Review: The Hollow


Three sisters (Stephanie Hunt, Sarah Dugdale, and Alisha Newton) find themselves on Shelter Island, which was plagued a century ago by a hellacious storm that wiped out the population. It appears that another storm is on the horizon, but that may not be the only destructive force tied to this place on this Halloween Eve. The storm also seems to bring with it a murderous supernatural being setting upon the townsfolk. Deborah Kara Unger plays the girls’ Aunt, who is a resident of Shelter Island.

 

The kind of horror film that is interesting whilst it’s keeping you guessing as to where it’s really headed. Once it starts to reveal itself, however, this 2015 SyFy movie from co-writer/director Sheldon Wilson (“Shallow Ground”, “Kaw”, and “Snowmageddon”) becomes much more formulaic and predictable. I liked some of this, but not all of it, and I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of the characters end up completely irrelevant, which is weird. The performances from the predominantly no-name cast are fairly average, too (Sarah Dugdale is especially poor). The only name actor is Deborah Kara Unger, who is hardly in the film and looks like she lost a fight with a bee. Or the whole hive. Still, it’s a better film than I was expecting going in and a watchable time-waster.

 

There’s a good, John Carpenter-esque music score from Hal Beckett (“They Wait”, and a whole lotta TV shows including “Voltron Force”), and the cinematography is really, really nice. There’s something a little “…And Soon the Darkness” about the scenery early on, that gives off eerie vibes. If it weren’t for the terrible CGI, you certainly wouldn’t pick this for a TV movie. Hell, the film isn’t terribly neutered on the violence front, either, for a TV movie. I really liked the set-up of the film, where we’re thrown right into the middle of something we’re not quite fully informed about. It’s not just the central premise that takes its time being explained, but the central trio of sisters have clearly been through something before we meet them. I liked all of that. I even liked the somewhat clichéd backstory for the title menace, it’s not exactly original, but it’s pretty interesting. However, once everyone hits the diner, this really does become too prosaic. After a reasonably enjoyable first 50 minutes, it’s all very stock-standard and ho-hum from then on. That still makes it better than “The Mist” in my book, though.

 

I liked the slow and unsettling set-up of this movie and some of the ideas at play. However, the performances and FX are poor, and the more we learn about the plot, the more predictable it becomes. Still, you’ll have seen a lot worse Halloween-themed films before. The screenplay is from the director and Rick Suvalle (who wrote several episodes of the notorious Pamela Anderson show “V.I.P.”).

 

Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more