Hell (2011)

Director:

Tim Fehlbaum

Writers:

Tim Fehlbaum (screenplay) &
Oliver Kahl (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 September 2011 (Germany)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

In the not too distant future, people struggle to survive their greatest enemy, the sun. |

Plot Keywords:

Future | Gagged Woman | Little Sister | Forest | Gagged

Awards:

9 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Stipe Erceg	...	Tom
Hannah Herzsprung	...	Marie
Lisa Vicari	...	Leonie
Angela Winkler	...	Bäurin
Lars Eidinger	...	Phillip
Michael Kranz	...	Micha (voice)
Lilo Baur	...	Französin
Anne Sarah Hartung	...	Sophia
Nino Böhlau	...	Flori
Christoph Gaugler	...	Brückner
Ellen Schweiger	...	Oma
Tammo Winkler	...	Toni
Dieter Hilpmann	...	Gefangener
Luca Winkler	...	Jens
Yoann Blanc	...	Sohn Micha
Marco Calamandrei	...	Franzose
Hans-Peter Recktenwald	...	Flüchtiger
Lutz Pretzsch	...	Anton

Directed by
Tim Fehlbaum

Writing credits
Tim Fehlbaum		(screenplay) &
Oliver Kahl		(screenplay) &
Thomas Wöbke		(screenplay)

Produced by
Roland Emmerich	....	executive producer
Stefan Gärtner	....	co-producer
Ruth Waldburger	....	co-producer
Gabriele Walther	....	producer
Thomas Wöbke	....	producer

Original Music by
Lorenz Dangel

Cinematography by
Markus Förderer

Film Editing by
Andreas Menn

Casting by
An Dorthe Braker

Production Design by
Heike Lange

Costume Design by
Leonie Leuenberger

Makeup Department
Georg Korpas	....	special makeup effects artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ola Czarniecka	....	second assistant director
Lars Gmehling	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Johanna Fanderl	....	assistant production designer
Kerstin Grund	....	property master
Staub Lisa	....	art department trainee
Doro Polstorff	....	standby props
Olivia Rieser	....	set dresser
Bettina Sailer	....	set dresser
Peter Schuler	....	construction coordinator
Ziehn Vanessa	....	art department trainee
Anna Wagner	....	assistant property master
Thomas Wimmer	....	swing

Sound Department
Hubert Bartholomae	....	sound re-recording mixer
Pit Kuhlmann	....	dialogue editor
Philipp Sellier	....	sound effects editor
Christoph von Schönburg	....	sound effects editor

Special Effects by
Ernst Lanninger	....	special effects
Jan Singh	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Silvio Alberti	....	compositor
Gabriel Dedic	....	supervising digital colourist
Renato Huber	....	junior compositor
Romeo Janczer	....	junior compositor
Miklos Kozary	....	compositing supervisor
Jan-Hilmar Petersen	....	set vfx supervisor
Stephan Schweizer	....	lead compositor

Stunts
Petr Dvorak	....	stunt player: Kannibale
Mac Steinmeier	....	stunt team

Camera and Electrical Department
Anton Förtsch	....	lighting technician
Pablo Gotzes	....	data capture
Pablo Gotzes	....	second assistant camera
Andreas König	....	lighting technician
Ken MacDonald	....	first assistant camera
Theo Oppenländer	....	gaffer
Oliver Schill	....	first assistant camera
Clemens Treml	....	Steadicam operator

Casting Department
Saskia Garrebeek	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Catherine Schneider	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Luc Bonnet	....	score mixer
Falko Duczmal	....	protools engineer
Tilo M. Heinrich	....	music preparation
Tilo M. Heinrich	....	percussion: musician
Michael Schubert	....	score: recorded and mixed by

Other crew
Linn Kohlmetz	....	production coordinator
Berit Norrenberg	....	legal advisor (as Berit Wetzel)
Lena Prosteder	....	production assistant

Thanks
Bernd Eichinger	....	thanks
Hans-Christian Schmid	....	thanks
Eva Von Malotky	....	thanks
Hansjörg Weißbrich	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Caligari Film- und Fernsehproduktions
• Claussen Wöbke Putz Filmproduktion
• Paramount Pictures
• Seven Pictures
• Vega Film GmbH

Distributors

• Albatros Film (2012) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (2011) (Germany) (theatrical)
• ARC Entertainment (II) (2012) (USA) (all media)
• Against Gravity (2012) (Poland) (all media)
• Lionsgate (2012) (UK) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2012) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2012) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Mongrel Media (2012) (Canada) (all media)
• Swift Distribution (2012) (France) (all media)

Special Effects

• Elefant Studios

Other Companies

• Bundesamt für Kultur (EDI)  funding (post-production)
• Deutsche Filmförderfonds (DFFF)  funding
• Dolby Laboratories  sound mix
• FilmFernsehFonds Bayern  funding
• Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)  funding
• Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film  funding
• Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg  funding
• Zuercher Filmstiftung  funding

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence

Runtime:

Germany:89 min

Country:

Germany | Switzerland

Language:

German | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

USA:R | Germany:16 | Singapore:PG13 | South Korea:15 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Corsica, France

Company:

Caligari Film- und Fernsehproduktions

Trivia:

The title 'Hell' is the German word for 'bright'.

Soundtrack:

99 Luftballons

Hell yes

The marketing might make much of Roland Emmerich producing involvement, but while this low-budget German survivor story is set the day after tomorrow but it's about as far from The Day After Tomorrow as you can get. The sun is flaring and Earth's temperature has risen ten degrees. A group of survivors, led by tough Marie (Hannah Herzsprung), make their way toward the mountains, toward water.

As with John Hillcoat's The Road, this is a tale about the day-to-day fight for survival after a nameless cataclysm has befallen the planet. But while Hillcoat's film was perennially chilly, writer-director Tim Fehlbaum's is all about the lethal glare of the sun. The conceit of the characters having to avoid direct sunlight seems like an affectionate nod to Kathryn Bigelow's vampire classic Near Dark. It adds an intriguing extra dimension to many scenes.

The film begins as a fairly standard waste-crawler, but gradually turns into a Texas Chain Saw Massacre-style nightmare, as Marie and her sister find themselves the prisoners of a ghastly family, led by a monstrous matriarch, horribly rational and literal in her attempts to ensure her family's survival.

Fehlbaum draws impressive intensity from the actors and delivers a series of tense set-pieces. In the final act I feared events would lurch into torture porn territory, but on the contrary, it's at this point that the films characters properly emerge, and the humanity of the piece comes to light. What could have been a film about cannibalism is actually about sisterhood.

On a technical level, the film is well shot. But the editing is at times of the chaotic variety: needless rapid cutting. I guess this technique is meant to bring across the thrill and confusion of the moment, but for me the filmmaker is giving us a sense of the experience at the expense of us actually understanding what's going on. Not a trade worth making, in my opinion.

There's nothing much new in Hell, but as a refined, engrossing amalgamation of well-worn ideas, it hangs together nicely, all the way up to the disappointingly sudden ending.