The Legend of Lake Hollow

This was a film that I got the chance to see thanks to Andrea from AMcK PR. There was a grouping of horror films that were sent over for October and this one I saw was a 2024 release. I like to support independent cinema when I can. Knowing that this qualified for my end of year list was partially why it was selected as well. I did come into this one blind.

Synopsis: a group of friends at a remote lakeside cabin find themselves in a deadly nightmare when trail cameras on the property reveal they are surrounded by more than just Mother Nature.

We start this with Mark Wallace (James David West) coming to the cabin in the synopsis. He is with Carson Hayes (Brandan Bald). They're met by the caretaker, Al Travis (Will Waldron). He lives about a mile away. They're joined by Mark's younger brother, Dan (Kyle Rankin). He brings his girlfriend Shay Landers (Liz Atwater). The two just got engaged as well. She also brought her friend, Laurie Peters (Meg Barlowe). What I'll say about her is that she is odd.

Something to include here is that Mark works for a company as a surveyor. This is a partial business trip as there is an opportunity where they might be able to extract resources. I get the idea that Dan isn't a fan and his fiancée is against what he does. Laurie joins him on a walk where she seems like she might be oddly flirting.

Things get weird when they return to their cabin. Both vehicles are missing with tracks going into the water. Mark goes inside to call the police, but they cannot hear him. This forces Mark to then go to Al's cabin. He's nowhere to be found. They do find his grandson, Grady (Austin Copps), who is spouting about disrupting something that lives out here. This gets even spookier with what they find on the trail cameras. Carson can download the images and there is something odd. It looks to be a person that is wearing a deer skull on its head. This forces them to seek out more of the cameras, download the images and then see if they can figure out what is stalking them. There are also these weird calls that they cannot explain.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. We have a simple story here to strand our characters, then we get a creature feature of sorts with it stalking the woods around this cabin and group of friends. This does play with the idea that you can't trust the people around you. It is amplified by characters going off by themselves. There are also odd things that happen that they cannot explain, making things even tenser. I'm not going to spoil what the reveal is about what is in the woods, but this is an entity that we've seen more of lately.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, this film does good things. I do like stranding a group of characters in the middle of the woods. They have this cabin. It is a long way to get back to the city. Then you knock out the phones and they don't get cell service. This is a classic idea to help build the atmosphere. What is also good here is that we don't know who is real and who is whatever is stalking them. They don't know Grady and he just acts odd, so that made me distrust him. We also have characters who go off by themselves. We don't know who changed and who is actually themselves. This does add elements that are solid for me.

The biggest issue here though is that this is boring. I hate to knock the film down, but it took time to get me hooked. It does get intriguing, but the pacing just meanders. This runs under 90 minutes, which is a bad sign. I'm not sure if it is just a me issue or if I couldn't connect with the characters. I knew who everyone was, but I just never worried about what was happening to them. I'm just thinking that things weren't developed well enough and we get more of an information dump at the end.

Let me then shift over to the rest of the filmmaking. The look of the entity is solid. We get this sign at one point of the movie that reveals what it is. It made sense, but since it never caught my attention, it didn't have the pull either. I'd say that the effects we got aside from that were fine. The deaths happen off screen. This is partially due to us not knowing who is real or who is being mimicked. The bit of blood I saw though was decent. I just wanted more overall.

I'll then finish out with acting. I don't think anyone here is bad. West works as our lead character. The issue I have is that he's not likable. They double down with that at the end. He's a bit of a jerk. I'll credit West for that, but I'm not sure why he would be the lead character then. Rankin is fine as the younger brother. Bald works in his role. He does the research and seems the most levelheaded. He just doesn't get a lot to work with. Atwater and Barlowe were annoying to me. I think that is more with the writing and the situations they were put in. Copps, Waldron and Micah Oser work for what they were given as well. We also get creepy people that are haunting the woods. They had a good look about them.

In conclusion, this one has good parts. The issue is that it is using a spirit we've seen more of lately and isn't doing enough to set itself apart. I do think that this is done well enough. The biggest issue there is not just building tension or developing that concern for the characters. The acting was fine. I do think my problem is more with how they're written. Unfortunately, not one that I can recommend, just because it doesn't do enough to stand out.

My Rating: 4 out of 10.

Pretty much that...

The good ol' very dependable 'Cabin in the Woods' setting, which I personally will probably never get tired of, and I mean that sincerely because when used well it can be very effective.

Creepy woods, mysterious and threatening sounds, the elements are here for a good film. But, they just simply are not put together very well. The acting is not the greatest. I would say for me personally IF the story itself had been executed much better and the director had a clue about how to create the narrative in an engaging way, sure, I probably wouldn't have been that bothered by the acting even though it wasn't that great.

And, as Leo at The Geek Legion of Doom said, which I ALWAYS check out when I'm interested in a movie, it is an excellent site and Leo is a great reviewer, it was like the entire film was setup, setup, setup, setup... and then an abrupt ending in the last 5 minutes. Not structured terribly well. And yes, you have the usual people doing dumb things to move the plot along.

So, yeah, not a bad idea at all and some very good atmosphere with great potential, basically all wasted on a rather poor effort.

This is what you get when you put up posters saying, actors wanted.

Hey, bro! Let's spend a few days in the woods, shall we? Bring your girl! Where is this place Here! Take a look! I've got a few pics! (Hmmm...creepy house, creepy forest, probably no cell phone or internet connection, either...good place to get effed up) Hey man, thanks for the invitation but we already have some appointments...Oh...Ok, maybe a next time, yeah Hell yeah! (Hell no!) They were never seen again.....roll the credits.

I so didn't know that Lifetime was producing horror fims. They just don't make movies like they used to.

I started the film optimistically. The setting, camerawork, sound and lighting all looked really good, some films you can tell straight away that they are "budget." The acting was unfortunately very poor, the script and dialogue was very hard to listen to at times.

Mark saying something along the lines of "If I find them I'll rip their throat out" was so cringe....he looked like a geography teacher and wasn't at all a "bad boy" type character haha.

There were too many pauses between sentences and dialogue, which felt very unnatural, leading me to get bored and frustrated.

The overall story was okay and with a better script and better actors it could have made a basic but entertaining film.

I wouldn't watch this film again or recommend it to anyone.

Right out of the gate this film loses points from the really negative characters, NOT actors, but the actual plot characters. They are ALL flawed and very unlikeable people. I have to admit that with 15 minutes I really did not care if they lived or died. The main character is a self-absorbed yuppy who has more of a concern for his "paid cash" car than the obviously dangerous situation they are in and his brother is an even more self-absorbed Millennial who is more interested in boffing his extremely annoying girlfriend than doing much more than whining the entire film.

The girlfriend's girlfriend was so detached from the predicament that I began to suspect that she was somehow involved in the danger. While the others are beginning to awaken to the evil going on around them, she is hitting on one of the other characters!

The acting was so-so, but I have seen MUCH worse and I blame the condition of the acting mostly on the stiff and emotional lacking dialogue...you can only be as good as the lines you are given.

Overall, the plot reminded of dozens of other movies based on the very same story, and there really are NO new ideas blended into it which might have freshened it up!

Not worth the time or effort to watch it!