The Hallow,2015.
Directed by Corin Hardy.
Starring Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton and Michael Smiley.
SYNOPSIS:
Ignoring the Irish local’s warnings, a British conservationist’s family are attacked by demonic creatures that lurk in the darkened forest.
Corin Hardy’s debut looks to strongly subvert the current modern horror trend. The familiar narrative tropes of scientific logic versus folkloric beliefs and the sceptical rural townspeople versus the educated middle-class urbanites lend themselves to classic British horrors of yesteryear. And the young family moving into a new home lends itself modern American horror. Through this fusion of the two the film situates itself in the middle, and attempts to mark itself toward the fringe. Its irony is the reliance on those same clichés is brought to the fore.
Adam’s (Joseph Mawle) objective, as a conservationist, is to investigate the sickly infectious forest in the remote Irish countryside. Wife Claire (Bojana Novakovic), domesticated to care for their newborn, is hassled by one of the locals (and, really, the only) Colm (Michael McElhatton). Attention of contrasting ideals offers great potential for causal conflict over the forests fate – Adam proves the trees are sick, and Colm notes it’s home to the fungal demons named the hallow. Alas, this back & forth retort descends itself into repetition. Further, when the blackened birds are launching through the family’s windows – dismissed as drunk or angry locals by local police officer Garda (Michael Smiley) – it doesn’t increase the threat. The introductory jump scare from a launched bird reminds the audience of its American horror roots.
The Hallow make their presence known early in a natural, yet apparent, narrative manoeuvring from folkloric horror to home invasion-monster movie-survival horror. It doesn’t lure the audience into a (frustratingly) falsified place of pinning such actions onto the locals, only to discover (what everyone already knows) it was the Hallow. The depiction of such diseased, fungal ridden beasts is uncomfortable, and their tactics to infect those around is creative and visceral. They are noteworthy as the main attraction.
Overarching the film is this fear of fatherhood theme. This may offer intellectuals something to ponder, with a few complimentary visuals to support such a claim. Such subtext postulates there resides some deeper connotations. Its misfortune, however, resides in characters that offer nothing beyond pre-subscribed gender types; the patriarch is intelligent, yet acts foolish, and the wife does all domestic duties. This undermines the Hardy’s attempt to “spice up” the genre and offer such thematic content as the characters remain within such boundaries. They lack dimensions, nuance idiosyncrasies, or even individual qualities. In short, the narrative structure may be unabashedly straight-faced horror, but its characters keep it retained in the all-too-familiar contemporary canon.
The Hallow may appease genre fans seeking for familiarity, but those who desiring for a fringe horror film need not apply. With forgettable characters, the film’s unabashed rural and urban social commentary, and an on-the-nose fatherhood theme, one has to wonder whether too much time had been spent on the creatures.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Matthew Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=W04aXcyQ0NQ
Originally published November 7, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
