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Very disappointing...

Powerful

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

RELEASED TO TV in 2015, "The Hollow" is about three sisters (Stephanie Hunt, Sarah Dugdale & Alisha Newton) who travel to an island in the Northwest to live with their aunt (Deborah Kara Unger), but they soon discover that the island's cursed and the inhabitants are doomed to die every hundred years on Halloween. The girls eventually meet-up with some survivors played by Richard Harmon, Hilary Jardine, Jonathan Whitesell & Dylan Playfair. There's a lot of good in this movie. For instance, the foreboding forest ambiance is excellent, as is the creepy monster, which is a fiery version of the creature in 2013's well-done "Scarecrow." The serviceable no-name cast is decent, highlighted by Sarah Dugdale as the emerging heroine and Hilary Jardine in a too-brief role, both of whom are easy on the eyes. Unfortunately, the movie's ruined by overkill horror-flick banalities that scream "the filmmakers are amateurs." The film would've worked better by slowly building suspense, but the creators evidently thought the audience had ADHD and needed some contrived horror-shock every three minutes. Things get better by the midpoint when the girls discover others and the mystery of the island is explained, but the amped-up horror clichés soon return. The plot's great, but the script needed serious work. Too much of the dialogue, for instance, consists of one of the sisters calling for another, e.g. "Emma," "Emma," "Emma" or "Sarah," "Sarah," "Sarah." Still, there's enough good in this movie to make it worthwhile for some. I enjoyed the good elements despite its flaws. THE MOVIE RUNS 85 minutes and was shot in Mission, British Columbia. GRADE: C-

Ooookay. So, take three sisters, one of whom has oddly prophetic dreams, all are emotionally disturbed after the recent loss of their parents and strand them on an island where a supernatural entity is stalking them. Sounds like the greatest survival horror premise ever...Sigh.The entire movie is too bright, the monster shows up early and often, and the dialogue is terrible, the story makes no sense, there is no lighting change between night and day, the smartest of the sisters makes the dumbest move, and I'd almost be rooting for the monster if it weren't dumber than a sack of hammers itself. Despite looking like the greatest Metal album cover of all time, it's too stupid to kill three idiotic girls who spend the entire movie intentionally splitting up for stupid reasons.The sad thing is that this movie had such great potential!

You know one day they'll find a way to write a horror movie that doesn't revolve around stupid people. I have a bad feeling about this. Nope let's do it anyway. We should stay here and survive. Nope lets go out and track down someone we know is as good as dead. Please be quiet, it'll hear us. Nope, let's keep yelling. Let's completely ignore every warning put in front of us and go blindly into danger. No characters deserved death as much as these sisters. If that's what you could call them, I guess you can, since they were written way, I guess you have to. Please stop screaming and being as loud as possible. This just drove me crazy. they couldn't have died fast enough. Terrible, terrible film. Watch at your own risk. Still better than the Poltergeist remake.

The cliché "I wish that I could have that time back" really applies to this title. It's formulaic and derivative in the extreme with little to hold your interest, even over the short running time.You won't care about the characters, any of them. The dynamic of the three sisters is probably the biggest failing in this sorry tale. It just doesn't develop any credible sense that they are actually sisters and have a bond. The tried and trusted "falling out and friends again when the chips are down" story thread just didn't work for me. The story is paper-thin and not executed well in any way. It's in not remotely scary and the attempts at building any sort of tension fail miserably. Please avoid. Life is too short.