In October 1996, Russian serial killer Alexander Spesivtsev was apprehended after a plumber contacted the police to get access to his apartment to fix a leak that was damaging the unit below. The cause of this leak: a dismembered, bloody body was found in the bathtub.  

Director Michael Caissie alters the real-life story slightly by bringing it to a sleepy frozen wasteland in Alaska that has been riddled with poverty and an abundance of homeless young folks, squatting in self-made tents along it’s “skid row” of outcasts. It’s dreary, bleak and reminiscent of The Snowtown Murders where everyone is desperate and everyone conceivably sells themselves for a sense of security.

Alex (a remarkably sinister Luke Baines) is the local peddler of socks, cigarettes and the occasional food items that are used more for his advantage than for profit. It soon becomes evident that he is calculating in similar context as his icon, Jeffrey Dahmer by hunting, targeting and stalking his prey through the utilization of a variety of stories: promises of a hot meal, money and even sexual acts in place of monetary transactions.

Once the victim enters his world, they are sadistically and savagely brutalized before ultimately succumbing to a heinous death. Alex’s vicious attacks range from relentless stabbings to reviving strangulated women to endure the agony of further torture, prolonging the murders for his own self-gratification.  

Upon the first assaults witnessed, Alex’s mom enters the gruesome scene of massacred bodies soaked in blood and provides directive orders at once. Move the corpses to the bathtub, and she will take care of the rest. Clearly, mom is a willing participant in the slew of on-going murders and dismemberments all in the name of “a good mother takes care of her child.”  

No Tears in Hell is as demonizing as you would imagine from its threatening title. The perfection in casting a cringy mother/son killing machine stirs up memories filled with bullying, pedophilia, erotic fixations and eventually revenge. As Alex and his mother (outstanding role by Gwen Van Dam) continue their rampage amongst the unwanted and unnoticed vagrants, Alex risks capture through cockiness and pure Patrick Bateman narcissism that could easily be construed as a potential moment of weakness. However short-lived that is, his depravity continues to control his tendencies in the most uneasy and unsettling acts of pure evilness. You will want to turn away countless times, but there’s something about Alex that keeps you hooked in his clutches just to find out if there are any redeeming qualities within this ferocious monster that momma made.