gvis
Joined Sep 2016
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Reviews60
gvis's rating
An English family and their newborn move to a derelict cottage in rural Ireland. The husband and father is tasked with marking trees that can be cut for agriculture. Immediately after arrival, the new neighbor warns them to stay out of the woods, as they are the realm of forgotten beings. Creepy things ensue.
Although the premise of a family moving into a new house is far from original in horror movies, that isn't a big deal to me (how many horror movies *are* original these days ?). What matterrs is how it is excecuted.
The Hallow is far from perfect, and has it's clichés (the dog barking at unseen things in the woods, the local eccentric warning them etc.) what it has to do, it does well.
The atmosphere is nicely built, the charactersr are likeable (although the father is sometimes a fool, what father takes his baby into the woods with him at wokr ?) and it doesn't deteriorate into some typical by-the-numbers cheesefest. The story is great, with a nice merging of Irish folklore and body horror. Oh, and I won't bother you with babbling "character develoopment".
Throughout the entire running time, "The Hallow" remains a sober and atmosphere-driven fright tale with a few unusual and courageous plot twists. You have to at least respect that. I enjoyed this movie, although it won't write horror history.
Although the premise of a family moving into a new house is far from original in horror movies, that isn't a big deal to me (how many horror movies *are* original these days ?). What matterrs is how it is excecuted.
The Hallow is far from perfect, and has it's clichés (the dog barking at unseen things in the woods, the local eccentric warning them etc.) what it has to do, it does well.
The atmosphere is nicely built, the charactersr are likeable (although the father is sometimes a fool, what father takes his baby into the woods with him at wokr ?) and it doesn't deteriorate into some typical by-the-numbers cheesefest. The story is great, with a nice merging of Irish folklore and body horror. Oh, and I won't bother you with babbling "character develoopment".
Throughout the entire running time, "The Hallow" remains a sober and atmosphere-driven fright tale with a few unusual and courageous plot twists. You have to at least respect that. I enjoyed this movie, although it won't write horror history.
Please for the love of God stop calling all these boring ass movies "slow burn". Let's just call a spade a spafe shall we ?
I really enjoyed other Irish horror like The Hallow and to a lesser extent The Hole. I had hoped this was in the same vein.
Largely spoken in Irish (which I give the film credit for) we follow Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a care worker who is sent to a remote village in Ireland to look after an agoraphobic older woman. Soon, strange things begin to happen, and she finds herself the target of a sinister folkloric entity. Or something... I don't know. I couldn't finish it.
A movie needs to have some kind of flow, where exciting and calm parts exchange to keep the viewer interested. This movie had NOTHING going on to keep my interest. It moved at a snails pace, with just endless conversations and faux exciting moments with ominous music but end up as nothing.
As for pagan symbolism in the movie (which gives it the label "folk horror"), honestly I don't know what purpose it served. It certainly didn't match the story. In the end, it suddenly goes full Wicker Man with masked people walking in procession and a horned doing who knows what. You're left puzzled what the point of it all is.
I give it a higher rating because it was spoken largely in Irish (which is nice). Maybe this movie was better intended as a psychological drama than a horror. Whatever it was, it bored the living F out of me.
I really enjoyed other Irish horror like The Hallow and to a lesser extent The Hole. I had hoped this was in the same vein.
Largely spoken in Irish (which I give the film credit for) we follow Shoo (Clare Monnelly), a care worker who is sent to a remote village in Ireland to look after an agoraphobic older woman. Soon, strange things begin to happen, and she finds herself the target of a sinister folkloric entity. Or something... I don't know. I couldn't finish it.
A movie needs to have some kind of flow, where exciting and calm parts exchange to keep the viewer interested. This movie had NOTHING going on to keep my interest. It moved at a snails pace, with just endless conversations and faux exciting moments with ominous music but end up as nothing.
As for pagan symbolism in the movie (which gives it the label "folk horror"), honestly I don't know what purpose it served. It certainly didn't match the story. In the end, it suddenly goes full Wicker Man with masked people walking in procession and a horned doing who knows what. You're left puzzled what the point of it all is.
I give it a higher rating because it was spoken largely in Irish (which is nice). Maybe this movie was better intended as a psychological drama than a horror. Whatever it was, it bored the living F out of me.
