The Hollow One

Some nice ideas are mostly squandered by repetition and an incomprehensible story. The characters are fine, the actors fine, but nothing can really rescue this messy production. It's a shame because some of the direction is imaginative and the fleetingly seen monster is enigmatic and effective (it reminds me of the depiction of the titular creature from 2005's 'Reeker'). When it dawns on you - as it did to me - about halfway through that things aren't going to progress much further, then the rest of the film becomes a little flat, I'm sorry to say.

A mixed bag, with more that is bad than good. The dialogue through the last half hour seems to comprise almost solely of cries of 'Rachel.' And lots of screaming, of course. My score is 5 out of 10.

Saw this recently and absolutely loved this movie!

The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, creating a strong sense of place. The script is tight and there are some great performances from a strong cast of actors. The lead performance from the elder of the sisters is really compelling.

Overall the story is an intriguing mixture of influences - both traditional genre horror combined with more complex psychological elements. I don't want to post any spoilers but the story centres around a fractured family with a trauma in their past. This resurfaces with terrible consequences later in their lives.

Amazing quality and values for a supposedly 'low budget' production... The locations and special effects - and especially the cinematography - are like something only a major studio could afford.

An outstanding debut!

Would love to see it get a UK release so I can see it again.

Was drawn into seeing 'The Hollow One' with a cool poster/cover, an slightly intriguing but very derivative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

'The Hollow One' is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. As a film it's weak, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is very little good about it

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky.

Although most of it looks schlocky, some of the shots look decent. The start intrigues somewhat, shame the rest of the film completely goes downhill and never recovers.

Unfortunately, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting. The lead actress does try but the severe over-familiarity of how her role was written spoils her efforts.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both dreadfully done. Not to mention a whole novel's worth of inconsistencies and continuity errors and a structure so aimless and confused it renders some of the film incoherent.

There are a good deal of underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending is not a surprise or interesting with the reveal being revealed far too soon that suspense is completely dissipated.

There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative, very repetitive and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror and resorting to cheap typical horror tropes. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden, inexperience seems to be all over the film, and the music doesn't really fit. There is no creativity or anything shocking.

In summation, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I fell asleep half way through watching it and wished I had slept through the rest. I will never get that hour and a half of my life back. It was was just awful.

I have given 3 stars for the cinematography, I think I would have enjoyed sixty minutes of the beautifully filmed forest and sky. The film is one of many I have watched were there is a promising idea but they do not know what to do with it. Unfortunately the film is clunky and pretty nonsensical, the producer, director have no idea were it is going and fall back on the leave it to the viewers imagination. The reveal is done far to early to build up suspense, it looks like a bloke in a deep sea diving suit, there are big holes in the plot, for example your wife has worn what looks like a horse shoe around her neck for twenty years and you never ask, what the hell is that. I might be doing the lead lady a disservice but she looks well in her 20's and I take it she is portraying a teenager at the start. The dialogue is non existent no one actually says anything apart from the bloke saying at least 12 times "We have to get out of here" if you have to watch it, watch for the first 3 minutes then throw some paint against a wall and watch it for the next hour.