As someone who has never been a big fan of the sun - it's too bright! - I appreciated the central concept of Hell. For some reason (solar flares?), the sun freaks out and the temperature on earth goes up by 10 degrees celsius, since it's a German film. (About 50 degrees Fahrenheit.) It's sunny and hot enough to make it dangerous to go outside unexposed, and water has become extremely scarce. Most people have died, and social order has completely broken down. So really, it's a post-apocalyptic style flick, but the reason behind the apocalypse is a consistent threat. Although of course people are the *real* threat to the survivors, yadda yadda yadda. Oh, and since it's not America, no one really has guns, so that's cool.
And Hell is a pretty solid film. The story isn't radical by any means - it starts with three survivors in an old car, in search of ever dwindling supplies (water, food, gasoline). But it's the sort of story that is best discovered on your own. A synopsis won't do it any favors. And a lot of what works in Hell isn't the basic story - it's the little details. You see the ways that this solar disaster has affected people, and the clever ways in which they've responded. It's just kind of neat.
A lot of thought and care went into the sets and overall design of Hell - just about everything is covered in an appropriate level of dust and grime, and things looked really lived-in and realistic. Characters behave pretty believably - yes, there are heroes but there are also reasonable cowards - people just looking to do what they have to do to survive in a harsh environment. It's an easy film to impose yourself onto - "how would I respond in this situation?" (For the record, I would probably *not* be one of the heroes - honestly, I'd probably be dead before this whole thing even got started.) There aren't any head-shakingly stupid decisions or moments in Hell where you really have to suspend your disbelief.
The horror in Hell is really more psychologically-based - i.e. what extremes are some people willing to go in order to survive. There isn't any outlandish gore or anything like that. It's one of those films that is probably more "horror" for the ideas it presents rather than anything that happens onscreen. While Hell is a relatively unpleasant film, there isn't any one scene in it that is particularly difficult to watch.
It's a well-made film too - nothing overly fancy, but it looks nice and there is great attention to detail. A lot of the outdoor shots are a little over exposed/bright, but that's obviously a stylistic choice (given the apocalypse-strength sun). The acting is decent across the board, although it's a little tougher for me to gauge with German being the spoken language. Some of the reviews I cam across online really ragged on one actress in particular (the matriarch of the family, I presume), but she didn't seem too bad to me.
Also, Hell uses "99 Luftballons" really amazingly. It's funny to see how the perception of pop music changes in this context - stripped away from the modern setting it becomes ridiculously corny. The use of Nena's hit song early on is really the only time that Hell flirts with anything resembling humor.
Overall, Hell is a pretty solid post-apocalyptic adventure. Other than the central concept, the story doesn't stray too far from the standard stuff. But the attention to the small details and the world-building is what makes it worth a watch.
I would recommend this film.
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