The Hallow
Directed by:
Corin HardyCinematography:
Martijn van BroekhuizenComposer:
James GoslingCast:
Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton, Michael Smiley, Gary Lydon, Stuart Graham, Stephen CromwellVOD (2)
Plots(1)
Adam Hitchens is a London-based conservationist, husband and father who has found himself struggling amidst fraught economic pressures at work. He decides to move his family from London to Ireland and to take a job surveying an Irish forest. He moves his family to a millhouse deep in the idyllic countryside of Ireland. When the family arrives, they get to work rebuilding their new home. They meet their neighbors, but not everyone approves of their arrival. The locals are unfriendly and begin to make them feel unwanted. (Showtime)
(more)Reviews (3)
The last couple of minutes ruined a little what would have otherwise been a perfect impression. The effects and make-up look lower quality than up to that point (and therefore the monster no longer looks as scary) and that “dawn” looks almost kitsch. Otherwise, The Hallow is excellent for any fan of supernatural monster horror, and one of the best films of this kind in the 21st century. It’s executed without hesitation, the creators try to scare, not with gore but through the atmosphere of a dark forest at night and an abandoned building. The perfect design of the monster, where no expense was spared, takes things really high up. The leading characters are likeable and well portrayed (which doesn’t fully apply to some of the secondary characters, but they only appear for a moment always). With The Hallow, Corin Hardy has not discovered America, but he delivers a convincingly executed, entertaining, tense and really atmospheric film; I enjoyed every minute of it and I’m sure I haven’t watched it for the last time. In addition to the aforementioned, I have another minor quibble: given that the horror action doesn’t get going until about the half hour mark, and doesn’t let up until basically the end, the ending could have been a little more intense, so it would feel more like a true “finale”, instead of only the “end of an hour long ride with a monster”. This autumn keeps on improving the statistics of horror movie quality, and by December the TOP 10 will be full.
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The Hallow was one of the highly anticipated horror films and fortunately, it managed to live up to its hype and will definitely not miss the top this year. On the plus side, from the 30th minute onwards the film doesn't slacken its pace and keeps the viewer in suspense and in a purely atmospheric mantle until the closing credits. The film has an amazing technical aspect, the dark forest of the Irish countryside is an impressive destination, the transformation of the protagonist over the whole film is unreal, and the monsters look perfect (perhaps after five years, finally a proper monster horror film with perfect make-up effects). It's a pity that the film is absent in terms of gore and doesn't push the envelope too much, but still the fairer sex could perhaps be scared. A solid genre film. Story 5/10, Atmosphere 8/10, Gore 1/10, Visuals 8/10, Action 6/10, Suspense 8/10, Humor NO, Entertainment 8/10.
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The co-production The Hallow is an atmospheric yet explicit film, a film where horror is presented in both psychological and visual forms. And it works for me. The atmosphere is complemented by a very gritty execution, which eventually builds up into a very unpleasant, in parts even symbolic ending, which has an almost childishly horror finish in the credits.
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