The Horror Show
Hollow
by Michael Axelgaard
You know what the most annoying thing any movie can do ever? Don’t worry, because I’ll tell you. It’s when the movie tells you the ending at the very beginning. What’s the point of even watching the movie then? At least Atrocious waited till about 3/4 of the way through the movie before ruining the ending. So, thanks a lot Hollow for making the entire movie a waste of time.
That’s not true, it was annoying, but the film was actually okay.
Emma, James, Lynne, and Scott venture to the English countryside to clear out Emma’s grandfather’s house, after his death. While there, the four enter into a strange love square, rectangle, or quadrilateral, whatever you want to call it. Emma is engaged to Scott but he is kind of an asshole. James is dating Lynne but he’s using her to make Emma jealous. He also knows that due to Scott’s nature he’ll probably try to sleep with Lynne. James does this because he’s in love with Emma and they hooked up sometime prior to the events of the movie. However, Emma feels that she and James are better as friends. Whew, that was a huge use of proper nouns in a short amount of time. Anyways, nearby there is a tree that the locals believe is cursed because for hundreds of years couples have been hanging themselves from said tree. Emma recounts her experience with that tree as a kid and a figure she saw called the hooded man. James proclaims his love to Emma but she turns him down. Heartbroken, he runs away. The remaining crew decides to search for him. When they do, they are terrorized by an unknown figure. Is it a heartbroken James, a James whose mental state has deteriorated, or is it the hooded figure Emma saw as a kid?
My biggest criticism, besides the ending of the movie being ruined, is that this film would have been better if it wasn’t found footage. Hollow couldn’t find a reason for this to actually be found footage. The film makes the excuse that they continue filming just to use the camera as a light source. Sadly, that doesn’t justify why the characters were even filming in the first place. They weren’t creating a documentary or documenting their journey for personal reasons. They were just filming needlessly. The only thing that the camera adds to the movie is that it allows us to see James mental state change by showing us how his style of filming alters. This particular film is an example of how found footage didn’t aid the narrative in any way and therefore was useless. Honestly, traditional filming would’ve aided the atmosphere and overall mood. The movie could’ve added ambient noise or something to emphasize how alone the characters were or increase scares. Found footage doesn’t really allow for that because then it feels edited.
Another peeve that I had with this film is that it creates strong believable characters at the start of the film. As the movie progresses they begin to get stupider and stupider. When they start to get terrorized they behave sanely. They decide to hide in the car where they are safe. Then, abruptly, they decide to, instead of waiting until dawn when it’s safe, they go outside to go outside, while it’s dark, to attempt to fix the car. Then, their fate is pretty much sealed. I would’ve liked to see the characters still act intelligently and then they be forced into situations that make them leave or something. I’m sorry but I would hide in that car until someone smashed in my window. That would be a legitimate reason to leave the car.
The greatest asset that Hollow offered is how open to interpretation it is. We never receive a clear answer as to who or what was behind the events. We are left with several explanations and all are plausible. That was the true beauty behind this movie. Some movies like to tie things off with a neat little bow. Others like to offer no explanation as to what is happening, at all. Both are equally annoying. We are presented with several possibilities here. One is the supernatural explanation and the hooded figure is behind the attacks, simple enough. We also see that James is starting to lose his sanity as he films odd things in secret, a suggestion that Emma’s rejection of James just broke him. The third is that we witness the curse in action. Another is that James is inspired by the history of the tree and goes out for vengeance. All are believable.
I guess overall I liked this movie. It wasn’t without its flaws though. I decided to look up the director Michael Axelgaard to find that he hasn’t done anything else. So for a first feature length film this was actually a surprisingly good start. From my experience directorial debuts tend to be over ambitious and winds up a confusing mess. I would say that it’s most comparable to Atrocious. Thusly, I would highly recommend Hollow to anyone who enjoyed the previous film. They both build suspense quite effectively and offer multiple explanations surrounding the plot.
Fun fact! If you go to the IMDB page for this movie and look at the area titled “People who liked this also liked..” it recommends two other films also called Hollow. Maybe one of them will be worth checking out.
Billy Wayne Martin, HMS
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