The following is a review of the documentary series “Hellier” from Planet Weird Productions, with as few spoilers as possible, though some minor spoilers may be unavoidable.
Back in 2017, paranormal investigators Greg & Dana Newkirk, Karl Pfeiffer, and Connor Randal found themselves on the back roads of Appalachia, heading to a tiny town named Hellier, Kentucky. The Newkirks had received some disturbing emails from a man claiming to be a doctor in that town. He said that he and his family were being terrorized by a group of small, strange creatures emerging from an abandoned mine entrance on their property. It was all very reminiscent of legend of the Hopkinsville, Kentucky Goblins. He supplied photos to support his claim and asked them for help.
When the team arrived in town and began their investigation, one level of strangeness evolved into many. It was as if nothing and nobody were what they seemed. Rather than “simply” hunting for some sort of strange cryptid in a cave, the group found themselves in the middle of an increasingly bizarre mystery. The result was the release last year of a five-part series titled “Hellier.” The entire, original series was made available on YouTube by the producers and it was enthralling. And at the end of this week season two will be released.
Given that Hellier was produced independently, you might think it would look like a collection of shaky, found footage from a GoPro. But the production value in this series is up there with some of the best documentaries imaginable. The camera work, editing and musical score are all very professionally done.
I had the opportunity to view the first five episodes of the second season over the weekend. (I’ll have to wait for the final five along with the rest of you.) If anything, the story has grown even more twisted. Rather than just being the tale of missing family who ran into supernatural creatures, the story involves weird conspiracies, legends of potential contact with alien visitors and, perhaps most frightening of all, some very real human beings who move in the shadows without revealing their true intentions. This is a really great series.
If you’ve never heard of it and you’re looking for something to binge-watch, catch up on season one on YouTube (linked above). And then on Black Friday, while recovering from Thanksgiving dinner shock on your couch, take on season two. The second season of Hellier premieres exclusively on Amazon Prime on Friday, November 29th at 12:01AM ET, and free-of-charge on YouTube two weeks later, on Friday, December 13th. Check out Hellier.tv for episode descriptions, downloads and other goodies.
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