Hollow (2011)

On holiday in the English countryside, two young couples uncover an ancient evil.

Director:

Michael Axelgaard

Writer:

Matthew Holt

Stars:

Emily Plumtree, Sam Stockman, Jessica Ellerby

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Emily Plumtree	...	Emma
Sam Stockman	...	James
Jessica Ellerby	...	Lynne
Matt Stokoe	...	Scott
Simon Roberts	...	Reverend Johnson
David Baukham	...	Fisherman
Ian Attfield	...	Policeman (voice)

Storyline

An old monastery in a small, remote village in Suffolk, England has been haunted by a local legend for centuries. Left in ruin and shrouded by the mystery of a dark spirit that wills young couples to suicide, the place has been avoided for years, marked only by a twisted, ancient tree with an ominous hollow said to be the home of great evil. When four friends on holiday explore the local folklore, they realize that belief in a myth can quickly materialize into reality, bringing horror to life for the town.

---

Plot Keywords:

found footage | 

---

Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 February 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dunwich

Filming Locations:

Bowthorpe Park Farm, Lincolnshire, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hollow Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lynne's son is called Kyle.

---

Quotes

Scott: [to James] You need to get a hair cut. You look like Ringo Starr's testicle.

---

Connections

Version of The Dunwich Horror (2010)

---

Soundtracks

Frère Jacques
(uncredited)
Traditional
Performed by Scott and Lynne

User Reviews

One of the worst of its genre; a complete waste of time.

I love found footage movies. I adored Paranormal Activity, and I'm a huge apologist for The Blair Witch Project as well as, recently, V/H/S. This gimmick, and it is definitely a gimmick, has potential to make for classic horror when put in the right hands.

That didn't happened here. Michael Axelgaard is the definition of the wrong hands.

Hollow is the worst found footage movie I've seen so far. It represents perfectly everything that's wrong with this gimmick, and how easily it can be abused.

Ideally, the first person format should be used to assist in the storytelling. With Paranormal Activity, the movie is all about creating a realistic setting, and much of the plot revolves around observing your room as you sleep. I can't imagine that as a traditionally shot film. It taking place on the protagonist's camera is important.

Movies like Hollow don't use this filmmaking style as a tool; they use it as an excuse.

It's an excuse to make your low budget, equivalent to that of a student film, seem less obvious; an excuse to never actually show anything substantial; an excuse to never fully develop your characters; an excuse to point the camera at someone's feet for minutes at a time and get away with it.

On top of that, nearly every single scare in Hollow is a fake out. The character will point the camera at something, or start to walk somewhere, and things will get quiet. Suddenly, the camera SUDDENLY CUTS to something else, or a bird will fly out.

These can be fun sometimes, but when the ratio of fake out scares to real scares is roughly 9 to 1, there's a serious issue. That number is probably too generous.

Now let's talk about the actual scares. What I mean by this is times we or the characters are frightened by something that turns out to be a real threat - the difference between a cat jumping out at you, and a monster jumping out at you.

I can recall maybe three in the entire film.

And who is the villain, exactly? The closest we get is a tree, which never actually does anything sinister (that skull on the poster is a complete lie), and a jacket. A character's coat becomes one of the major threats of the final act.

The rest of the film is a combination of useless filler scenes, mostly revolving around relationship drama that not even these actors seem to care about, and scenes of characters running around screaming as the camera points at the ground, with the viewer not being able to see anything.

The ending is puzzling. Not because it's surprising, but because it's so spectacularly unsurprising that you can't help but scratch your head. The movie forecasts exactly what will happen from the opening scene, and then by the end, it happens. And that's it. It never even attempts to offer anything else.

Hollow is essentially 90 minutes of watching vacation footage your douche bag kind-of-but-not-really friends shot while snorting cocaine and screaming about haunted trees.

But other than that, it was pretty good.