The Legend of Lake Hollow

Short budget, on a shoe string, but movies can still be good, take "12 Angry Men" which I will watch for example is great. Now their can be merit. And this film is good, it's a positive one-timer. Nothing more though, and nothing less.

The script isn't Terrible either, the concept of a remote location, near a woods with bizarre occurrences, feels good but somehow misses the spark. The writing feels slightly shallow as it sort of seems like the characters don't feel much, and the occurrences feel half-formed as they sort of happen after some build-up. And the build-up also feels very good, but it doesn't feel fully earned as it sort of does just happen. And the characters do just react but not in ways you'd often expect.

I did enjoy it though. The setting has nice Visuals, the story has a nice flow to it so the pacing isn't too overbearing, but as I said it does feel half-formed. Too many ideas at times, and not enough Character conflict, or enough of a reaction to fully build the tension and scares. But where that lacks, the story doesn't lack in thrills, and a mystery that flows nicely.

The soundtrack doesn't always fully do it for me either, but I like the music in the woods as it seems eerie and almost mythical, like how their trying to make us feel something, and it definitely works for me. However, I'd of liked a more thud in the music, to cramp up the thrills and make us feel the scares more.

But the scenary looks nice, the water looks great too and the wide shots feel beutiful and the scenic areas also are naturally stunning to look at. The cinematography isn't that bad either, I found myself enjoying that pretty much. Because I enjoyed it because the area was lit nicely, and it also does create for some good scares.

The Dead people was great to see, the signing of turning away was horrifying. That does feel great and will traumatise you with the dark effects and cramped up atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was slightly too late but it doesn't mean it wasn't a positive. The scares were their and the atmosphere was at it's best.

I'd rate this film a 5 Out of 10 Because whilst the characters are decent, and the reactions feel shallow, the story had some nice scenery and had some brilliantly creative ideas that fitted in a half-formed movie with occasionally good progressive build-ups.

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!

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.

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.

Promised a lot, delivered nothing.

Given that it is a relatively new movie, I expected something new and different which would reflect the advances made in film making but to be honest it reminded me of something made in the 1980's to 1990's which if I am honest, provided some of the best horror movies to date. The acting was absolutely awful, overdone and disingenuous and the story was dull and predictable with a 'yawn' even more predictable ending. Obviously a low budget movie but some of the best flicks have a low budget so no excuse really. Can't un-recommend this highly enough. Avoid....