Dead Woman's Hollow

Maddie emerges from the woods naked and starts walking the train track to town, eventually a couple of EMTs catch up to her and take her to the hospital.

Then we meet s young man at the Sheriff's department who is looking for his missing girlfriend. The sheriff gets a call to the morgue and then visits the hospital.

We then flashback to two women who are traveling to do some hiking and a photoshoot along the Appalachian trail. Donna (Sarah Snyder) and Jen (Mel Heflin) are doing a photoshoot to raise attention to domestic violence, with Jen being the subject of the photographs. Donna and Jen think that they are alone in the woods, but suddenly they encounter a strange man wondering aimlessly around the woods. They run into each a couple of times. He creeps them out. They're lost and decide to set up camp, as to not be in the middle of the woods after dark. The creepy man, Leroy joins them at their campfire. Is Leroy the one responsible for the women's fate?

Dead Woman's Hollow is an okay thriller. Running about an hour and forty five minutes it could use some trimming. This would have made a better 75-80 minute movie. I'd imagine that Mel Heflin is the main draw to this film. She is why I chose to watch this movie.

Rubbish indy movie one of the worst ive seen. The only thing the movie has going for it is the nudity scenes and thats it. It leaves so much to be desired when the credits suddenly come up. I would go into more detail but ive already wasted nearly 2 hours of my lifeon this film.

After emerging from the woods, the police of a small Appalachian town investigate the series of victims that come from the location which alerts them that a dark secret involving the trail might not be the figure they thought and have to rely on a series of surprising revelations to bring everything to light.

Overall, this was a pretty solid and enjoyable indie effort. Among the brighter features here is the intriguing story that provides quite a fun entry point for the film by bringing together a simple setup with a connection to local folklore. The whole setup here, involving the bodies being found in the woman naked with plenty of evidence of strange activity going on but little clearance on the culprits or purpose behind everything, gives the film a strong mystery ta the beginning half. The investigation here into the strange incidents and seemingly normal accidents involving the series of strange reports found involving the residents who get involved in the proceeding events that invokes the local legend about the hunter in the area is quite nice overall. This setup enables the film's recapping of what happened to the girls to become quite fun with what transpired here. Getting a pretty in-depth look at what's going on with their journey to the woods, their struggles in exploring the area, and the hints about a dark secret they share with each other featuring how one of them is heavily scared and wounded but seemingly based on an outside incident that they're working to overcome, this all sets everything out on a fine note before getting the hunter's arrival and uneasy nature creeping out the girls with it eventually leading to an inevitable stalking through the woods to make everything make sense. This is quite dark and brutal with how it all takes place in the isolated woods for a lot to like about it. There are some light drawbacks to be had with this one. One of the main issues is the rather slow pacing that can take a toll on those wanting to get to the horror with the majority of the first half here dealing with the investigation of what's going on rather than the stalking and killing of the main couple. Featuring scenes of the police officers undergoing the investigation looking into the truth while also showing the girls going through the woods on their trip, this all holds the confrontation with the hunter back until an hour into this and then waits even further before bringing the unhinged nature of it all to the forefront of the film. That's way too long for a film of this kind and can lead to a generally frustrating viewing waiting for something to happen. The other issue here is the rather bizarre reasoning and motivations at play for the girl to get under the hunter's skin and set him off on his rampage against them. The whole time they've been around him both have commented about his eerie and unnatural presence making them feel uncomfortable even after several encounters so there's already a precedent for him not being easy to be around. To then antagonize him purposefully under the guise of giving him a show with a clearly unreciprocated lesbian make-out session in front of him that makes no sense why they would go through with it given how they felt about him previously. As well as bits about the low-budget origins coming through from time to time, these factors are the main drawbacks of this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, and Graphic Language.

Let me start with the good stuff. Haha just kidding. I gave two stars only because two of the breasts were okay. Acting, pretty bad. Dialogue, oh geezus. If this was a project completed by an eighth grade art class I would say great job kids but I am of the impression this was a serious attempt at movie making. It's not bad enough to be watched for its badness, merely bad. The ending left me as concerned as i was the moments of the film. I obviously am not a cinema critic. I just know what I like. This goes down as a waste of time.

Fail at quality acting, quality filmography, but never fail at story... That acting in the diner was very cringe. You may end up sitting through a fair chunk waiting for the story to pick up and pay you back for your already spent time. Unfortunately, it doesn't. The camera jerking instead of having a "filmed by an observer" feel to it just draws attention to itself - handheld filming requires a strong story so not to be a detracting choice. Wire in the blood did handheld camerawork, but that wasn't distracting like something has got in your eye, because it had a story you were interested in the solution of- questions you wanted answers for. Also, typically women are the largest audience for true crime and tc based stories. It is thought this has something to do with most likely being the victim of it. So it was an interesting choice to try to incorporate aesthetically sexy stuff, within the same scene we are clearly being showed gendered violence- this scene alone could be done framed by the "photography" angle, if expectation hadnt from the start been shaped by previous nudity- that went on for twice as long as necessary, and could have been "suggested" nudity (this can be more impactful as it works with imagination of an audience). And yay, girl on girl, will we wont we get a fun eye full! - definately boys filming for boys, while forgetting story, tension, purpose, and action is needed for everyone in your potential audience. Although i did like the sheriff. The rest of the acting- complete with fake laughter- was painfully cringey, lol. They are clearly reading lines, not acting. Leaves you thinking: could i do better at home. Also, that hospital scene while the girl has some sort of event, and you're wondering why literally no one reacts whatosever. It is simply "this is so dramatic no one will notice that the other characters are put on pause for a good long minute".

Of course i come at this as a watcher and writing fiction not screenplays, however, story and delivery are questions that remain the same.