Hollow One, The (2015)
Ari Drew
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Starring Kate Alden, Jesse James, Chelsea Farthing
Directed by Nathan Hendrickson
I have a soft spot in my heart for horror that is heavy on psychological themes, so when the Toronto After Dark Film Festival announced that it would be adding Nathan Hendrickson’s The Hollow One to its 2015 lineup, my interest was piqued, to say the very least. The feature-length debut from Hendrickson, who has made a name for himself via directorial and writing work on video games for the likes of the Alien vs. Predator and The Lord of the Rings franchises, tells of grief, guilt, and an ancient evil that threatens a group of people dealing with these emotions.
Hendrickson brings to the film a passion for ’80s sci-fi and horror and a background in big budget CGI shorts, but while these components together should promise a unique and emotionally charged horror experience, the end result for this independent effort is ultimately a mixed bag.
The Hollow One follows Rachel Wade (Alden, “The Librarians”) and her younger sister, Anna (Farthing), who lose their mother, Linda (Tonya Skoog), under mysterious circumstances on one fateful night in their quaint Washington state farm town. In the two years following the tragedy, Rachel grows increasingly troubled, and Anna is left to try to keep things together for the both of them in their new lives in the city, far from their distraught father (Tony Doupe, Safety Not Guaranteed). However, when Rachel’s estranged ex-boyfriend, Matt (James, The Amityville Horror), returns to their hometown and discovers that things have grown concerning, she reluctantly agrees to return with Anna to check on her father. As it turns out, things are much more dire in the abandoned town than anyone could have imagined, and Rachel, Anna, and Matt are forced to face a dark entity that is threatening to overtake the last remaining townspeople.
The original plot-line of The Hollow One is ripe with inspiration, seeing elements of dark fantasy and psychological tension utilized throughout. Unfortunately, the pacing of the film proves to be stiflingly uneven at times, lagging after the first act and spending time focusing on a few too many extraneous scare setups more than the emotionally compelling aspects of the story.
As a film that seeks to find ground in a greater message about grief, loss, and forgiveness, The Hollow One does not quite explore these themes enough. Following Linda’s death, we find Rachel presumably in a state of emotional spiral two years later. Unfortunately, a brief scene showcasing her waking up next to a stranger and looking through his medicine cabinet is all we really see of her psychological turmoil, as she is soon thrust into the mystery of the farm town and her missing father before we can really get an idea of where Linda’s tragedy has led her. Hendrickson’s script does a good job of building the sisterly rapport between Rachel and Anna, but we never quite see the extent to which this bond has suffered under the weight of the death and how each sister is truly dealing. With Hendrickson’s film admittedly stemming from an interest in the ways people deal with such a trauma, this aspect of our protagonists’ story feels very glossed over; going in, you expect the approach to be much more raw and unapologetic. Unfortunately, this lack of deeper characterization hampers some of the potentially effective moments in the script and dulls some of the horror as well, as it is difficult to be completely invested without a strong connection to Rachel’s emotional journey.
To its credit, The Hollow One is always aesthetically sound, establishing a darkness and bleak portrait of a ghost town to a particularly eerie effect. Though there is an unnecessary focus on some of the more minor set-pieces — notably as Matt explores an abandoned convenience store and a trailer park — everything we see looks quite chilling. The occasional use of a red glow ramps up the sinister nature of the evil (seemingly dubbed “The Hollow One”), and a creaking, dread-inducing sound design from Brian Pamintuan is a technical highlight in the film. Hendrickson’s eye for suspense is also showcased in the film’s stronger moments, including a tense scene in which Rachel and Anna explore their now-abandoned home. I would have loved to see more carefully crafted moments of suspense like these in lieu of the time-killing focus on the aforementioned secondary set-pieces. Visually, The Hollow One works best when the director chooses to build tension via minimalist tactics rather than throw everything at us at once.
This being established, the film’s villain — a wispy, cloaked entity with a black CGI-vortex of a face — proves most terrifying in small doses. The problem is that we hear and glimpse it far too often, and its growling and distorted voice, bearing a quality that falls somewhere between Lord Zedd from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and Doug Bradley’s Pinhead with a throat infection, loses its fear-inducing attributes the more it delivers long streams of expository dialogue. Those particular moments of evil monologue themselves also grow quite clunky at points, as the entity very explicitly references his own ancient history and the reason for his wicked plan in an especially inorganic way. The CGI-heavy visual effect in the creature design also ultimately diminishes The Hollow One’s threatening nature as we see it more, and I would wager that a simpler, practical design would have been more effective given the scale of the movie. Hendrickson’s sci-fi influence is particularly felt in the look of the film’s villain, but it ultimately feels incongruous amidst the sparse horror backdrop.
These missteps aside, The Hollow One is ultimately upheld by strong performances, particularly from Alden, Farthing, and Doupe, both pre- and post-evil takeover. Alden especially shines in a moment where Rachel uncovers the truth of what happened on the night of her mother’s death, a gut-punch of a turn in the script that seems to really convey what Hendrickson was going for from the emotional angle. In this scene, Alden — a visually arresting cross between Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Lucy Lawless — is finally allowed to really showcase the pain that has been latently stewing inside Rachel for two years, and even James’ Matt, an admittedly dull character up to this point, becomes emotionally engaging. More moments like this would have certainly elevated the film.
Ultimately, Hendrickson earns major points for laying the groundwork here with a very creative underlying mythology that feels akin to Clive Barker or Lovecraft. While the end product is not as cohesively realized as one would hope with such influences, the enjoyably surprising ending does leave the door open for a sequel; should one ever be made, Hendrickson certainly has a wealth of rich territory left to explore. As an independent horror entry, The Hollow One is worth a watch if you are looking for atmosphere and a commendably novel plot. As a writer and director, Hendrickson does seem poised to have much to say about heavier psychological themes in genre fare, should he continue to explore them. With some fine-tuning, it would be great to see him delve deeper with his next effort and find a more harmonious balance between the raw, internal horrors of man and our universal fear of the otherness in the universe.
Had a chance to catch The Hollow One? Sound off in the comments below or shoot me a tweet (@TheAriDrew) and share your thoughts!
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
