Having not read the synopsis, I had assumed No Tears in Hell would be some sort of demonic possession type story, which I was fully on board with. Directed and co-written by Michael Caissie (Hunter's Moon), this is actually a grim and gory film about a serial killer, and I discovered at the film's end that it was actually inspired by the real life serial killer known as the Siberian Ripper.
Set in Alaska in the 1990's, this stars Luke Baines (The Mandalorian TV series, Shadowhunters TV series) as Alex, a young man who holds a burning rage within him. Creepy Alex is unsurprisingly a serial killer, he picks victims off the streets, typically homeless teens, and brings them back to his decrepit apartment where over a period of days to weeks he tortures and kills them. His loving mother (Gwen Van Dam - Halloween uncredited) helps her son to dispose of the bodies, and also partakes in consuming the corpses. His mother begins to get concerned with Alex, his victims have became more random, while he is being sloppy in clearing up his crimes. This causes a detective to start to suspect there may be a killer on the loose in the city.
No Tears in Hell was a moody, dark, dank, and depressing horror that was the epitome of feel bad. It features a narration from Alex who initially appeared to be set-up as an anti-hero of sorts. This super serious edge lord character feels that he is doing the world a service by getting rid of undesirables. From start to end he is a terrible person, always choosing the darker option when there is the chance of the slightest hint of light. I hadn't realised this was based on a real person, so I am glad that I never once felt anything in common with this evil protagonist. The real killer apparently chose teenagers as his victims, and occasionally ate them. Here, Alex eats all his victims, with his justification being that the world is a harsh place and he has to do what he can to survive. We are kind of shown the film from his perspective, with him seeing himself as a wolf, which is shown on screen by infrequent inserts of close-ups of the creatures. His mother is equally twisted, being the person who encouraged Alex's behaviour from since he was a young child, but she has a vague (extremely vague!) good side to her in that she wants him to only pick people with no family. Sure, that is for self preservation but there are some good scenes where she is trying her best to discourage potential victims from entering Alex's apartment after finding out they had people who would miss them. Side characters mainly exist only to be victims, none of these were particularly bad, but the acting wasn't always world class. I thought Baines was great in the lead role however.
Feel good this was not, the sets are grimy and gross, and there are no end of body parts being sawn off victims, and blood. The torture porn genre is not a favourite of mine, and while this doesn't quite go as deep into body trauma as that, this still has plenty of unpleasant scenes, such as when Alex cuts off a victims tongue, and lobotomises another victim by hammering a corkscrew device into their brain via the eye socket. None of this was happy watching, but I had to say this was actually well made. Outside of some external shots of Alex's apartment block this all took place in a limited number of locations that created a consistent tone to the film world. The special effects were pretty good, and severed body parts looked as they should rather than fake props. The film's score was also decent, memorable at least as I haven't been able to stop myself humming the depressing theme tune ever since I finished the movie. At an hour and forty five minutes in length this had the potential to drag and feel slow, yet it never did for me. I might not have liked what was going on but I was engaged with the story, and drawn into the miserable film world.
I had no idea until the screens of text at the end that this was based on a true story. Typically that would be very loose, but I was surprised how much of this was things that had happened, even if it seems the motivations of the protagonist were simplified. I didn't really enjoy the film, true crime serial killer stuff where victims are tortured is not really my thing. I will state the film was very well made though, and for that it should get credit. No Tears in Hell comes to digital and VOD platforms on 12th August via Scatena & Rosner Films.
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