Portal to Hell (2025) Review

There are few places less glamorous than a laundromat. That constant hum of dryers, the flicker of fluorescent lights, the faint smell of detergent and despair. So naturally it feels strangely fitting that Woody Bess’s Portal to Hell should use such a setting as the launchpad for a horror-comedy about death, redemption, and the literal gateway to eternal damnation. It’s a film that manages to be both grim and goofy, playing its absurd premise with a straight face while quietly sneaking in questions about morality and mortality.

Dunn (Trey Holland) is a weary debt collector whose daily grind consists of harassing strangers about medical bills while keeping his own loneliness at bay with routine trips to the local laundromat. His one source of real connection is his neighbour Bobshank (played with trademark warmth by Keith David), a terminally ill man whose gruff affection keeps Dunn anchored. When Dunn stumbles across an actual portal to hell gaping out of a dryer, he’s understandably rattled. Less understandable is that most of the locals are only mildly inconvenienced by it, treating this infernal abyss as though it were a broken vending machine.

Things escalate when Dunn encounters Chip (Richard Kind, on sardonic form), a demon with a salesman’s patter and a hellish bargain. Chip offers to spare Bobshank’s soul in exchange for three others, and suddenly Dunn, normally the man who takes cash from the living, is forced to consider harvesting from the soon-to-be dead. It leads to a delightfully offbeat mixture of occult events, slapstick killings, and unexpected tenderness, as Dunn wrestles with the morality of damning others to save the only person who has shown him kindness.

What makes Portal to Hell work is that everyone involved plays it absolutely straight. Holland gives Dunn a jittery humanity, even in moments of farcical horror, and his awkward descent into reluctant soul-reaping is funny and oddly touching. David, meanwhile, brings gravitas to every line, turning what could have been a throwaway side character into the film’s emotional centre. And then there’s Kind, who elevates Chip beyond a stock villain into something closer to a chatty pub regular, albeit one dangling the keys to eternal torment.

Bess goes to work with the visuals, using neon hues and heightened absurdity, transforming the laundromat into something surreal and unsettling. The creature design, particularly for Chip, is inventive without feeling overstretched by budget limitations. The director’s influences seem to hint at Sam Raimi’s mania and Edgar Wright’s rhythmic pacing, but there’s also something distinctly his own here, a sense of indie scrappiness that adds to the film’s charm.

Some of the cosmic musings towards the finale wobble under their own ambition, and the third act takes a little too long to lock into place. But by then the characters and humour have done enough to ensure that you’re invested regardless. When the ending does arrive, it feels satisfyingly earned, balancing the bizarre and the heartfelt without collapsing under the weight of either.

At a time when horror-comedy feels like it relies a lot on tired gags or excessive splatter, Portal to Hell stands out by somehow embracing absurdity while taking its characters seriously. It’s refined, funny, moving  and proves that the humdrum setting of a laundromat can be just as effective as any haunted house or remote cabin.

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Portal to Hell trailer