My Thoughts on No Tears in Hell
No Tears in Hell is based on the true story of Russian killer Alexander Spesivtsev, and follows Alex, who lives with his mother and has this bizarre, terrifying routine of luring homeless kids into his apartment, killing them, and eating them, which is all kinds of lovely.
His mother helps cover it up too, cutting up the bodies and dumping the remains into the river. It’s one of those premises that’s disturbing enough on its own, but what really got me is just how matter-of-fact they treat it.
There’s no big dramatic reveal or anything, it’s just their version of “family time,” which was effective in the beginning, but as the film went on, it does start to drag and the pacing is a big issue.
No Tears in Hell definitely knows how to sets a mood, with the snow-covered apartment block where most of the story takes place having this cold, heavy atmosphere that worked really well. I like when a setting feels like part of the story, and here it kind of swallows everything in a way that fits the subject matter at hand.
Alex as a character could have been handled better, though. Luke Baines has the look down, cold and unreadable, but the script keeps giving him these long monologues about serial killers and cannibalism that just kills the tension.
I don’t need a lecture on the history of eating people when the guy is literally eating people, and it felt like the movie wanted him to be both scary and intellectual, but it just made him come across kind of dull, which for a film about a serial killer, isn't what is needed.
The mother-son dynamic also could have been really interesting, but I thought it fell flat. There’s a lot of potential in that relationship, such as her loyalty, and her slowly realizing this is only going to end up one way, but it never really goes anywhere. I found myself wishing the film had leaned into that angle instead of padding things out with torture scenes.
And speaking of those scenes, I don’t mind disturbing content if it serves a purpose, but here it felt lazy. The killings don’t build tension, and they don’t reveal much about the characters, they just sit there, being gross for the sake of being gross.
By the end, I didn’t feel shocked, scared, or even particularly disturbed. I mostly felt tired. There are hints of a better film buried in there, one that could have focused on the psychology of Alex and his mother, or at least digged a bit deeper into it all so it wasn't so generic.
But what we get is just another dark, dreary true-crime story that doesn’t really add much. I like the atmosphere, and I’ll give it credit for that, but beyond the icy backdrop, No Tears in Hell doesn’t have much to offer.