Hellhole  ★★½

POLISH director Bartosz M. Kowalski must be a fan of The Omen.

The opening scenes of Kowalski’s horror film Hellhole could almost be an alternative continuation of Richard Donner’s 1976 classic ending.

Spoiler alert for a 48-year-old movie…if you recall, The Omen’s climax is the flash of gunfire from a police revolver when Gregory Peck’s character is about to thrust a dagger into his demonic son Damien on the steps to a church altar. That film then cuts suddenly to a funeral.

Hellhole’s prologue sees a man about to murder a boy he calls the “spawn of the devil” in a church only to be shot dead by police. We see a distinctive mark on the boy’s chest.

We then jump several decades to 1987 at a time when several women have gone missing, presumed dead, in a particular region of the country.

Father Marek arrives at a remote monastery to meet Prior Andrzej. The monastery also functions as a sanatorium treating people who are thought to be under the influence of the Devil and Marek, an exorcist, is joining the staff.

But fairly soon two things become clear – Marek has another motive for being at the monastery and Andrzej has secrets to hide. At the same time a series of apparently supernatural occurrences lead Marek deep into the bowels of a dark mystery with life-changing ramifications.

The location and setting are suitably atmospheric and, while the mystery is revealed relatively soon, it maintains a sense of growing dread throughout most of the running time.

This is Kowalski’s fifth film. He is best known for two other horror films, Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight and its sequel, which are more entertaining that this latest effort.