‘Hell Motel’ Review: Limited Series Entertains But Lacks Guts
In the first episode of Shudder’s new horror series Hell Motel, a pair of unsuspecting newlyweds are seeking a peaceful overnight stay, only to find themselves at an isolated and run-down motel. Things quickly take a turn, as they tragically meet their demise at the hands of a mysterious assailant shrouded in a cloak, face concealed behind a horned mask. Thirty years later, a group of passionate true crime enthusiasts has been deliberately chosen to stay at this same motel, now extensively renovated and reimagined as a macabre tourist attraction.
The group consists of Paige (Paula Brancati), a former scream queen who once played one of the victims in a slasher film; Andy (Jim Watson), an academic who studies the kind of killings that took the life of the hotel’s famed inhabitants; Adriana (Genevieve DeGraves), a flight attendant whose obsession with serial killers sees her traveling the world to sleep with them; Crow (Shaun Benson), a new-age medium who desperately tries to connect to the people who lost their lives at the motel; Blake (Atticus Mitchell), a true crime blogger and lone survivor of a college mass killing; Kawayan (Emmanuel Kabongo), a multi-medium artist obsessed with murder; and Hemmingway, a cocky chef who butts heads with everyone.
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The motel’s new owners, married couple Ruby (Brynn Godenir) and Portia (Michelle Nolden), have meticulously curated the motel for their guests’ dark interests. That includes carefully placed fake blood stains marking the exact locations where the original victims drew their final breaths. The experience also involves disturbing theatrical elements like prop body parts representing the deceased victims, the rooms where people died set aside like shrines, not to the people who died, but instead to the horrific ways they lost their lives.
As a storm rips through the neighboring wilderness, two seemingly innocent travelers—Floyd (Gray Powell) and Shirley (Yanna McIntosh)—arrive at the motel. When one of the guests meets a horrific end in the motel’s sauna, it becomes clear that a killer lurks among the group, methodically picking off members one by one. The arrival of this mysterious couple adds an intriguing layer to the story, weaving a complex web of deception and suspicion between the guests, the unknown killer, and these newcomers who harbor dark secrets of their own.
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As fear and paranoia take hold, the surviving guests begin to suspect and accuse one another of being responsible for the mounting deaths, fracturing the already fragile relationships they’ve built with one another. In a kill-or-be-killed situation, the collective psychology of the group deteriorates rapidly, creating an increasingly unstable and threatening atmosphere. However, in a frustrating development, the most compelling and well-developed characters are eliminated early in the series, leaving behind a cast of stereotypical personalities that feel overly familiar, even by the standards of the slasher genre.
This is, at times, a hindrance to the series, but the gradual revealing of backstories of these characters eventually transforms them into far more complex individuals. Hell Motel takes an interesting structural approach, with individual episodes devoted to exploring each main character’s background, delving deep into the psychological origins of their obsession with true crime. These character-focused flashback sequences prove to be so captivating and well-executed that they ultimately overshadow the somewhat disappointing primary narrative of the series. Every character harbors hidden depths and dark secrets beneath their surface, including those who initially appear to be the most wholesome and trustworthy.
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Hell Motel culminates in a finale centered around an extended dialogue between the two remaining characters. Despite its seemingly simple premise, this conversation proves remarkably effective, unfolding with a masterful balance of emotional resonance and revelations, some so staggering they force the story to halt. What becomes of this is a series-best episode that focuses on the confines our obsessions place upon us, and how, if we let it, these obsessions can lead to our ruin. Hell Motel’s ambitious attempt to examine the cyclical nature of true crime obsession while maintaining the essential elements of the slasher genre creates an uneven viewing experience that doesn’t fully come together until the final episode. Instead, this final episode stands as a testament to what the series could have been if only it had the guts to truly follow through.
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Hell Motel
Summary
Hell Motel’s ambitious attempt to examine the cyclical nature of true crime obsession while maintaining the essential elements of the slasher genre creates an uneven viewing experience that doesn’t fully come together until the final episode.
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