Lonely teenager Izzy (Zelda Adams) lives in an isolated house on a wooded mountain with her mum (Toby Poser).
They have a fun life, foraging in the woods, making rock music as a White Stripes-like combo called H6llb6nd6r, painting, and homeschooling.
But Izzy wants to meet other kids of her own age.
She believes her mother is shielding her from people because she has an immune deficiency disease, but the audience very quickly learns that Izzy's mother is actually a powerful witch.
She's a Hellbender, a powerful demonic-witch that gains power from the fear coursing through the blood of their prey.
Stealing away from her mother's smothering protection, Izzy makes friends with some local teenagers, but when they are partying, she gets coerced into drinking a Tequila shot with a wriggling earthworm in it.
Consuming the flesh of a living creature triggers Izzy's latent Hellbender powers, causing her to freak out.
On one hand, her mother is pleased that Izzy has discovered her legacy, but now she has to teach her daughter how to marshal her powers responsibly.
Unfortunately, Izzy is drawn to the allure of power.
Hellbender is a small, but mighty, character study, written and directed by, and starring, the incredibly talented Adams family.
The character chemistry is real because Toby Poser, wife of director John Adams, is really the mother of Zelda Adams, while Zelda's sister Lulu plays the first friend Izzy makes, Amber. John also pops up on screen as Amber's uncle.
With the script credited to John, Zelda, and Toby, and the latter two listed as directors alongside John, the development of Hellbender was clearly an organic process.
But just because this is a family affair - and their band, H6llb6nd6r, provides the soundtrack to the movie - doesn't mean Hellbender is a low budget am dram debacle.
The film is a cracking, psychedelic, surreal, folk horror tale powered along by escalating tension and terror, splattered with buckets of blood, and inventive special effects.
Early on there are Carrie vibes to the proceedings, but while the inciting incident does involve Izzy's peers, this isn't your typical teen-centric splatterflick, instead concentrating primarily on the relationship between mother and daughter.
A coming-of-age story with a difference, in a very real sense we're seeing a "monster" movie from the perspective of the monster.
Great thought has clearly gone into developing the mythology of the Hellbenders, from the source of their powers, through their grisly blood-magic, to their method of reproduction.
Building to a magnificent climax, for me the film was slightly let down by its open-ended denouement, where I'd rather hoped for something more definitive.
But then again, that feeds into the concept of this being a creature feature told by the creatures.
With an 86-minute running time, and small cast, the pacing of Hellbender is perfect from the get-go to the icky finale.
With a traditional antagonist becoming the protagonist, and no real antagonists to worry about, and by staying laser-focused on its central characters, with no distracting sub-plots, the end result is a truly memorable experience.
I cannot wait to see what this unique troupe of cast and crew conjure up next, because they clearly have an affinity with horror movies, and their familial trust allows them to push their stories in interesting directions.