The Hollow (2016)

I really wanted to like this movie. As I began watching I couldn't understand the negative reviews. I quickly began to see the issues, but I kept watching. I never felt suspense over the murders, and even though that wasn't the intended focus, it was the reason for the entire movie. Most of the characters were expendable, I had little sympathy for the characters that were developed because they were not well developed, and there was no tension or build up to the very lackluster end.

A triple homicide occurs in rural Cutler Co. Mississippi. It involves the daughter of a congressman who appears to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. What we know is that Deputy Sheriff Darryl Everett (Jeff Fahey) is dirty. He deals in meth and was "serviced" by the high school girl who was killed that night. He also told the couple who was killed to go to that spot. The high school girl was a "free spirit" and was also the girlfriend of the local High School quarterback, the grandson Big John Dawson (William Forsythe) who runs the county and Deputy Sheriff Darryl Everett. Rumor has it when Dawson dies he is going to "will it (the county) back to the people." The FBI couple investigating the case includes Vaughn Killinger (James Callis) who has his own demons. He supplies us with a subplot filled with drama, which proved to be a distraction to the film as they spent way too much time on his drinking...okay I get it, he drinks too much and is sleeping with his partner and has messed up his life.During the investigation, the people in town want to keep their dirty little secrets while everyone seems to be a suspect. The investigation pulls the community apart.There were no real likable people in this, other than the minor characters. I personally liked the forensics girl who had a small role. The film never develops a good protagonist, and then feigns one at the end, and a messed up ending at that. Vaughn Killinger was a poorly written character with terrible lines. They could have cut that whole bar scene. The film was too long as it was.Guide: F-word, sex, no nudity.

I normally don't review films, but I felt that I just had to say something in the case of this movie because like one of the posters above, I too feel that that "good" reviews are from people associated with the film hoping to ensnare any other gullible soul into paying to watch it. This movie is a complete waste of film and time, and I am saying that with the utmost sincerity. In my history of watching film (and no, I am not some pretentious film buff, I'm just a person that likes movies), I don't think I have seen another film that is so boring, monotonous, unimaginative and droll with boring, monotonous, unimaginative, droll characters who you really don't care about in any way. In fact, you kind of hope that a hurricane blows through or that an alien abduction happens and that in one fell swoop every character is erased or blown / flown away. Not because you care enough to hate them, but because they bring less than nothing to the screen and they are irritating and jaw- droppingly badly written and acted.The first two minutes of the film seem okay and then you get the bad country cop, the poor hooker, the cop's idiot partner, the druggie black guy ... and it does not get any better, with the drawling rich bad guy and the faith-spouting Christian woman among others. It is SO bad you sit there and wonder how something this bad could have been green-lit for the big screen. Really, it is very difficult to watch a film where every scene just seems to be far worse than the one before, and yet you don't want to stop watching for the simple fact that you think a film cannot, just cannot, be this bad, and you continue to wait for any kind of moment or scene that will make it worthwhile. Trust me when I tell you however, it is this bad, and nowhere within the running time does it have even one redeemable moment.It is a depressing film, not only in that it feels cheap and as if no one involved with it actually cared to make it, but in that you wonder what you have going in your life that you opted to watch it. It is bad enough to where if it were to come on television, I'd advise you to do yourself a favor and skip it.

Beautiful cinematography highlights this gritty crime drama with tragically and believably flawed characters that are immediately intriguing. From the opening scene, you are drawn with fascinating revulsion to the character of Ray, portrayed in a brilliantly base and smarmy way by Miles Doleac. James Callis does an equally organic and painfully revealing job in his role as a broken and damaged FBI agent doing his best to take each next breath without giving up or giving in. The film has an almost voyeuristic feel of a guilty pleasure as the audience is privy to such raw debauchery, intimate pain, and complicated interpersonal relationships. Because of this, it is completely impossible to stop watching to the surprising and yet somehow poignant end.This is a film that is absolutely worth watching more than once as the revelation of the whodunit takes a backseat to the brilliant development of characters and relationships in this Deep South True Detective Drama. Do not miss this!