I love a good scare and The Hallow did it for me setting a new scream level during my Sundance Egyptian Theatre at Midnight horror fix. It was the film’s first weekend Sunday night premiere and the eWaitlist had me at number 84 followed by a postscript of 24 waitlisters dropping out in the past ten minutes. Goody. Gives me a chance at seeing this Irish-based fairy tales turned into hordes of scary monsters from the hallowed grounds in the woods. We all got in despite a very large entourage showing up to support Irish filmmaker Corin Hardy who introduced the film. Joe Neurauter and Felipe Marino produced the film and it was well worth the wait. The extensive Q&A afterwards made it a 2:45 a.m. night.
The logline reads: A London-based conservationist is sent to Ireland to survey for construction in an area of ancient forest believed by the superstitious locals to be hallowed ground. The locals aren’t wrong; a horde of demonic forces are unleashed, and horror ensues.
The set up is plausible including actual biological gook that shouldn’t be messed with. Don’t go there! I warn. The biologist’s curiosity is unrelenting and he takes his baby along for a stroll in the woods. Don’t take your kid in there–I hiss through gritted teeth. The dog finds an abandoned shelter… Don’t go in there! His wife takes down the irons across the windows. No, no, no, are you crazy? you’ll let them in! The locals live in fear and suspicion blaming the reawakening on the unsuspecting intruders as the bloody gook takes on a life of its own– aaaaagggghhhh! Screamfest.
The superstitious base is “the Changeling” rooted in folk religion as a demonic entity; sometimes referred to as the child who was “taken.” According to online sources, “the theme of a swapped child is common among medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmentally disabled.” These superstitions have been handed down for generations where often an innocent victim may be intentionally sacrificed to appease the “malevolent spirits” that bring on the unexplained maladies. Abductions, evil spells, tampering with Nature all can unleash forces that could only come to an unhappy end especially when the locals warn that things are better off left alone.
The intertwining of authentic folk lore with present day environmental evolutions affecting the unidentified microorganisms is brilliant in creative detail. The production design is masterfully crafted for visually, eye-popping revulsion that made my skin crawl. The performances of Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton and Michael Smiley are tightly tuned beginning as an Irish lullaby then building up into bone-chilling hellish screams. Timing and punch using music and sound design made me jump every time and the guy next to me said I was the most fun person to be sitting next to in a horror film screening.
The scoop from an online source: IFC Midnight closed a low-seven-figure deal for U.S. rights to The Hallow. WME Global brokered this deal with ICM Partners. Just as the festival was getting underway, WME signed Hardy after all the agencies flew to Dublin to court him while he was posting the film. Hardy is a protégé of Edgar Wright, who was the one who recommended him to Relativity for the job of reviving The Crow. After seeing this film, go ahead, take a walk in the woods.
Meanwhile, there was buzz, buzz, buzz going around for The Witch, in the U.S. Dramatic Competition, directed by Robert Eggers who won the Directorial Award. I don’t know why, wait, yes I do, but that will come at the end. Logline reads: New England in the 1630s: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life with five children, homesteading on the edge of an impassable wilderness. When their newborn son vanishes and crops fail, the family turns on one another. Beyond their worst fears, a supernatural evil lurks in the nearby wood.”
Bloody mess. I read some of the reviews out there and shake my head asking where was the terrifying mental duress that supposedly gripped the audience? Rather ho hum, based on authentic cliches coming from original diaries and journals– old hag stealing the baby (this one did not get away), dogs being disemboweled, a black hare, a black crow, a black Billy goat that talks, dead animals, dead children, dead parents. Am I giving anything away? Oh yes, the setting is dark, interiors and exteriors in the woods are very dark, clothes and hair dark, dirty, scraggly. Middle Ages dark and dirty.
I understand the need for authenticity and if the King’s English must be spoken then they should provide subtitles. The dialogue was so incoherent there was no understanding what was the gist of the conversation other than younger brother lusting after teenage sister; taunting little sister and brother twins getting whupped by big sister; mother daughter shrieking fest; brooding father with an eye on daughter; unhappy thirteen year old turns on her parents. If they didn’t leave the “plantation” (an early fortress community), she probably would have called DYFS and had them on trial for child abuse. Instead she listened to the Billy goat and called on Satan. Right. That’s what happens to stranded families in the woods.
Actors Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Lucas Dawson, Ellie Grainger do a reasonable job considering the mediocre directing that Eggers manages as he muddles around a muddied string of events. While coming from authentic journals and diaries, there was little story, less character development and a bust of a finale (floating naked witches and a Billy goat). Instead, the darling of Sundance writing and directing labs, Eggers, thanked Sundance for providing all the grants he was able to finagle from them AND a Directing Award. Go figure. The film premiered at the Eccles and there were plenty of empty seats. Scoop from online: A24 to buy THE WITCH for $1.5 million. Psst. Save your money.
02/05/2015
Film Review