THE HALLOW (2015)

Studio:       IFC Midnight
Director:    Corin Hardy
Writer:       Corin Hardy, Felipe Marino, Tom DeVille
Producer:  Joe Neurauter, Felipe Marino
Stars:     Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton, Michael Smiley

Review Score:

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Summary:

A family fights for survival after uncovering the existence of supernatural creatures in a remote Irish forest.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

On assignment for a development company, land surveyor and “tree doctor” Adam Hitchens examines the woods near the remote millhouse in Ireland where he now resides with his family. While his dog Iggy accompanies them, Adam’s infant son Finn drops a pacifier in the creek. Adam then retrieves a sample of black goo from a strangely decaying animal carcass.

Local farmer Colm Donnelly comes to the Hitchens house to warn Adam’s wife Clare about the dangers of her husband trespassing amongst the trees. Adam brings the black goo sample home with him. The same substance is seen leaking through the roof while spores grow inside the house.

In the evening, Clare is alarmed by the sudden sounds of Finn crying and a window breaking. Adam calls the police while searching outside for signs of an offended neighbor having thrown something through the glass.

While investigating the scene, law enforcement officer Garda Davey relays how superstitious locals believe the forest is sacred ground that serves as home to fairies, baby stealers, and other mythological beings. Davey mentions that Colm Donnelly’s daughter Cora once wandered into the woods and disappeared, leaving her father to claim that “they” took her.

Adam takes pictures for evidence and briefly catches a glimpse of a creature. Clare finds the black substance in Finn’s crib.

Adam drives into the village to have his window repaired. There, he receives odd glances from townspeople and a cryptic warning from the hardware store shopkeeper. While Adam is away, Colm returns to the Hitchens home, startling Clare before leaving a grimoire of folklore on the table.

Adam nearly hits Colm on the drive home. After losing control of his car in the forest, Adam finds his engine disabled by the black substance. Something traps Adam inside the vehicle’s trunk, forcing him to cut his way through to the backseat where he rescues Finn. Before walking the rest of the way home with Finn, Adam notices claw marks all over the car’s exterior.

After the power is knocked out, something enters the Hitchens house. Presuming Colm has come to deliver more harassment about the forest, Adam arms himself with a shotgun. He then has a brief look at the book Colm left behind. Clare insists that they need to leave. Iggy becomes infected by the creatures.

The family makes their way through the forest and back to the car. Iggy runs off and is killed along the way. Adam and Clare are finally able to restart the car engine just as the creatures descend upon them.

The car hits a ditch, forcing Adam and Clare to flee on foot with Finn. They make it to an abandoned house and barricade themselves inside. While peering through the front door’s peephole, a stinger from one of the creatures pierces Adam’s eye and infects him.

Adam discovers that the creatures can be harmed by light. As one of the monsters prepares to assault Clare and pierce her eyeball too, Adam fights his infection long enough to start the house’s generator. The lights turn on and the monster is driven away before it can infect Clare.

Adam realizes that he is slowly mutating. He rejoins Clare and the two of them reinforce the windows. Adam hides Finn in the cupboard with a baby monitor. He then reads Colm’s grimoire and learns local myths about a changeling and other woodland beasts.

Creatures attack the house and abduct Finn. Adam is knocked out. Clare frantically flees to the forest in search of Finn.

Clare seemingly rescues Finn from the river and returns to Adam, who has smashed all nearby lights as he continues succumbing to his infection. Upon sight of the child, Adam tells Clare that the Finn in her arms is actually the changeling mentioned in the grimoire. Adam undergoes hallucinations as he wrestles with Clare in an effort to take Finn, but Clare resumes possession of their baby. Adam tries explaining that the baby is not Finn and that they are being tricked by the creatures, but Clare escapes back to the forest with her husband following behind.

Adam grows protruding spines as his mutation worsens. Armed with a flaming scythe, Adam discovers the creatures’ lair.

Clare runs to the Donnelly farm for help, but Colm turns her away at gunpoint. Colm explains that he cannot help her, and that “they” take what people love most. He then frightens Clare away from his property.

Adam discovers the true Finn being cradled in the arms of a mutated Cora Donnelly, who produces the pacifier dropped previously. Adam takes back his son.

Clare uses a camera’s flash to combat a creature horde. A mutated Adam finds Clare and shows her that there are in fact two different Finns. Adam convinces Clare that the Finn in her arms is nothing, a trick, and the two of them exchange babies.

Adam embraces his newfound creature instincts to battle the monsters. One of the beasts takes him down as he implores Clare to escape with the real Finn. Before dying, Adam watches as Finn’s doppelganger burns in the dawning daylight. Clare returns home with the real Finn in her arms.

In the aftermath, ground breaks on the logging project. The black substance is seen covering multiple logs being transported away from the forest.

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Review:

For good or for bad, there isn’t terribly much to elaborate on regarding writer/director Corin Hardy’s Irish monster movie “The Hallow.”  The film boils down to being straightforward practically to a fault, which should please anyone eager for a simple serving of traditional creature feature creeps, even if a deeper bite of originality would go a long way towards making the movie linger longer on the mind.

“Tree doctor” Adam has uprooted his wife Clare and their infant son Finn for a rustic relocation to a remote millhouse near the woods where he is working.  On assignment from a development company, Adam treads through trees collecting samples and assessing the forest’s logging potential, which is a task that does not sit well at all with the grimly grumbling locals.

These aren’t stereotypical tree-hugging hippies hellbent on halting corporate conglomerates from paving paradise with parking lots, however.  These are superstitious townspeople who revere the forest as a sacred home to all manner of mythological monsters including changelings, fairies, baby snatchers, and toothy beasts that only exist at night or in nightmares.

Even after discovering a dead deer carcass seeping strange black ooze, puzzling warnings from farmers and shopkeepers receive raised eyebrows in response until Adam ultimately uproots something other than his family.  Their longtime lair disturbed, the terrors from the trees take shape as a horde of shadowy goblins with a sting capable of transforming a human into one of their own.  When darkness descends, so do the creatures of the hallowed hollow, and they have their sights set square on Adam and Clare’s bouncing baby boy.

“The Hallow” possesses no more and no less story or character development than the basics required for an uncomplicated plotline.  Adam is on a vaguely defined mission of environmental assessment, justifying his presence in the forest.  Clare is a loving wife who reinforces Adam’s upstanding family man persona while serving as a second protagonist.  Baby Finn completes the trio as a fitting motivation for all heroic actions as well as a target for treacherous threats from vicious villains.  Some fractured fairy tales then round out the remainder as explanation enough for the supernatural source of the forest’s legendary haunting.

From shifty-eyed villagers staring sidelong at expatriate interlopers to the equivalent of a small town sheriff filling in backstory blanks, clichéd contrivances are plentiful, though they generally come with a caveat.  While “The Hallow” might not be fresh in its employment of elements like light harming lurkers that can only stalk in darkness, cryptic references to unspecified woodland monsters as “they,” or more than one usage of an uncooperative engine serendipitously starting just in the nick of time, the cinematic style on display fascinates far more than the tropes frustrate.

The script doesn’t scream for additional depth since the primary purpose of the movie’s lean frame is to showcase a visually arresting atmosphere of sickly eeriness and outstanding practical creature creations that would have Stan Winston applauding.  The storyline constitutes a skeleton, but the music, mood, and monsters muster the meat, with a no frills 90-minute runtime locking out anything unnecessary from clinging as extraneous fat.

On occasion, the pace indulges in too much slow build creeping only for the rhythm to be restored by an overturned car, creature attack, or other form of well-timed thrill.  And even though the superstitions set into the story aren’t clear on how they fully fit together (Adam reads from a folklore grimoire in two different scenes, yet the audience is not privy to exactly what information he gleans from its pages), there is enough to the mythology to put context behind jittery moments without hollow jump scares bearing the lion’s share of the fright quota burden.  All in all, “The Hallow” continually fights battles of balance on multiple fronts.  Thankfully, the better side usually emerges triumphant.

The story isn’t ambitious enough to qualify it as a standout, but the maturity of the movie and careful craftsmanship applied to its creation ensure a satisfying quality far above an average Syfy channel monster movie.  Those interested in a similar, but more character-driven piece should be on the lookout for “Dark Was the Night” (review here).  In the meantime, gorgeous cinematography, excellent effects, and effective execution on a tingling tone of terror make “The Hallow” a worthwhile fright film.

NOTE: "The Hallow" was previously titled "The Woods."

Review Score:  65

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