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6.7/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.7/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Hell Unltd remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you have fifteen minutes and want to see some real, unfiltered 1930s rage, yes, Hell Unltd is absolutely worth your time. History nerds and people who like weird, scratchy animation will love this. If you only watch movies to relax or hate silent-era politics, you will probably want to throw your laptop out the window. 🖥️
It was made by Helen Biggar and Norman McLaren back in 1936. They basically used whatever they had lying around—puppets, clay, newspaper clippings, and diagrams—to scream at the world about the upcoming war.
And man, they were pissed.
The whole thing is an anti-war protest disguised as a collage. It moves so fast you can barely keep up with the titles.
The puppets in this are not cute. They do not look like the charming stop-motion stuff in Dr. Dolittle and His Animals.
These things look like they were sewn together from old dish rags and nightmares. They represent the greedy politicians and weapons manufacturers, and they just sit there grinning while the world burns.
There is this one shot of a toy tank rolling over a tiny cardboard house. It is so simple, but it hurts to watch.
The movie does not try to be polite. It literally shows charts of how much money companies make every time a bomb goes off.
You can see the direct line from this to modern political memes, honestly. It has that same raw, "look at this garbage" energy.
The editing is incredibly choppy. Sometimes a title card only stays on screen for a second, and you have to squint to read the old-timey font.
I am pretty sure there was a typo in one of the cards, too. Or maybe that is just how they spelled "armament" in Scotland back then. 🤷
Some parts feel like they were filmed in a dark closet. The lighting goes all over the place, and the film grain is so thick it looks like rain.
But that is why it works. It does not feel like a polished piece of "cinema" designed for a fancy theater.
It feels like a bootleg tape passed around by rebels. If you want a fun, lighthearted slapstick short like Hard Luck, this is the exact opposite of that.
Instead, you get giant hands sweeping away toy soldiers. And diagrams that look like they were drawn with a greasy marker.
It is short, it is ugly, and it does not care if you like it.
Honestly, I am glad I found this. It is a reminder that people have been making angry, DIY movies about the end of the world forever.
IMDb 6.5
1933
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