Hollow (I) (2011) User Reviews

I have no idea what movie the other reviewers watched

[ihearthorrorfilm · 4/10 · 20 February 2013]

This movie is part of the Found Footage genre, which if you've been keeping up with my posts, I'm a huge fan of. Unfortunately, this one didn't make my cut of favorites. The story is about two couples that go on holiday to the English countryside and uncover an ancient evil… wait for it… TREE.

There were times where I thought it was going to get good, but it ended up never going anywhere. By the end of the movie, I got that feeling where I wanted all the characters to hurry up and die. The outcome of the end of the movie literally made me shout out "Is that it?" Found footage films are almost always hit & miss in terms of being entertaining/scary. This one is definitely a MISS in my opinion.

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British Blair Witch derivative

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 27 September 2015]

HOLLOW is the British version of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, or should I say the British rip-off because this is a complete riff on that classic film. Of course, it's nowhere near as good, but fans of the found footage genre might enjoy a few spooky moments here and there.

For the most part, though, this is a missed opportunity. This film was especially interesting to me given that I was involved in my own BLAIR WITCH-style spoof back in the day and I had a lot of fun making it. Plus the locations are dear to my heart, and this was filmed just up the road from me. What a shame that for 90% of the running time the viewer is stuck with a quartet of detestable characters who alternate between boring and stupid. We're stuck with them as they argue, snort coke, and generally waste time until the next scare scene.

There is good stuff here, involving creepy foxes and some wonderfully evoked rural locations - that tree and the ruins are atmospheric without the film-makers even trying - but it's lost in a welter of average acting and sheer mediocrity. When the horror hits, there's way too much deafening screaming and the scares feel oddly diluted. In retrospect, I'd stick with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

This could have been good.

[loomis78-815-989034 · 4/10 · 1 April 2014]

Emma (Plumtree) takes her fiancé Scott (Stokoe), best friend and former fling James (Stockman), and blond Lynne (Ellerby) to an English countryside to go through her recently deceased grandfathers stuff. She finds out about local folklore which leads the group to a huge tree in the hollow that apparently has an evil force within it that makes people commit suicide. Instead of following this potentially creepy storyline, this film spends most of its running time showing jealous James trying to break up Emma and Scott so he can be with her. This soap opera goes back and forth with plenty of fake scares that don't work well. Shot like a found footage film, this movie starts out with its opening scene being Police footage which clearly state that 4 bodies were hanging from the creepy looking tree. This quickly cuts to our four friends heading to the same location. I've heard of giving away the ending in advance but in the first scene? Why watch the rest if you already know their fate? Bizarre decisions like this and not enough action makes this a tedious viewing. Still, the film frustratingly shows flashes of something better and the ending is chilling. A better film could have come out of this material.

IMDb should do something about these fake reviews

[bl-telfair · 2/10 · 21 May 2014]

I saw an ad for this movie on a horror site. Came to IMDb and saw that it had a 6.5 rating on here. Reviews say how amazing it is. I watched it. It was awful. I assumed I was just trolled by fake reviews. I was. If you look at the positive member reviews, click on the name of the person who posted it. This is the one and only movie those "members" ever reviewed. Didn't even attempt to cover their tracks by throwing in some other random reviews. Nope, just the one.

The people behind this movie are trolls and their movie is awful. In fairness, it's my own fault for not doing making sure the reviews were legit. Lesson learned.

Let's bicker, act like idiots and split up!

[harryplinkett14 · 1/10 · 20 May 2013]

1. You DO NOT need conflict in found footage films. People bickering, screaming, shouting, and so on do not add to the atmosphere.

2. You should not have people do idiotic things, separate in the dark or call out demons.

3. I CANNOT listen to hysterical women weeping any more. Just stop it! I can't stand it! No more women weeping and repeating nonsense!

4. No more people in dark woods filming stuff. Find something else.

5. If you are making a found footage horror then make it simple. Just put characters in a nasty situation, but don't make them act like idiots, don't introduce irritating conflicts between them, and don't give us painfully long stretches of footage where a person carries a camera in the woods and shouts 'Oh my god!' five hundred times in a row.

Yes, this film is utter crap.

What is better than this film? Birdwatching at Night.

[the_silver_angel_13 · 1/10 · 20 December 2013]

I have watched numerous amounts of "handy-cam" and "found footage" movies, and more keep returning to the big screen- ever since The Blair Witch Project became a big hit. Before watching I try to start with a fresh mind, hoping to find that diamond in the rough. Sadly- this movie did not make the cut. Per usual to this genre, you get a small background to both events and characters in blips of "film footage". The day filming is more coherent however, than the night filming- where you will only find ambiance in the camera light. The movie rarely picks up pace; and it seems only to do so when people are screaming and running away for no apparent reason- other than seeing mangled animal remains, complete darkness, or a man's jacket. (I also didn't appreciate how the last 25 minutes of the movie was filmed in a car... Main shots were knees in that great ambiance I spoke of.) There is also brief nudity (cute blonde takes her top off)- which seems to be found in most B-Horror these days. In conclusion, if you enjoy people yelling for missing company, noises you would never really hear in the dark, and a lot of shots of tree branches, then I would suggest this movie to you! However, I would use considerable hesitation in doing so.

Movie Ended on a Dead Silent Theatre

[dv-30-372142 · 17 June 2014]

I remember seeing this movie at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal. I am a big fan of those Found Footage movies... really I do love them, but That movie... boring... bland... forgettable at most.

I kinda felt bad in the theater... the producer and director where present and were happy to present us the movie in exclusivity... people seemed happy and all in the room... but by the time the movie ended, it was dead silence... the movie crew were standing in front of the screen, waiting for perhaps some cheering or even question from the viewers... but Nothing... everyone in the theater were bummed and leaving silently. Producers were standing still in an awkward silent room with people trying to flee. Yeah the movie is that bad.

Not the greatest, but not that bad either. I'll speak of it to friends.

[fernandovieiramachado · 7/10 · 21 April 2013]

People have been too harsh in their reviews. The film is not the best ever but it provided for a nice thrilling time.

And it's simple enough, really.

You get four former high school friends: two couples with complicated relationships.

You throw in an old family house in the always ominous English countryside.

You add a medieval legend about a mixed Christian/Pagan course.

Ta-da... you'll be thrilled.

And, in my opinion, it's a lot better than Blair Witch (there's been comparison). Firstly, the found footage really works in this one. Not once did I question "who would have the camera on during THAT?!". And, secondly, you don't get angry at it in the end - it's a proper ending, taking into account the dynamics of the entire film.

One of the worst of its genre; a complete waste of time.

[brendanrmorrow · 2/10 · 16 March 2013]

I love found footage movies. I adored Paranormal Activity, and I'm a huge apologist for The Blair Witch Project as well as, recently, V/H/S. This gimmick, and it is definitely a gimmick, has potential to make for classic horror when put in the right hands.

That didn't happened here. Michael Axelgaard is the definition of the wrong hands.

Hollow is the worst found footage movie I've seen so far. It represents perfectly everything that's wrong with this gimmick, and how easily it can be abused.

Ideally, the first person format should be used to assist in the storytelling. With Paranormal Activity, the movie is all about creating a realistic setting, and much of the plot revolves around observing your room as you sleep. I can't imagine that as a traditionally shot film. It taking place on the protagonist's camera is important.

Movies like Hollow don't use this filmmaking style as a tool; they use it as an excuse.

It's an excuse to make your low budget, equivalent to that of a student film, seem less obvious; an excuse to never actually show anything substantial; an excuse to never fully develop your characters; an excuse to point the camera at someone's feet for minutes at a time and get away with it.

On top of that, nearly every single scare in Hollow is a fake out. The character will point the camera at something, or start to walk somewhere, and things will get quiet. Suddenly, the camera SUDDENLY CUTS to something else, or a bird will fly out.

These can be fun sometimes, but when the ratio of fake out scares to real scares is roughly 9 to 1, there's a serious issue. That number is probably too generous.

Now let's talk about the actual scares. What I mean by this is times we or the characters are frightened by something that turns out to be a real threat - the difference between a cat jumping out at you, and a monster jumping out at you.

I can recall maybe three in the entire film.

And who is the villain, exactly? The closest we get is a tree, which never actually does anything sinister (that skull on the poster is a complete lie), and a jacket. A character's coat becomes one of the major threats of the final act.

The rest of the film is a combination of useless filler scenes, mostly revolving around relationship drama that not even these actors seem to care about, and scenes of characters running around screaming as the camera points at the ground, with the viewer not being able to see anything.

The ending is puzzling. Not because it's surprising, but because it's so spectacularly unsurprising that you can't help but scratch your head. The movie forecasts exactly what will happen from the opening scene, and then by the end, it happens. And that's it. It never even attempts to offer anything else.

Hollow is essentially 90 minutes of watching vacation footage your douche bag kind-of-but-not-really friends shot while snorting cocaine and screaming about haunted trees.

But other than that, it was pretty good.

it could have been worse

[sit_and_glow · 6/10 · 4 February 2013]

People seem to really not like this film. Like the majority of hand-cam horror movies the pay-off is the ending. Without ruining the ending I will say that, have you the hour-and-a-half to watch the film, it is worth watching through. The ending left me feeling ill and upset, although that was likely intentional. It's not a bad movie, just parts of the beginning and middle are boring, like most horror films. You have to get to know the people before you can care about them.

As for people complaining about the editing: I'm pretty sure its supposed to look poorly-edited. I thought this movie was much better than the other horror-hand-cam movies I've seen.

Give Me a Break

[james-deavoll · 3/10 · 19 February 2013]

In my ten years of IMDb activity, I have never come across a movie with such laughably fake 'reviews'. I perfectly understand how tastes vary and that one person's hidden gem can be another's stinking turd. But 'Hollow' is, by any objective criteria, pure garbage. The favorable reviews posted here can not possibly be genuine. The movie could have been enjoyably average: a mildly interesting idea squeezed into the found-footage formula of "The Blair Witch Project". It's problem lies squarely with its characters. In real life, panicky people annoy me. You know the type I mean: blubbering and hyperventilating and getting all mindlessly hysterical. I just want to slap them and tell them to grow a spine. My annoyance becomes outright anger when such people are made the protagonists of a movie. And don't tell me it's "realism": millions of people the world over deal with crazy s**t every year without curling up in a ball and begging for death. Every character in "Hollow" runs around screaming and crying, whining and bickering, doing absolutely nothing to help themselves or each other. Every one of them is unbelievably selfish and displays the intelligence of a mildly retarded pre-schooler. They're just so pathetic it's impossible to feel any sympathy, still less empathy. I'm at a loss to understand why movies are made about such people. Why am I supposed to care what happens to them? Why should I bother watching? Complete waste of time: very tough to sit through.

Pretty good horror film

[BENTbe · 8/10 · 12 December 2012]

I just watched this after seeing Skyfall, interestingly, because one of my friends kept saying the head tech dude kept reminding him of the kid in this movie.

Or maybe it's because I have a secret penchant for movies with one word titles.

Regardless, I thought this movie was pretty good. No blockbuster movie, but good, especially for an independent movie.

Pros: Good plot, great character development, which is hard to find in a horror movie. Good acting and direction. Cons: There are several really great scares, but at times the character development is a bit too in-depth for a horror movie. IMHO.

Overall: Good horror movie. I would probably watch it again.

Minimalistic but scary enough

[KoolCatReviews · 7/10 · 10 October 2021]

This movie doesn't really push the boat out or doing anything different. I think it be branded as an British Blair witch is fair enough tag. It's not as good as Blair witch but it does have some good points. I might be abit bais when reviewing this movie because I love the setting and also was big fan of James actor. Still there some creative work with handheld camera and is effective. No terrible special effects or anything like that. The acting is passable. This is only one of the better handle camera movies and if you fan of movies like that you will rate this.

I want to give it a 1 because they paid people to rate it a 9 or 10.

[greedydrunk · 2/10 · 31 December 2014]

Please look in the comments section of this movie and you will see proof that people were paid to rate this a nine or ten.

This is not a good movie, and lets go over why it is not good.

Found footage film where nothing happens until the last ten minutes.

No ones phone works, what a surprise...

No one is really friends and are easily turned against each other.

People go off alone and get attacked, everyone knows this has happened, one person goes looking for them. This process repeats until everyone is dead.

There are lots of opportunities to leave, no one tries to leave.

Tree is evil and is well known for hundreds of years, yet no one tries to chop it or burn it down, or hire contractors to get rid of it.

For some reason no matter what is happening someone picks up the camera and films...OMG I am being killed, better setup the camera so someone can watch this later.

Its just not good, its not the worst movie I have ever seen but its as boring as your parents vacation pictures until the last ten minutes.

Wholly unoriginal found footage nonsense.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 23 April 2014]

Four twenty-somethings—Emma (Emily Plumtree), her fiancé Scott (Matt Stokoe), her best friend James (Sam Stockman), and his girlfriend Lynne (Jessica Ellerby)—take a holiday in the countryside where an evil presence lurks inside an ancient, hollow oak tree, preying on negative thoughts, causing relationships to crumble and ultimately driving victims to a terrible fate.

Hollow has been described as the British Blair Witch Project, which is another way of saying that it is a complete and utter rip-off of the 1999 found footage 'classic', only set in rural Suffolk, England. And if, like me, you weren't all that impressed by Blair Witch, then I think it's highly unlikely that you'll enjoy this one either.

With four characters experiencing relationships issues, it proves extremely tedious. What's more boring than watching people wander aimlessly round the countryside in the dark? Watching them doing it while bickering, that's what! After an hour-and-a-half of following the unlikeable quartet as they investigate the local legend of Greyfriar's Hollow (as the tree is known), snort coke, argue, get lost, and become scared of their own shadows, you'll be longing for them all to die. Which they do, of course.*

2/10, plus one point for the gratuitous nudity from blonde hottie Ellerby (whose character is so dumb she doesn't think to wipe the tape when filmed in the bathroom), but minus one for for the contrived manner in which a good length of stout rope, so vital to the film's final scene, is shoe-horned into the script (really, who the hell uses rope for securing luggage to a roof-rack when bungee cords and tie down straps work so much better?).

*NOT a spoiler, since we are told that they all die in the very first scene.

Worse. Movie. Ever.

[dmateris82-426-768434 · 1/10 · 17 February 2013]

I've watched most if not all found footage movies I can get my hands on. Why? Because I am seeking to find a found footage movie that does not disappoint. Some examples that I find to be good FF movies would include the original "Blair Witch Project", Korea's "Haunted Changhi", Australia's "The Tunnel", just to name a few. The Paranormal Activity movies do NOTHING for me and that franchise is the biggest scam since the Star Wars franchise. So if you agree with me here, you will take my review to heart. You can watch this terrible movie "Hollow" for yourself, just know, you've been warned.

The movie is 70% bickering couples/friends, 20% black screen and 9% running, interior car shots and 1% horror- and I'm being generous with that 1%.

The movie is predictable, boring and not scary. You've seen this movie before, it's every other found footage film set in the wilderness. There's nothing new in this film to bend the genre or add to it. Absolutely nothing happening in this movie. It's the most boring movie I've ever seen.

You'd think someone would get a clue as to what to do with these movies to make them more interesting. Put a creepy face in the background once in a while, something, make me WANT to keep watching.

I found myself looking past the television screen, spacing out and not missing a beat in this one.

This is bad. RIP creative and original movies. Your boring self destructive red headed cousin has taken over and did a crap on everything.

We have seen it all before - But much better than this

[Paddeyy · 3/10 · 21 November 2014]

I just finished watching this movie and I am not going to spend time writing a very thorough review.

To review this movie in one sentence, it would have been - We have seen it all before. This is a very typical 'horror' movie and if you have seen many budget horror movies before, this movie will feel very familiar. What makes this one worse than average is that it does not really have any thing special. It is an extremely bland movie. I can imagine that this movie was thrown together very quickly. Honestly, it even feels as if was made up on the spot.

It starts pretty okay actually, well, not bad anyway. But even from the beginning everything feels very familiar. It is your regular intro/start of a horror movie. But when the movie tries to scare you, it is not scary at all. Every situation feels prolix. In horror movies you are suppose to get scared when you least expect it. In Hollow, you end up asking the movie to please, scare me already! It is the very opposite of what a horror movie should be.

I actually had to look up what year this was produced. I would understand if it was right after The Blair Witch Project, when pretty much the found footage genre was new. There was not much to learn from back then. But this is from 2011(!). There are tons of great found footage horror movies released when Hollow was made. Tons of movies to get inspiration from. The overall 'horror level' in this movie could be explained as bland in lack for better words.

Movies I would recommend instead of this one is Them/Ils (2006), or even Chernobyl Diaries (2012). Many don't even like the latter, but compared to Hollow, it is the most hectic action movie you can find.

The movie starts off with a spoiler. So the question is: can any review of this Dreck contain spoilers?

[fedor8 · 26 July 2018]

There's nothing much to write because nothing much happens in the film - aside from the opening scene which actually serves as a SPOILER by telling us in advance that all four main characters will be hung on the tree! So not only is the movie devoid of thrills and dull, it doesn't even let you guess. Typical found-footage crap.

Good, wish 3rd person

[manateegrey · 7/10 · 1 December 2013]

hollow is good entertainment and what I expected. I understand the choice to do found footage since it's a low budget indy, but I would've loved to see what the director could do w a big budget. It had a great story and interesting characters, and I would've LOVED to see it as a 3rd person narrative.

Aside from that personal pref, I enjoyed the movie and am happy w my purchase. It's an entertaining movie with some unique religious overtones and is well done. Would watch again

PS - if you startle easy, be prepared for some scene changes that have really loud noises to scare you. It kind of lulled me into a false sense of security w the character development in the beginning and then scared me badly

Confusing, Unimaginative and Vague

[graeme-206-255002 · 1/10 · 1 October 2012]

The sooner the writers of Hollow find their plot and storyline, would they be so good as to post them online so that viewers can get closure ? Whilst the film starts off very well, following the tried and tested found footage methodology, character development falls short, and we are left with very little empathy towards the main cast. Undoubtedly some movies get away with this, but in a film that only really has 4 actors, any lack of warmth towards the cast, immediately puts you on edge, struggling to get to grips with their interactions and as a result, the story.

Filming POV like this, it is, granted, difficult at times to pull through protagonist's emotions and demeanours, but to completely overlook this for an entire 90 minutes is borderline criminal. Usually, when main leads get killed off, the viewer will experience some sort of emotion - relief, sadness, guilt or even at times, joy - but towards the end of this film, even though we know they are going to die, their deaths come as a void of nothingness and to coin a phrase, meh.

The viewer has to dig deep to try and work out the sub plots embedded in this, those sub plots are tenuous and flimsy to say the least, and it's more by accident than design, that we get to a relatively acceptable conclusion. If the writers were trying to be clever, then sorry, there's a massive difference between clever and subtle, or more appropriately, stupid and contrived.

The ending, and I'm surmising at this point, was more to do with love rejected, and nonacceptance at the new dynamics of a relationship, leading to suicide, and whilst that subject in itself is not one to be laughed at, the way the writers and director went about putting the message across, is, I'm sorry to say, laughable.

That angle of the story is somewhat clear, however as mentioned previously, the varying sub plots and character interaction detract from what in essence, should have been a very strong, very clear message.

This is not a movie you will enjoy watching, which is a pity, because the premise of it, could have given us a strong film.

3/10

Well acted and rather Creepy !

[lizxypopcornkid · 6/10 · 24 January 2021]

So it's not exactly the best horror film but it's very well acted and grounded well to one setting. It wasn't scary but very creepy I would say, the ending was pretty damn disturbing. It's worth a watch if you like found footage style films !

How does this stuff get made?

[RobertLThorpe · 1/10 · 18 March 2013]

OK, I have seen a lot of Found Footage films and first, this does not tell you it is a found footage on the box. Second, whats the story, is it about a tree or an old monastery? It never tells you, it also never shows you any scares. Nothing in this is worth watching, even the ALMOST BOOB shot is cleverly hidden. What I don't understand is how the heck do these films get funded. Sure this film is ultra low budget but to get distribution? WTH.

At least other films of this genre show something, starting with The Blair Witch Project which sucked but still had moments of terror, Paranormal Activities had some cool effects that led to a couple jumps. This film had characters running around talking about crap and doing a whole lot of nothing. It is unfortunate because the acting was actually good (which is rare for found footage) and the camera work was pretty steady which was nice for a found footage. However, we never see anything and nothing happens, even the end, which is boring and uninteresting because we don't know why anything is happening.

I want to know how Ain't IT COOL NEWS and TOTAL FILM rated this film as terrifying and engrossing. Who the hell were the reviewers, they had to be paid because this film, had no laughs, no scares, no real story that you identify with, uninspired dialogue, no blood, no nudity and how in the hell is there a DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY on a found footage films. You give the camera to the actors. This film is a snooze fest and if I could meet the writer and director I would slap them silly for wasting peoples time.

Great indie horror flick!

[carlosbustamante1997 · 9/10 · 10 February 2013]

Four pretty young things decide to spend the weekend together out in a fairly desolate part of Suffolk. While there, they discover a sinister tree, and some legends about the tree – as well as the fact that many couples have hung themselves from those ancient branches.

The actors are all superb. I really can't praise them enough – the characters are all rounded, and their relationships believable. Some of the scenes are fairly long, too, and the actors manage to keep the realism and the tension throughout.

Despite obvious budget restraints, the film is very stylish (in a good way). There has clearly been a lot of though given to making a standard 'camcorder footage' film look good, while remaining natural. In fact, this is undoubtedly the most natural 'found footage' film that I've seen.

What impressed me the most about HOLLOW, however, was just how old-school it is. The horror doesn't come from violence and gore, or from CGI creations, but from our fear of the unknown. A great deal of the screen is dark for huge portions of the film – we can't see what may be out there.

HOLLOW deserves to be seen as much more than a basic BLAIR WITCH knock-off. For a first feature, I'm very impressed. There is a lot of talent on display here.

Scary enough. Found footage fans may enjoy this.

[mockeldritch · 7/10 · 9 December 2017]

I won't pretend this film doesn't have its problems. The acting isn't amazing and I really didn't think it was paced very well. But it really did scare me, which is essentially what I wanted from it. I can see how the focus on the relationships which occupies most of the film might detract from this for some, but it has its moments even early on.

I am a big FF horror fan, gradually watching my way through all I can find. This one is in the upper third of the list for me so far. Fellow fans of the genre, I would definitely recommend giving it a chance.

Oh and by the way I'm writing this mostly because of the huge swathe of terrible reviews of the film I've just seen, which claim the only reason it's rated as it is (6.5 currently) is owing to fake reviews. I disagree, I actually think 6.5 is pretty accurate based on other movies I've seen. You may apply the "how many other films has this person reviewed" test if you wish, you'll find I haven't reviewed any others (I think. Maybe one). And yet here we are.

tried to like it but hollow is a good description of the content of the film

[specialuse117 · 2/10 · 27 May 2013]

I tried to like this because the use of an extremely shaking camera was kept at a minimum. But it did not go anywhere. Long drawn out scenes with no likable characters. Even the sexual tease scenes were boring. The ending was forecast in the first minutes. Too many choices about the true evil made it hard to enjoy. Inconsistencies abound - SPOILER ALERT - there was a church but no parishioners, the only light you can ever use is on a video camera (man just buy a lantern or a flashlight), by breaking the steering wheel you disable the entire car including the inside lights, and it just goes on and on.

The video was good for a "found film" but there was nothing to find.