The Hallow

There is no doubt that the majority of horror flicks being churned out for the big screen incorporate a grand and glossy look that feels majestic in all its expressive macabre tendencies. Sure, the elegance of a fright fantasy that pushes its visually sumptuous sheen will enhance the surrealistic gore with more eye-popping resonance. However, as much as opulence in presentation is a plus for horror and suspense yarns there is also the undermining element that takes away from such a crafty-looking creepy showcase--the atmospheric vibe of manufactured scares and the slight serving of a familiar but transparent storyline. Based on these sentiments one may come across the hollow leanings in The Hallow, a breezy-minded backwoods boofest that explores the same old tired recipe for the jeopardized state of the family union.

It is such a crying shame that The Hallow missed a golden opportunity to mesh its stunning and captive visual vibrancy with a decent domestic doom-and-gloom story that hangs its horrific hat on the legacy of a haunting venue with a shady past. Instead, The Hallow delivers a pedestrian fear-inducing fairy tale that never quite seems to stimulate beyond its impressive scope of shadowy aesthetics. In fact, The Hallow is not known for its costly budget so it is more intriguing that this horror film confidently gleams in its polished appearance. Still, it costs absolutely nothing to conceive a meaty story and putting an emphasis on a goosebump narrative that could have been more charging and challenging in its storytelling should have been the instinctive order of business.

Irish filmmaker Corin Hardy (slated to direct the upcoming remake of "The Crow") shows some creative and technical promise in his first feature film The Hallow. Hardy certainly is not the first (and will not be the last) movie-maker to borrow and blend some of his pulsating parts from other widely known and obscure fright genres. Hardy does have an eye for skillfully conveying the...