The Hallow (2015)

Saw this on a rented dvd. Been on my radar for a long time. The plot is about a couple and their infant baby who moves into the backwoods of Ireland. The male (Joseph Mawle) who is an expert in microbiology has come to inspect the trees for clearance. He is warned by the local (Michael McElhatton) not to trespass the forests as the "hallows" will trespass into his house n steal his baby. One nite the window of the infant's room is broken but the couple is assured by the local cop (Michael Smiley) not to worry as some bird must have done it. In the beginning one will wonder why the scene of the wife (Bojana Novakovic) removing the iron grill is shown. Even the repair guy tells the husband that his wife shudnt have removed the iron grills. There is an explanation for that but not a logical one. Even the film became a lil silly towards the end. The film moves at a decent pace n from the beginning there is a sense of dread. Also whenever a baby is in peril, the film becomes even more tension filled. Tension is maintained throughout n the effects were pretty good. Some may be bored as there is not enuff creature action n the body count is almost zero. But if u enjoy atmospheric horror film with enuff moments of tension then u will enjoy this film. I wish Michael Smiley's role was bigger as i like that actor's comic timings n his face itself is smiley like his surname.

I do not write that many reviews on here, but after reading the other reviews, I felt compelled to write this and stand up for this movie!! I personally thought it was EXCELLENT with only a few (very few) flaws. I read many reviews stating that this movie was unoriginal and had been done over and over in other titles. Perhaps so, but then again, it seems to be a difficult thing to do in the horror genre...I mean really, look at how many Friday the 13th movies there are, and how many vampire movies, and how many haunted house stories, and exorcisms, etc. So what if this has a similar plot to others? The main thing is that it was just plain good.First off, the two main characters are extremely likable and you find yourself rooting for them. They are NOT the typical stupid college kids that just go to the woods to get drunk and have sex and act like bullies or stuck up snobs. One reviewer said that there was no one famous in it - I disagree. The father's character is also Benjen Stark from Game of Thrones!! I do not personally know much about the mother and her other roles, but she did a fine job acting. Also, they did what normal people would do - they tried to flee!! They tried to save their baby!! There are no scantily clad women running around, there are no jerk/jock boyfriends that deserved to die as in soo many other horror movies that try to use nudity to capture the audience's attention.I'm not going to give too many spoilers here, but let's just say the basic premise of the movie involves the mythical "changelings". One reviewer didn't understand why there were two babies - just read up on changelings and you won't be confused anymore.The setting in the woods were absolutely gorgeous, and the director even was thoughtful enough to bring in smaller details regarding changelings, such as the iron scissors on the door for protection. Kudos to him for bringing in elements of the original mythology.As for the scare factors and the creature/monster effects - absolutely EXCELLENT for such a small budget. It's nice being able to have a clear view of the creatures, and they looked amazing. Someone else said the creatures reminded them of Pan's Labyrinth, but this reviewer also gave Pan's Labyrinth only 1 star. The creature effects were very, very good. I don't know if they were CGI or just great costuming and make- up. There were some seriously intense scenes that kept me on the edge of my seat - such as when the father is in the trunk of the car, or when the mother was trying to hold down the attic door with the slimy ooze "hand" going for her eye. Some reviewers called it a slow movie - come on, what did they expect? So what if the movie took 10 minutes to give us some background? Geez, people are so critical. It's a MOVIE, it's there to entertain us, give it chance!! I am even tempted to give the movie 10 stars (and no, I'm not part of the production crew giving it a false high rating). The main reason that I take away a star is because the baby crying so much was annoying... But then again, you'd cry too if dozens of demonic looking forest fairies start attacking you in your baby crib.So please - give this movie a chance. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Considering the fact that I mainly watch horror movies and nothing else, this one was a gem!!

The film technical is correct, the music is decent, actors and actresses do the work, but unfortunately, as in 95% of cases, the screenplay is rotten. It is a torture to listen to the film to the end.At the beginning of the film the score is 10 / 10. After 15 minutes we give it 6 / 10. After an hour you have to give 4/10 and really looking forward to the film ends.The only bright side of this film, even if his scenario is silly, is that it is less silly than the human species. The latter strives to do everything to destroy this planet in the name of God the Capitalist system and its valet the Money.Fortunately, robots will replace us by 1,000 years, robots will have no trouble to be smarter than us, a table being smarter than a human. But this is another story.

The Hallow. Here we have yet another film where the trailers make the film seem better than what it actually is, which is obviously disappointing as there is nothing worse than seeing a film that looks promising only to be let down. Now, I know the trailers for films are usually pieced together in a way to entice audiences to watch them (unless it's a film that people KNOW they want to watch regardless), but the point still stands...the trailer for The Hallow is better than the overall film.However, with that being said, the film (at least for me) wasn't a complete waste of time (I only said the trailer was better than the film...not that the film completely reeked) and it is watchable, but only just.The film has a good enough premise and plays on the Irish folklore of faeries/banshees ("baby-stealers") with the film-makers giving it a pretty good dark & grim feeling, and I'll admit that some of the atmosphere within the film is very nice. The unfortunate thing is The Hallow never got much better after the first initial 30 minutes or so. It never got any worse, but it didn't exactly take off either.I'm actually surprised reading reviews that stated the movie was fast-paced as I found it to be anything but fast-paced and it got pretty slow in parts. There were moments where it moved a long at a decent enough pace with some good tension to accompany it, but to say the film was "fast-paced" is a bit much I feel.I definitely wouldn't say that The Hallow is one of the best British/Irish horror movies as there are much better (28 Days Later, Hellraiser, The Descent just to name a few), but it's also definitely not as bad as some people make it out to be.If you're a fan of (or open to watching) British horror films - low-budget or not - then I'd say that The Hallow is worth a shot. Just keep an open mind and don't put too much expectation into it.