SLAMDANCE Film Festival 2025 –There’s plenty about Portal to Hell for horror fans to enjoy. It’s a clever twist on the old Faustian bargain. It also co-stars genre legend Keith David (They Live, The Thing), who plays Mr. Bobshank, the wise mentor and neighbor to the film’s protagonist, Dunn (Trey Holland), a medical debt collector. Dunn makes a gamble with a demon named Chip to save Mr. Bobshank’s life, but it comes at a steep cost. He must sacrifice three souls.

Prior to the film’s premiere at the SLAMDANCE Film Festival, we chatted with Holland, as well as writer/director Woody Bess, about how the film is a love letter to LA and how it plays with the familiar devil’s bargain narrative.

First, talk about how this story came together and the Faustian bargain at the center of it.

Woody Bess: I’m a huge fan of horror films and movies like Little Shop of Horrors that have a devil’s bargain. There’s Constantine from 2005, which I think is criminally underrated. I’ve always been interested in anything that deals with heaven and hell.

What was it like working with horror icon Keith David? 

Woody Bess: I’m the biggest Keith David fan. The Thing is a film I watch multiple times a year and even his work as the Arbiter in Halo. Getting him to be in our small film is really a dream come true for us. He’s such an incredible actor and actor’s actor. He was also a teacher. He had so many lessons of what to do as an actor for Trey and as a director for me. We learned so much from working with him. We’re so grateful he decided to be in our film.

Trey Holland: It was such a blessing. He elevated the tone to the point that we were able to go back and reshoot some of the teaser stuff because he grounded it in such a different place. For me, as an actor, it was so fun to know, as we were doing the scenes with Keith, that we’d have to reshoot some of the Dunn stuff because it was such a different thing. We asked him to help us, and we’re forever grateful. He influenced the tone so much. He was such a kind and generous actor. Like Woody said, he was fantastic to work with.

Dunn works as a medical debt collector, and some of the scenes when he’s on the phone are some of the funniest in the film. Where did the idea originate to make him a debt collector? Did either of you ever work a job like that?

Trey Holland: I’ve had experience on the other side of the phone call. I had to flip it around. I think we’ve all spent time on a customer service line. I tried to imagine myself in that job and then imagine Dunn in that job and how he’d do it. I never had experience doing it, but unfortunately, we can all relate to the state of the medical industry in the first place.

Woody Bess: Thematically, it fit with the notion of debt that we have in the film. Dunn collects on financial debts, but the demon is a mirror collecting on our ethical or moral debts. We all kind of have a debt to pay and our mistakes to own.

Talk about the role that LA plays in this film. 

Woody Bess: LA is such a beautiful, messy place. There’s so many colored lights and neon signs. It’s overwhelming but can be really beautiful if you kind of embrace it. It’s also a place where people go to pursue their dreams and other people take advantage of that. It really has the best and worst of us in Los Angeles. I’ve been here for ten years. Sometimes, I don’t know why I still live here. Then, I can’t live anywhere else. That’s LA in a nutshell. We tried to capture that visually and what a gorgeous mash of light LA is.

Trey Holland: It’s another character in the story. Like Woody said, the good and bad are here. That’s what this whole film is about, that fine line of morality. That can easily be found in a big city. LA is so pretty. At the same time, it can be very dark. We wanted to highlight those type of elements and then show the beautiful side as well. It’s a perfect backdrop for our film.

This film successfully combines comedy with horror. What were some of the challenges of blending those genres? Not every horror comedy works.

Woody Bess: A lot of my favorite films, including Shaun of the Dead and Get Out, fall in that line. It’s hard to hit both of those notes, of having a joke or scare land. It’s a fine line to walk. In theory, though, a joke structure and scare structure are the same. Get Out is a great example. A scene ends with a joke or something terrifying. We kind of tried to emulate that as best as we could. Jordan Peele is obviously incredible. I’m just a big horror comedy fan.

What was the inspiration for the demon Chip? Trey what was it like working with the demon?

Trey Holland: It was cool. Ideally, it’s the best thing to work with a practical effect as an actor. Everything becomes more real when your creature is right there in front of you and it’s not a tennis ball or a guy in a green suit. Trevor [Newlin] is over seven feet tall already. We put him in some backward hooves, so he was even taller. It was terrifying. It was so helpful, to me, as an actor, to have that right in front of me. I’ll never forget seeing him walk around that corner for the first time. It was great. Trevor did a fantastic job.

Here’s another fun thing, on that same thread. The way Trevor moved, we took that scene to New York. We watched [demon voice actor/human form] Richard [Kind] get into Trevor’s movement in the booth. They [Kind and Newlin] weren’t there together on that day. To watch Rich use Trevor’s acting and marry the two into one was really fun to watch. I think it turned out fantastic.

Woody Bess: Trevor Newlin also played the Xenomorph in Alien: Romulus. He’s just an incredible actor. He was a joy to work with, and he’s very tall. [Laughs].

Anything else you’d like to add?

Woody Bess: It was a joy to make the film. We hope it’s at least a fun time at the movies.