Review #19: The Hallow (2015)


This review was originally written in October 2016.

Day 19: The Hallow

So I had some difficulties getting a movie today. The original suggestion was 1973's Don't Look Now, which isn't free on Amazon Prime (maybe it was when this list was made, maybe not). So I was going to substitute Don't Look in the Basement (which showed up in the same Amazon search) but that one just looked so awful that I turned it off after five minutes. So I decided to use an alternate from the list, and I'm assuming I chose the right movie (the list suggest "The Hallows", which doesn't seem to exist on IMDB, and there aren't years listed for the alternates so I couldn't check that). In any case, I watched The Hallow.

The good: It was genuinely creepy. The idea of any kind of spreading corruption (especially of a biological kind) is definitely one that gets under my skin the most (pardon the pun), and the visual effects for said corruption were definitely unsettling to me. The movie was fairly atmospheric and although I enjoyed the first half more than the second (as is often the case with horror films) even the latter half didn't really skimp on the atmosphere.

That being said, the characters and plot in this movie were so bland and generic I never even bothered to remember any of the characters' names. I can't think of a single character trait for either of the leads other than "man" "woman" or "scared". Also, ending your movie with a completely unconnected jump scare? Really?

I don't regret watching this movie, but I definitely won't be watching it again.

Rating: 4/10 Car engines covered in fungus

Worst example of real-world folklore being misrepresented in media: The Jersey Devil of The X-Files, where we find out the titular cryptid is actually a sasquatch who scavenges for food in the city

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