User Reviews

The movie premise is almost the same as "The Road", you could see this one as the German The Road with less money spent in the process.

Hell starts in a world where 10 degrees hotter sun scorches the earth and leaves no animal or plantation standing still and so, very few humans living on it's land.

Survivors are forced to live at night and sleep in day, in isolated places, caves or someplace that does not have any direct sunlight because more than 2 hours on the sun will get your skin burned forever and die.

Water and food are scarce and our protagonist had to use all kinds of techniques to get it, this was a nice touch in the movie.

The starting point is beautiful and excellent, nicely filmed and the movie has a nice pace up to the point when they meet the "dangerous people" for lack of a better world that will possibly spoil the movie for you.

At that point, although the movie does not stop it's progress, it slows down a lot and the movie suffers from an apparent lack of new ideas to come forth so, the rest of the movie focus on their escape and nothing else.

So much could be done with this premise, explaining why the sun has behave like this or seeing what other places of the world or cities become, but, due to money constraints I could picture why they didn't do this... still, being that the first part of the movie is great, not all is forgiven. The actors are far better than you would expect and in fact Hannah Herzsprung simply rocks in this one, this girl has a true survivor "sticker" all over her face and still, you will root for her, even when it's obvious.

With this kinds of actors and an excellent first act, the movie suffers a pale second act in comparison, putting this movie in the "good" category where it could have been "great".

Still, nice sci-fi end of the world movie that has a very good concept and nice suspense attached to it.

I give the movie a plus bonus for not being that harsh as The Road on some scenes where the director prefer to leave us to imagine things instead of just showing us so, if you care about the level of graphic violence on movies you can be sure to find very few graphic violence on Hell and this is a nice touch, of course you will see people killing each other but it's rare on this one and when it happens it's done without blood or shocking scenes like The Road does. 80% suspense and guaranteed to like if this is your style.

If you don't know what to watch on a Sunday night, this one is a sure bet even with it's flaws.

No matter what the language I do love a post apocalyptic thriller.

This has an excellent start, and kept my interest right up to the credits. The backdrop is set very efficiently in the first few minutes of the opening scene, where we meet the main characters.

The characters are intriguing (and as it turns out) quite believable.

As the title may suggest this particular post apocalyptic world is fairly hazardous (aren't they always) and there is a good degree of tension as the characters try to deal with a hostile environment, and each other.

Great acting, no special effects. We aren't treated to a deserted Berlin sequence but the settings in the countryside are simple and professionally handled - you can almost taste the dust.

The only two gripes I have with the film is about a quarter of it is shot in darkness which I don't approve of, and I wanted the action to last a bit longer.

If you are a fan of post apocalyptic movies then this is a must see

To begin I must say that I didn't know that hell means bright in German. I always thought this movie was called HELL by the meaning it has in English and this was the idea of the director. Reading some previous comments I see it's not like that… It seems the director wanted this film to be called HELL just by the brightness and not for the other meaning. But after watch it I can say that in my opinion it can be called by both meanings because both of them fit very well in the plot and the message of the movie! Brightness is constant in the movie, but they also live in a world that really seems like hell!

The plot begins in the year 2016, after a sudden and brutal increase of the global temperature of the Earth. The Sun is brighter than ever and the water is rare and valuable. It's hard to survive in this apocalyptic scenario because people are in a constant search for food and water… We can't see any vegetation (just the trunks of the trees) and the animals died thirsty.

HELL is an action film that resembles to MAD MAX, mostly in the scenario and this background of the apocalyptic world. But it's well done; the settings are really good as they provide us a vision of a desert world full of death and not life; Action is effective and suspenseful, some good fighting scenes are done; Directing and camera work is very nice too. Acting is also fine.

Probably the best thing about Hell is that it shows how The Road would turn out without the media frenzy: almost unnoticed and scoring averagely on IMDb. This might not be the best way to start the review, yet as the movie progresses one starts wondering whether Hell's authors could have chosen a different path. Either way, the result is a straightforward post-apocalyptic thriller.

The advantage of not having a major studio in the background is the absence of pretentiousness. If you're into such movies, you'll like it. If not, you won't go to see it in the first place. In my opinion, this only adds to Hell's artistic merit.

I can't tell whether the title (meaning bright in German) is a wordplay on purpose or a slip of a tongue, but this is a pleasant surprise for a German-Swiss production.

Tim Fehlbaum's Hell depicts planet Earth as a barren, desolate wasteland that was once infested with blooming life. The cinematography of the dry, insufferable heat is so containing and properly handled that it almost bathes the viewer in hot flashes to the point where I was totally willing to step outside with no coat in the middle of Chicago cold. In terms of look, feel, and liveliness, it's a seriously effective thriller. As a film adding to the recent popular but rarely impressive genre of post-apocalyptic thrillers, it's more or less the same thing we've grown accustomed to.

Hell (also ridiculously titled Apocalypse in some retail chains) has one major selling point and that's its producer, the iconic German filmmaker Roland Emmerich, who has made a name for himself in the field of disaster films such as the American adaptation of the Japanese Godzilla series and Independence Day. Perhaps his producer's credit was earned in the fact that he saw a bit of his most recent film (at the time), 2012 in Hell. Unlike his picture which hammed up the nonsensical action and took almost nothing seriously in a long, winded two and a half hour film, Hell capitalizes on character relations and subtlety rather than tossing special effects at the viewer in an apparent contest.

We are placed in 2016, and learn immediately that the Earth has warmed at unprecedented rates, increasing 10°C because of solar flares destroying the atmosphere of Earth. The few survivors must shield their skin with excess clothing, gloves, smocks, and anything they can potentially protect themselves with from the increasing heat of the sun. We soon meet Marie (Hannah Herzsprung) a young woman traveling the ruins of parched roads with her boyfriend and younger sister. After picking up a man who claims that he can help them, (right after almost killing all three of them for their diminishing water supply) the three make an unplanned stop leaving the sister left in the car, which has its windows covered with newspaper and barricaded off. She is taken by a group of survivors who thrive on cannibalism in this newfound hellish world, and after her boyfriend splits, Marie and the hitchhiker attempt to recover her younger sister before she is subjected to uncertain doom.

Fehlbaum treats his characters respectively, not having them shout ridiculous lines, or commit acts of impulsiveness with not even a shred of a thought process as to why. He makes grand use out of his small cast of newcomers and on top of that, creates crafty tension with his co-writers Oliver Kahl and Thomas Woebke using long, uncertain shots that focus either on characters or dried-out, empty landscapes.

But the kicker here is the wonderfully captured, hauntingly displayed, almost blinding cinematography, that cinematographer Markus Förderer personifies into its own character rather quickly. He opens the picture showing off the film's inherently brutal climate with no points of being intrusive or to irritate the casual viewer. It's all a means to concoct suspense and atmosphere for maximum effect. Fehlbaum's Hell has its share of ups and downs, and after a while, you begin to realize you're seeing the same type of areas over and over again. Like movies of its genre, it fluctuates between interesting and not, repetitive and enticing, and beautifully stylistic and much of a muchness. Thankfully, its negative traits are minimized because the film never overstays its eighty-nine minute welcome and provides us with smarter entertainment than I'm sure many of us were expecting.

Starring: Hannah Herzsprung, Stipe Erceg, Lars Eidinger, Lisa Vicari, and Angela Winkler. Directed by: Tim Fehlbaum.

According to the director himself (who was at the Fantasy Filmfest screenings this movie had all over Germany in 2011), he wasn't aware of the fact, that his title could lead to misunderstanding. He always meant it to be the German word "Hell" (which translated into English means "Bright"). It's a nice thing he was earnest and the fellow seems like a very nice guy.

Which can't be said about a lot of the characters in this movie. Unfortunately after a very strong beginning though, he movie falls back into clichés. And not good ones. Add to that some weak acting (there is an older German TV soap star on board who is particularly bad. The director told us he got her into the movie, but that she didn't seem to grasp the ideas they were trying to portray ... which seems to be sort of an explanation concerning her "acting") and a so-so script and the movie does get weaker towards the end.

Which again is a shame, because I like the idea and I think it's a good thing they dare to make a genre movie in Germany. Of course the director being in every city made the movie win an audience award. People even told me they gave the movie a better review because he was so likable. That's nice for him, but shouldn't affect the voting process in general. But there you go: Not great but not a really bad movie either

Hell (German for bright) is a nice little German contribution to the post-apocalyptic genre. The story evolves around a small group of survivors in post-apocalyptic Germany: solar flares have destroyed the earth's atmosphere and global temperatures have risen. In the day the sunlight is so strong and hot that travelling outside during daylight hours is dangerous. As in many movies of that genre the law is simple: Homo homini lupus...

A good production and decent acting make this little flick one that plays in the major league of the genre. Good.

Imagine you are a writer/director who saw 'The Road', and now want to make a movie ''just like that'', but you lack the budget, the cast, and the writing. Your result may resemble 'Hell', a German foray into the post-apocalyptic genre. Don't get me wrong here, being a fan of both dystopian narratives and German film, 'Hell' really did pique my curiosity, but sadly failed to meet expectations.

What does appear striking is the strong Road semblance its creators obviously wanted to give the whole thing (even down to the canned peaches). What may have doomed the whole enterprise from the get-go is the fact that Hillcoat's adaptation of McCarthy's novel is one of the best pieces of post-apocalyptic fiction ever made. Setting the bar at this height does not bode well for Fehlbaum's endeavor.

Heightened solar activity has heated up Earth's atmosphere, leaving its surface an inhospitable and barren place, where plant life no longer can sustain the blistering heat. The remaining survivors fight for Earth's scarcest resource – water. Rumors have it that water still can be found in the higher regions of the German Alps, destination of our group of survivors (Marie, Leonie, and Phillip).

Evidently the movie was shot on a very tight budget. The only noteworthy CGI is the bloom effect of the glaring sun, which is simple but does its job. Other than that, the film does little to convince us of the inclement world the characters amble around in. There are no money shots to speak of (crucial to establishing a fictitious world), the only rewarding part in sense of immersion is the rest area right at the beginning. Whatever set-up comes after this locale appears ill-conceived and lackluster.

The cast does not really seem to grasp their characters, either, dealing further detrimental blows to the credibility of 'Hell''s world. Worst, by far, is veteran actress Angela Winkler, whose delivery is at times comical. Throughout her entire screen time she doesn't seem to be able to make heads or tails out of her role. To a lesser degree the same is true for the rest of the cast. Hanna Herzsprung's decisions are hard to follow, her acting is random at best. The same goes for Lars Eidinger, who apparently is unsure whether Phillip is an coldhearted realist, craven opportunist, or takes heart from Marie's actions and mans up after all. Only Stipe Erceg is able to bestow some depth upon his rendition of Tom. All of this, however, does not stem from bad acting per se – it appears rather obvious that the character design was poorly executed, accompanied by a weak director's vision for the characters at hand.

This also manifests in many inconsistencies throughout the film. The dangerousness of the sun, for example, ranges from 'deadly' (2 hours of exposure will burn your skin) to 'bright' where people simply 'cannot see so well' but otherwise couldn't care less if they are exposed to the supposedly deadly sunlight. It is pretty much self-explanatory what this does to the referential frame of the film, and it leaves a staunch sensation of arbitrariness.

Another dubitable decision is the movie's pacing. Suspense-laden slow takes work well in stretches where this exact sense of suspense is supposed to be conveyed. To choose only slowly paced takes will eventually tire the viewer and lose his attention. And at times, the scenes drag along like the nets of an Atlantic trawler. All in all, 'Hell' has a net screening time of approx. 80 minutes, which is not a lot – but with the few events actually going on on-screen, everything could easily be wrapped up in 30 minutes or less. In addition, slow paced takes are usually a staple of the horror genre, with often visceral effects resolving the tension abruptly in a shock effect way. The overuse of this technique gives 'Hell' more than a hint of horror shocker, and in the last third of the film you are not sure what genre you are actually finding yourself in. Whereas the themes and motives are the same as in 'The Road', the genre seems to have shifted in 'Hell'. Statements about the human condition in 'The Road' have given way to a capitalization on shock value in 'Hell'. Which in my opinion is a poor artistic choice.

All in all, I still welcome Fehlbaum's attempt at post-apocalyptic film-making, a genre (among many others) neglected by German cinema, although the outcome as such fails to convince. I wouldn't go so far as to call 'Hell' bad (it certainly is not good), but its flaws render the whole enterprise disappointingly boring and lackluster. However, this shot at a German post-apocalypse is maybe necessary to spark further attempts and may set the stage for more stringent and enthralling works. Or so I hope, at least.

To start my review: "Hell" means "Bright" in English.

It is a rare thing, even nowadays, a German film studio realizes a serious, dark film which has nothing to do with World War 2 or family drama.

Hell plays, without giving away any spoilers, in an post-apocalyptic scenario in which the sun burned everything down. People try to survive. You know this kind of scenario from movies like "Mad Max" or "The Book Of Eli". However, the sun aspect gives it an unused touch.

The actors do a great job in making us believe they are in big trouble. In the bright parts as in the dark parts of the movie. The antagonists are also believable in the movie's logic.

This is the first feature film directed by Tim Fehlbaum. On the one hand, you can argue he is copying big Hollywood films, which I would not disagree. On the other hand I find it kind of brave to show the German audience that a post apocalyptic movie can also be made in Germanym, with near Hollywood quality and with a small budget of about 5 million Euros. The style is amazing, the scenario believable.

Plus, the film does not show any CGI effects beside the extreme sun bloom, which is done digitally and very good. Everything else is based on the characters and their "path" to survive and find better places to live. The story itself is not very innovative but decent to watch, thrilling and without major flaws.

As a conclusion: This movie is underrated in my opinion. It is brave to make such a movie in Germany, if you compare most of the other German movies from the past 5 years, excluding "Die Welle (The Wave)". "Hell" is well-paced, has good actors and a good director who knows what he is doing. If you like films like this, you will not get bored.

Sure, "Hell" never reaches Hollywood-big-budget blockbuster quality and the sets are pretty limited. However, as a genre film, which are SO rare in Germany, it works and it is sad this film did not have success at the box office. It deserved better. Especially when looking at the future of German filmmaking, which I do not want to be Til Schweiger-only.

8 / 10

Tim Fehlbaum, Screenwriter and Director of "Hell", has sure taken a difficult and unrewarding challenge upon himself: to make an original post-apocalyptic film, and a good one. And despite what those who enjoy complaining would say - he has done a pretty good job!

Unlike most films, "Hell" keeps things disturbingly realistic, portraying a world in the near by future where global warming has made temperatures dangerously high. All the too-familiar motives of such films are there - scavenging for food/gas, water as the highest currency, some people turned to savages by the harsh reality, distrust and bonding, all of it. And even so, after The Road, I Legend, Book of Eli etc etc, Hell still proved to be very enjoyable. It even has some vampire-films motives, especially "Stake-Land".

Acting, screenplay, cinematography, all weren't innovative, but still good. All in all I've always enjoyed the more realistic post-apocalyptic films, and Hell is definitely one worthy of watching!

"Hell" is actually a play on words as it has not only its special meaning in English but also a meaning in German language where it can be translated with "bright". This film indeed shows us a dystopian planet Earth where a few survivors are in desperate search for gasoline and especially water as the planet has drastically heated up in a near future following some dramatic events that are sadly not further explained in this flick. The movie follows four characters that have to work together to survive on their journey through this post-apocalyptic world.

A surprisingly positive point about this movie is the technical aspect. Especially the special and the light effects are quite professionally done despite a low budget and manage to put you in a deserted and desperate place. Add a very well done soundtrack to this and you have a very authentic and highly atmospheric backbone for this film.

The acting is far from perfection but still acceptable for this kind of movie. The growing emotional conflicts between the different characters and a couple of intriguing figures that appear throughout the film keep you seated in front of your television and make you want to know the end of all these events.

Sadly, the story is rather weak in this promising film. Once the characters are introduced, there isn't anything all so spectacular going on. The movie definitely has its lengths and many events are predictable if you know this kind of genre a little bit. There are no twists after all, no truly emotional moments that would leave you impressed and after a promising start the film gets quite mellow and even the ending is somewhat disappointing. That's quite sad as this movie could have been at least a very decent alternative post-apocalyptic movie with a couple of good ideas. As the ideas are running low after a while and as there are no gripping passages, the flick rather feels like a drama and not like a horror movie, a thriller or a worked out science-fiction flick.

The further the movie progresses, the less original it eventually gets. That's why I would consider you to stay away from this as the film gets more and more disappointing. Watch this only if you know and like some of the actors that all get a lot of screen time and dialogues or if you're intrigued by the good special and light effects that are clearly the highlight of the movie. Apart of the technical aspect, this movie remains overall only of an average quality at best.

My girlfriend rolled her eyes when I told her I had a nice German movie for us to watch, however she enjoyed it as did I as its a well made thriller. I've gotta say German movies are an extreme rarity for me and I'm totally into international film, they don't seem to make any good ones I've heard of. This however is top notch from the offset, acting, lighting, camera work and pace it wasn't long until I forgot I was watching a German film. Very much in the vein of The Road but with a lot more action (and a lot less thinking tbh) I think 'Frontiers' meets 'The Road' is an extremely apt description, if you liked either of these movies then you'll enjoy Hell.

This turned out to be a surprisingly good thriller; minimalistic and quick paced, and visually well done. Set in a near-future world devastated by a 10 °C rise in temperatures and blinding sunlight, everything looks very much the part of the post-apocalyptic setting. Good cast, too - Hannah Herzsprung and Stipe Erceg, both stellar in The Baader Meinhof Complex, also do a good job with the sparse dialog here as the desperate protagonists searching for the last of the water. Not your usual Hollywood sci-fi fare with million-dollar C.G.I. and flashy explosions but still taut with enough action to keep you on edge. More reminiscent of the French New Wave Horror movies like Alexandre Aja's High Tension and Xavier Gens' Frontier(s), only this is a much quieter film without all the gratuitous gore.

The year is 2016.Due to global warming the sun has increased the Earth's temperature by 10 degrees Celsius.The Earth becomes post-apocalyptic wasteland where people are fighting and killing each other for water.Marie(Hannah Herzsprung),her boyfriend Phillip(Lars Eidinger)and her sister Leonie(Lisa Vicari)are traveling to the German Alps to find H20 and food resources.Fellow outsider met on the road Tom(Stipe Ercek)helps them out.When Leonie is kidnapped Marie will do everything to find her-even when it means bloody fight for survival..."Hell" is pretty interesting post-apocalyptic thriller influenced by "The Road","Resident Evil" and "Mad Max".The premise is highly derivative,but bright contrasts are used to get the bleaching effect.A generous 6 suns out of 10.

Jeez,

Some of the reviews on here are tough. This is a well acted, well shot creepy post-apocalyptic independent film!

Is it perfect? What film- or for that matter what work of art- is perfection? It seems that IMDb has become a meeting place for all the review-trolls on the internet. Let's all log on and say how bad everyone's attempts at art are.

Do any of these reviewers know the artistry it takes to shoot and cut together a film like HELL? I say kudos to the entire crew and certainly to the cast which were all top notch actors.

Did the other reviewers watch the same film I did?

This is hands down one of the best films I've seen recently.

Check on any review of the German film 'Hell' and it'll tell you that it's a film 'of two halves.' I can't really add much to that.

Set in the near future when the sun has scorched the Earth, leaving only a few survivors to scour the land for what they need most - in this case, water. We meet four of them as they travel across Germany, unable to set foot in the sunlight and doing much of the travelling at night, as they desperately look for the fabled mountain range where it still rains.

The first half is pretty good. It takes the whole 'can't go out in the sunlight' idea and introduces many nice touches, i.e. how the characters have developed new patterns of living, plus how they ingeniously find various ways of getting more water (out of pipes, using cloths to soak moisture off cave walls and so on). Plus the acting is good. Everyone plays their part well and there isn't a Jar-Jar Binks among them (in other words, hideously annoying and unbearable to watch).

However, the second half kind of slips up on itself and turns the whole thing into a simple 'escape from the baddies' movie. It even comes complete with 'running through the woods' scene. Plus the idea of being unable to go out in the sunlight kind of gets forgotten about. The sunlight suddenly plays no real part in the second act, even to the extent that the characters are somehow able to run about it in with no real side effects.

What starts off excellent, just ends up being okay-ish. It's definitely worth watching, even if it's just for the nice atmosphere created and decent first half. If you fancy a German subtitled version of The Road, give it a try.

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