kenya@reviewsmayvary on all platforms.

Kenya, not Mary.

This has been a presentation of the lunchroom or podcast network.

One star book review corner.

Salt Bones didn't get into the book at all.

I don't speak Spanish and there were bits of Spanish and character dialogue quite a bit.

This took me out of the book and forced me to either guess what the characters were saying or go to Google and look up the translation.

That's not what to do in a book.

So I put it down and moved on to something else.

Dark Sisters.

Congratulations.

This is the worst book I've read all year.

So boring and incredibly cringy.

Way too much religion.

And then witchcraft.

That isn't even witchcraft.

Get a grip.

The fact that I tortured myself through this whole book, wasting a day off someone owes me some sort of compensation.