A Polish horror movie looks to have taken the mantle as the latest in a stream of viral foreign language Netflix titles. The chilling movie, titled Hellhole, debuted on the platform in October 2022 but continues to surge in viewership stat reports. Often, even some of the most popular movies on the platform will take a nose dive after their first few months.
Hellhole was written and directed by the Polish auteur Bartosz M. Kowalski. The story is set in 1980s Poland and follows a detective who tries to find the culprit responsible for a string of mysterious disappearances. He eventually discovers a connection to a remote monastery where exorcists practice.
The sustained popularity is at least partly attributable to word of mouth, as recent Twitter activity and podcast conversations attest.
“Hellhole on Netflix is a terrifying gem of a horror movie set in a creepy monastery,” author Farah Ali wrote on Twitter shortly after the film’s release last autumn. “Atmospheric & full of dread it’s a MUST see.”
Elsewhere, the co-host of the Bloody Disgusting podcast, Zena Dixon, tweeted in February that the movie stuck with her long after viewing: “It’s been over two weeks since I’ve watched Hellhole on Netflix and it’s stuck in my brain!”
Ainsley Bowden, editor-in-chief of the video game news website Seasoned Gaming, tweeted in December, “Pretty well done! Shot well, creepy with a few threads and turns, and quite an amazing ending sequence.”
Shortly after, movie critic Steven Nguyen Scaife tweeted that he doesn’t “wanna oversell Polish monastery horror film HELLHOLE on Netflix but boy does it go places.”
Watch the trailer for Hellhole below.
