A family who moved into a remote mill house in Ireland finds themselves in a fight for survival with demonic creatures living in the woods.
The Hallow (also known as The Woods) is a fantastic creature feature with brilliant directing, an amazing cast, a wonderful setting and a terrifying premise.
Adam, played by Joseph Mawle, is a scientist of sorts and a devout husband and father who moves with his humble little family into a quaint little house in order to study the trees for some reason I’ve since forgotten. His ass-kicking wife, Claire, is played by the very talented Bojana Novakovic. Both actors (and the supporting cast) were superb in their roles. The characters were honest and likable and genuine, which is pretty rare for modern horror films.
Overall there was nothing about this movie that I didn’t like or enjoy. The setting was gorgeous and the plot was solid; old Irish folklore mixed with sound scientific inventiveness. There were some very intense action scenes and no jump scares at all but rather a constant feeling of dread. Creatively creepy creatures coupled with applause worthy performances give us what we all really want: a real horror movie.
I wont say that this movie was entirely original. It wasn’t. The various plot points and characters have all been used before in different movies and the “evil” in this story reminded me very much of The Cave (2005). The “creatures from the woods attacking the house” thing has been done too many times to count. What made this film great was the fact that all the elements were married together perfectly. Also, I need to take a moment to comment on the pace of the film. A lot of movies similar to this either take a while to get the ball rolling or tend to drag out certain scenes. This was not the case at all with The Hollow. Once the proverbial shit hits the fan, we barely have a minute to catch our collective breath.
Bear in mind, this is totally my bread and butter. Creatures features are absolutely my cup of tea and this one is piping hot. Easily one of the best horrors I’ve seen all year and a full five stars from me. Catch the trailer below.
