- Director: Michael Caissie
- Writer: Michael Caissie
- Stars: Luke Baines, Gwen Van Dam, Tatjana Marjanovic, Audrey Neal, Gabriella Westwood, Erik Fellows
REVIEW
Alaska, not the beautiful, wild, and cold place you see on TV and documentary shows, but the dark, impossibly colder looking place is where we find ourselves for No Tears In Hell . Outside is drab and punishing, which mirrors the inside of serial killer Alex’s (Baines) apartment. Alex’s mother covers up her sons crimes, assisting in the disposal and the clean up of the victims’ bodies.
Based on the crimes of Russian serial killer Alexander Spesivtsev, No Tears In Hell is a thoroughly unpleasant and, at times, brutal film.
Alex, has undoubtedly had a terrible life (shown through various flashbacks) but the film doesn’t really make a distinction between telling you what happened as a matter of fact and almost giving him an excuse and some possible sympathy for his deviant choices. Baines is good as Alex, a disaffected fuckwit that thinks he is some kind of untouchable demon. He makes him thoroughly unlikable as a killer should be.
The late Gwen Van Dam provides a bit of nuance to the story, being a woman who knows this is wrong but also feels guilty for the past and creating this monster.
The plot gets quite repetitive, which I guess would be how that kind of life would be, but as a film, the audience has to see the lead in, the inevitable, as the victims are slowly lead to the slaughterhouse and then have to sit in the pall of these killings and then it is repeated. The film is mostly an introspective serial killer film, Alex narrates his pseudo intellectual thoughts and his constant references to other serial killers. However, the film breaks that grim spell. In juxtaposition to the rest of the film, at times Alex becomes a spectre, an impossibly nimble and silent stalk n slash killer, it flys in the face of how the character had been portrayed up until that point.
No Tears In Hell is undoubtedly a rough ride and is suitably disgusting. Unfortunately, beyond the disgust, there is no real emotional connection. We spend little to no time with victims beforehand, so they are just essentially props to do terrible things too. These scenes are, of course, confronting but only as barbaric acts, not something that really reaches your soul. This feel bad film has enough nhilism that it doesn’t need to go to this level, but if I am watching something like this, then I’d like it to really hurt me on all levels.
No Tears In Hell is a dark, grim story. It is shot very well, and writer/director Cassie has created a very ugly, confronting film. A serial killer film that gets the brutality right but just misses the mark on the emotional aspect. A feel bad film, and if that’s what you are after, then this is what you want.
No Tears In Hell is currently available on VOD and Digital.
Ryan Morrissey-Smith
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