The Hollow (2015 TV Movie) User Reviews

The shallow pit of horror genre

[quincytheodore · 3/10 · 3 November 2015]

Imagine a movie where almost every conversation start with random character sneaking up on each other and then followed by obnoxious shrieking, this is what Hollow has in store for you. It tries to invoke scare from out of nowhere, opening doors, dropping items and even people standing still are accompanied by startling sound effect. Coupled with rehearsed plot and horror clichés, this bottom of the barrel movie would net lowest score if not for its decent creature design.

This is the story of three sisters trapped in an island, their main role is to shout each other's' name literally the entire movie. The youngest one is the clairvoyance type whose hobby is running off towards danger, she's only there for sympathy bait and cryptic messages. The other two don't have much better character development either, they would bicker constantly, then panic and suddenly go into hero mode.

Other supporting characters are there mainly for unintended comedic purpose. They would deliver some backstory or advice, which the sisters would ignore, and these extras would die in the span of next few minutes. It's appallingly bad, not to mention these girls decide on the worst plan more than one occasion. The movie sometimes turns into clips of weird vision and it repeatedly plays out the same plot over again.

The saving grace is its creature and practical effect. The design is pretty well done, admittedly better than typical B-movies. Some effects for gore are also dauntingly brutal. The setting of small faraway town could create good atmosphere. However, these are not integrated well into the story, resulting in uninspiring use of said creature.

If you have seen the poster, you have seen the best part, the rest is muddled plot, utterly tiresome characters and unintentionally comical occurrences.

syfy movie is syfy movie..

[Patient444 · 3/10 · 26 October 2015]

I watched another syfy production, around a year ago, Scarecrow, which I liked, the monster concept, the almost plot, acting the whole package got me curious. This one seemed to be a copy cat but I was wrong, really wrong.

The Hollow is a very weak movie, from a very bad script, to a director that couldn't do much, to actors that did not convince whatsoever, to plot holes and so many other things absolutely impossible to explain and so on, and so on. It got a 3 from me, probably its grade will be rounded up to a 4 and a little, but I honestly believe it deserves less.

We all know that syfy channel doesn't bring huge productions, but it is known to pleasantly surprise from time to time, yet right here, they looked like The Asylum. Bad all the way. The most absolute horror moves will be used in The Hollow.

Cheers!

lackluster horror

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 20 May 2017]

Cora (Deborah Kara Unger) barely escapes a mysterious force. Her nieces Sarah (Stephanie Hunt), Marley (Sarah Dugdale), and Emma (Alisha Newton) arrive on Shelter Island to stay with her. The sisters are out of money after the death of their parents and the treatment for the traumatized Emma. Seth (Richard Harmon) follows them. They run out of gas and find a dying Aunt Cora in her crashed car. They rescue a heavily injured woman who tells them that the killings would continue until the end of Halloween.

Deborah Kara Unger is probably the only recognizable name and she gets killed off right away. The production is lower level. Harmon has great creepiness. The girls are functional actors. The cast could work but there isn't much style to the horror directing. The CG is lesser TV level. The creature design is pretty good but it should only come out during the night. It looks cheap in daylight. This is a lesser TV horror.

Please Be Quiet.

[sirchristo-447-951030 · 1/10 · 8 January 2016]

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 Hollow?.....Hollow indeed.....

[FlashCallahan · 2/10 · 8 November 2015]

It's the day before Halloween on Shelter Island, and the small town is preparing for a major storm.

But the dark clouds covering the island are bringing with them a curse one-hundred years in waiting.

As the woods give birth to an ungodly and insatiable creature of fire, bones, and earth, three sisters struggle to stay alive through the long dark night of the Hollow.

The creature isn't something that can be killed, It's only something you survive......

It's a wonderful concept, having something reappear every number of years to hunt, kill, and feed, for an amount of time, and then for it to vanish until the next cycle........yep, Jeepers Creepers was a fun creature movie that lost it a little toward the end.

The Hollow on the other hand, never really gets anything to lose in the first place. It's the age old story of teenage misfits, meeting up with other teens, all devoid of common sense, and spend the most dangerous night of their lives shouting, screaming, and hiding in the most ridiculous places.

The creature they are trying to avoid looks like something that's lost its way travelling back to Middle Earth, and despite being a huge, hulking piece of timber, it can sneak up on someone quieter and fast than Michael Dudikoff did back in the eighties.

What could have been, what SHOULD have been, an over the top exploitation stalk n' slash movie with humour, turns into nothing more than unlikable teens being killed because they do stuff like lock the beast in a room, and stay in the room with them.......and that actually happens.

And then it all ends with the creature vanishing into thin air, and a look of bemusement on the remaining survivor..............and the audience.

Don't bother.

Should Have Been Titled "EMMA!!!"

[AdaMadaPia · 2/10 · 13 March 2018]

Let me start off by saying if, god forbid, I ever had another child and it was a girl, 'Emma' would be the last choice on my list of baby names and it's all thanks to this film.

Actually, not even the last choice. There's a negative one billion chance that 'Emma' would ever make the cut.

But I digress.

This shallow excuse for a horror plot revolves around three stunningly idiotic sisters who are going to visit their aunt on some remote island after their parents were killed in a car wreck. The youngest sister, Emma, was also there and barely survived herself according to the middle sister, Marley, though Emma shows no outward physical signs of trauma. Just a mopey teenage girl who is already hurling head-long into goffdom at the age of fourteen.

I give it another year before she's painting her eyes black and donning spiked dog collars while listening to The Cure on repeat.

Since the car wreck, EMMA! is understandably devastated, but she takes it just a teensy bit too far with her, "Everyone around me dies," schtick. But she is correct. Everyone around her does die, but it's only because she keeps running off on her own which prompts her sisters to constantly chase her around the island, shouting, "Emma! EMMA!!!! EMMA!!!!!!!!"

Obviously the townsfolk know a lot more about what's going on than the Three Stooges here, but despite their repeated advice to stfu, Sarah and Marley are steadfast in their pursuit, not to mention their complete inability to care about anyone else aside from EMMA!!

"Whoops, we just got another islander killed with our incessant shrieking. Oh well. EMMA!!!!!"

The two older sisters seem to be under the impression that they are just as expendable as the islanders. The audience nods in agreement.

On another note: Marley seems to be suffering from a terrible case of Middle Child Syndrome. Just an observation.

Honestly at this point, just let the stupid kid go where she wants and if she gets eaten by the big scary fiery twig monster, so be it.

Also, what was up with Seth? What's his story? Does he have one? Does anyone even care?

All in all, the premise was promising, the atmosphere was primed for some great spookiness, but the execution was a god awful failure. The only "horror" I experienced was the fact that this film made it to publication. There was little to no plot and if you even figured out what that was, congratulations. There was no character development, not even among the sisters.

The smart people died off quickly while the three insipid baffoons remained alive until the end. Only in a cliched horror flick is that ever possible, though I still can't figure out why.

Hollow and stupid nonsense movie

[nordcarbon · 1/10 · 14 September 2016]

One of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I watch all type of movies, sometimes even if reviews are bad just so I can rate it myself.

This movie goes around stupid people doing stupid things. Normal people is not stupid, so why making a film with people doing and deciding stupid things?

One of the actresses, the blue eyes one, seems mad all the time, yelling at everyone constantly. Why? And with her eyes wide opened ALL THE MOVIE!!! Like in a panic situation all the time too. Stupid!

Stupid moments and actions happen repeatedly during the movie making you say "How...? What the...? Why she...?". Like when one of the sisters was tied up, with a rag covering her mouth so she couldn't scream and her wrists and feet tied with rope, but her hands and fingers free!!! And she was like "Hmhmm!!! Hmhmhhhmmm! Hmmhmm!". Why didn't she use her hands to remove the rag from her mouth? Or to remove the rope from her feet? So stupid!

Or when they were walking on the forest looking for the power plant and suddenly, just because one of the sisters walked a few more steps than the other, they get separated. The sister left behind starts calling for the other but the other sister never responds. Suddenly again, the other sister appears safe, telling the other to continue towards the plant. So, why would someone not respond to his/her partner call if she's a few meters away from you, more important, if she's your sister and you are together in the middle of a forest in a dangerous situation? Stupid!

These were just two examples of stupid stuff, and so many other things happen out of nothing, just because.

The only star I give is because of the monster originality.

Overall, a hollow and stupid movie full of nonsense.

don't waste your time

[Marco_From_Tropoja · 1/10 · 6 November 2015]

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.

Silver Screen Loving Monster

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 6 February 2016]

Before I tell you what this movie was let me tell you what it wasn't. It wasn't scary, it wasn't a horror, it wasn't suspenseful, it wasn't thrilling, it wasn't intriguing, and it wasn't good. I didn't know it was possible to feel the complete apathy I felt watching this.

Here's what it was: it was terrible. Mind bogglingly terrible.

I know that movies have their clichés, I get it, but this movie didn't even remain consistent with the rules it established. A poor CGI, fire mouthed, tree limbed beast is killing all the Islanders. Gauging the corpses everywhere it is a pretty efficient killer--well until three clueless sisters come along, then it becomes a stalking, creeping killer. The type of killer that gives its prey plenty of time to run, hide or devise a plan. The type of killer that's easily distracted by other prey simply because it's on the screen.

I was simply amazed at the CGI monster's ability to make this movie last 85 minutes. It truly knew that it was on screen and it milked it for all it was worth. It stopped and posed elaborately. It growled and roared and screamed. It showed a full array of monster emotion thereby giving it credibility. Sadly, I don't think it will get a star on the Monster Walk of Fame. It's still no Blob, Alien, Predator, Pennywise or just about every other film creature. In fact it was just lame.

don't waste your time or your brain cells

[captaintink · 1/10 · 17 April 2016]

As soon as you're introduced to the protagonists of the film you want to slap them. After another two minutes I wanted to strangle them and we haven't even gotten to the meat of the film yet.

Now typically going into any creature feature you're not expecting much and when it's a cable show produced creature feature you're expecting even less. However it's never a good sign when you don't care at all about the main characters and you're waiting for characters to die.

They are beyond annoying and I didn't care what they went through, I was rooting for the demonic spirit creature to devour them preferably slowly and painfully.

I've seen cable produced creature features that were at least watchable but this was not one of them.

Horrible!

[wyskydyk · 9/10 · 11 April 2021]

I loved this movie! But I was bored and drinking. My popcorn was more intellectually stimulating, but it was 3 am and only infomercials to watch.

Not spectactular, but certainly underrated.

[The CyberHippie · 7/10 · 22 May 2020]

3 Sisters visit their aunt on the eve of a 100 year witches curse where the witch returns in the form of a rather cool looking monster to seek vengeance on the islands inhabitants. This is not too different from your typical "evil monster on a rampage" movie, but for a modest budget movie, it's very well done and I found it entertaining. I expected to see a 6 rating when I came here. I rate it 6.5, but have to give it a seven since I can't do halfzies.

If I wrote this movie, I'd be ashamed of myself

[petelarrivee · 3/10 · 22 June 2016]

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!

Just Bad

[bark2287 · 1/10 · 23 November 2017]

I'm pretty sure that a full 2/3 of this script was just the word "Emma".... Is that a spoiler? I don't think that's a spoiler. If anything, it's the only thing this movie has going for it. I want to say it's the acting that's miserable, but it's probably the writing and the directing as well. The monster is uninspired, the pacing is acidic, and.... (is this five lines yet?)

OK, I've already spent more time on this review than the movie deserves. You can do better! Somewhere out there is paint that is drying! Go watch that!

Not good, not the worst out there

[kmitchrog · 3/10 · 29 October 2015]

Characters were one dimensional and I had no sympathy for any of them. The best actress in the film dies in the first five minutes and I envied her escaping this mess. The remaining characters were about as likable as salt on an opened wound and the actors demonstrated their mastery of the range of emotions from fear to anger to anger-fear back to fear. Special effects were good and that's about all that saves this one from being laughable. Does anyone give a thought to plot anymore? Story telling is not incidental and having good CGI does not excuse you from making an effort at an interesting back story. Why does this threat/monster exist? Oh, well we grilled a few witches a hundred years ago and they threw some kinda burning demon tree demon on us, go figure. Movie is basically spent running around trying to get away from this nameless demon thing and screaming a lot... A LOT. I'm still not certain why the town locals, who seem to have known this was going to happen stayed around to be slaughtered, couldn't find a hotel with a hot tub? Or maybe they thought simply closing the blinds somehow made them invisible to the demon, cause you know, ostriches and everything. Don't waste your time unless you are heavily medicated and need a way to waste 90 minutes.

Weak Story line

[acarguy · 3/10 · 3 December 2015]

The overly dramatic acting of the little sister is annoying. No one seems upset that she just disappeared right before they were to get on the fairy to the island. The monster is not scary and the movie is predictable. Hard to get through the first 30 minutes was ready for it to be over. The "reason" the guys is going to island was vague made no sense. They get to the island and just happens everyone has left? The build up to the monster coming out was not strong at all. Lighting Strikes bring a monster out of the tree roots? Just nothing seems believable. It feels like it was done on a budget. "aunt" Cora? Was able to drive her car home and yet some how she was vaporized in the car seat and blood all over the inside of the care. Its certain they know how to scream one another's name repeatedly in spite of something follow them. Really made for dislike of the name Emma. Again issues with the story line. It doesn't make sense. But I guess what do you expect for a scary movie none of them are really real. LOL.

Weak, main characters make you root for monster

[elizabeth-397-98650 · 3/10 · 16 December 2018]

It's a typical bad horror movie where monster chases protagonists. In this case three screechy sisters who basically screech the entire film. Even after being told the creature has great hearing and is drawn to sounds multiple times they keep yelling at each other, screeching needlessly, and pounding loudly on things. So dumb and annoying. One falls down and is too injured to walk normally within in the first 30 seconds of fleeing the creature. I eventually wanted it to catch them just to shut them up. There isn't much or any story beyond supernatural creature hunting the victims.

I felt sorry for the monster

[ilovelokoo · 1/10 · 23 January 2016]

From the first minute I wanted the sisters to die.

The movie is bad produced in so many ways I don't want to waste another 90 min describing them.

Acting, directing, script...

A lot of meaningless characters.

None of the thing that happen are important. If a character is wounded, don't worry, he/she will be able to walk without any injuries.

If you think someone is going to explain WHY of everything, don't expect that much. There is not even a bad explanation.

Please, don't waste your time watching this movie.

It is not even scary or fun, it's a hollow, a REAL hollow.

Ever cheer for the monster?

[ottoskorzeny-53649 · 3/10 · 20 March 2020]

Three gals vs a monster, even though they had opportunities to get away. The youngest gal runs off like a 2 year old, if left unsupervised for 30 secs. If i wrote this script, the movie would have been about 10 mins long. As soon as the youngest girl ran off the first time for no good reason, they should have left her there. "The end". I fail to believe this was new behavior for her. At some point you have to cut your losses and save who you can.

Toward the end, after the girls find the youngest who ran off again, was an epic stupid scene. One girl sacrifices her self by distracting the monster to save the others. She gets said monster to chase her, ending up in a room with a strong locking door. After monster corners her in the room, she fakes him out, runs back to the door and secures it so he couldn't get out. Why the heck didn't she take 1 additional step, and secure door from outside? Apparently she wanted to be a martyr. Her sacrifice was for nothing, because the run away sister found in necessary to go to the room and unlock the door. Wanted a look at her sisters corpse, and free the monster. The survivors managed to kill the monster because apparently one has the ability to eclipse the sun. If you were the monster and the sun was your kryptonite, wouldn't you call it quits at sun up? Was really hoping the monster would massacre the trio, to prevent them from reproducing and spreading the stupit gene to another generation. I know its a tv movie and not some high budget production, but this is bad. Monster was cool concept, but budget kept from making him great (also script).

Just awful

[yeah-horns-yeah · 1/10 · 15 September 2016]

The only good thing about this movie was the "monster". It had a good concept to it. That was it. The acting was sub par, the story was long, and drawn out. And yet somehow, it jumped around a lot. The writing was lazy.

It was just bad. Do not waste your time watching this. If I hear the name Emma one more time, I'm going to puke... thanks to this movie. It had potential, but the whole thing just felt lazy.

I wish the actors and actresses luck in their careers but this is not one I would add to my portfolio if I were them. I truly hope that everyone learns from this experience and moves on to bigger and better projects in the future.

One of the channel's best

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 10/10 · 27 October 2015]

Trying to get over a deep family tragedy, sisters visiting their aunt on a deserted island find a local legend about a demonic creature has come to like and stalking the island forcing them to get away before it consumes them as well.

This here was quite the impressive and highly enjoyable effort. What really sets this one going is the strong atmosphere found throughout here, which is based quite highly on the setting here. Utilizing the deserted, isolated island setting the best, possible resource here of the utterly impenetrable wall of trees creating a spooky feeling here even before the oncoming storm hits, while the slow-building mystery here with the blank island and continual stranded nature here create an eerie setting here for which the insertion of the creature makes for a great time here. The appearance and powers of the creature are quite nice as the body being composed of tree roots and moss conjoined with supernatural fire bleeding through its eyes and mouth as well as the means of which it appears to teleport itself around to kill its victims which makes for a wholly impressive creature. These here give this a strong boost to the film by then making the action here incredibly fun and exciting, as the opening attack in the forest starts this off nicely, the house attack is outstanding with the arguing distraction letting the crashing body through the front door and the root-fingers grabbing readily delivering solid shocks and the big confrontation in the deserted town is highly spectacular. The mangled, bloody bodies left laying in the street, the eerie quite and the encounters within here from the shopping mart and the alleyway from the diner against the creature are so much fun here that they keep this going along so well with the fellow survivors getting involved that there's plenty to fully enjoy here. The battle at the sheriffs' station manages to get some really great times as well as it stalks them through the deserted station and readily makes for some decent scares along with the fun kills. The finale, which is so much fun in the forest battles throughout here that range from the absolutely spectacular search here for their missing sister stuck in the sacrificial lair where they rescue the other abducted victim, the attempts to hide in the forest are fine and there's a logical lead-in to the fantastic stalking in the corridors of the power plant where there's a large number of high-end suspense scenes here that really make for quite the chilling time here getting in the fire action of it chasing them around in such a creepy location. These here give this one quite the utterly impressive effort here than it manages to overcome the few minor flaws on display. The one main one here, which shouldn't be much of a surprise here as the CGI for the creature doesn't come close to realistic or believable, as this one doesn't really offer any surprises here. the only other weird part here is the decision here to waste the time searching for the daughter in the woods at the beginning, as the extensive amount of time here is in direct violation of hat was told to them by the ferry driver that halts the whole scene, truly making it seem curious over the inclusion here when other scenes set up her story better. Otherwise, this one was highly enjoyable.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

It's actually pretty good

[aap-65831 · 6/10 · 3 July 2020]

Its actually pretty good, we enjoyed watching it. Yes, improvements could have been made, but I'd actually love to see a sequel to this.

Every horror movie cliche imaginable

[nickijay · 3/10 · 19 April 2019]

And terrible acting my the three who are supposed to be sisters. Side note: I started rooting for the monster after they were told to be quiet and stop screaming 47 times yet refused to.

Way to much screaming

[jacobjr-21620 · 4/10 · 3 February 2016]

I found the plot to be wonderful. Up and coming actresses and actors I like Richard Harmon from The 100. For me The Hollow had way to much over excitement and overly screaming. It got to annoying. The end of the film was kinda strange for me. All that thing needed was a ray of sun light. I found it to be so off just knowing that fact. Apparently I noticed a 2018 version on the make. This was a low rating. Hopefully they can bring it back up with a better sequel. Take not of what we feel about it, and turn it into something spectacular. Use the very same actresses and actors that survived. Give it a twist of fate like Tremors.

Had potential

[skylarross-22097 · 2/10 · 19 March 2019]

Great monster, the history and look of it was amazing. The practical effects were probably the only thing saving this movie from a complete failure but they weren't enough. Each sister was annoying in their own way; Sarah couldn't shut up and stop arguing, Marley provided some bad ass moments and common sense but it was drowned out by her screaming, and Emma is the clairvoyant self-sacrificing one who indirectly got a majority of the cast killed. Over and over they were told to keep quiet but what did they do? Scream. If you want to watch a movie that will practically have you foaming at the mouth, I would recommend the Hollow. All of the cast was unlikeable in their own ways, but none so much as these 'sisters'.