The Hallow | Telescope Film
The Hallow

The Hallow

Critic Rating

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  • United Kingdom,
  • United States,
  • Ireland
  • 2015
  • · 97m

Director Corin Hardy
Cast Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novaković, Michael McElhatton, Michael Smiley, Gary Lydon, Stuart Graham
Genre Fantasy, Horror

A family who moved into a remote mill house in Ireland with an infant son find themselves in a fight for survival against banshees, baby snatchers, and other demonic creatures living in the woods. This film cleverly twists and deforms the genres of fairy tales and children’s fables into a nightmare horror.

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What are critics saying?

80

Village Voice by Pete Vonder Haar

The Hallow offers plenty of scares and is unnerving from wire to wire, wrapping up the second act with a bang and red-lining the tension until the end.

75

Philadelphia Inquirer by Tirdad Derakhshani

Amid all the horror and the black ooze, there emerges a deeply touching story about the power of love.

70

Screen Daily by Charles Gant

Corin Hardy makes a slick, confident debut with supernatural horror The Hallow. Demonstrating a facility with storytelling almost as skilful as his nimble orchestration of animatronics and visual effects.

70

Los Angeles Times by Noel Murray

This backwoods monster movie boasts compelling performances, eye-catching creatures and an effective blend of practical and digital effects.

70

The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney

[Hardy] proves himself both a gifted visual stylist and an assured storyteller with a wicked grasp of sustained dread.

70

Variety by Geoff Berkshire

The directorial debut of visual artist Corin Hardy is never less than arresting to the eye, but thin characters and a familiar story hold this Irish chiller back from entering the top tier of recent horror entries.

70

Screen International by Charles Gant

Corin Hardy makes a slick, confident debut with supernatural horror The Hallow. Demonstrating a facility with storytelling almost as skilful as his nimble orchestration of animatronics and visual effects.

63

RogerEbert.com by Simon Abrams

The Hallow also de-emphasizes human drama to the point where it often feels like a Jenga tower of set pieces, a disappointing fact that's most apparent during the film's first 40 minutes.

63

Slant Magazine by Christopher Gray

The film never really digs into its suggested themes of gentrification, domestic turmoil, or backwoods folklore, but most of its effectiveness stems from a kitchen-sink approach to genre clichés.

63

Washington Post by Pat Padua

In a departure from the sexually active teens of most slasher movies, The Hallow plays on more grown-up fears: keeping your family safe and steering clear of a vengeful Mother Nature.

60

Time Out London by Cath Clarke

Rather than letting the CGI do all the graft, Hardy unleashes a beautifully handcrafted army of puppets and animatronic demonic creatures. Too many, too soon, really. It’s overkill and pretty quickly you’re suffering from fiend fatigue.

60

The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis

Mr. Hardy, however, would rather busy himself with reminders of earlier creature features.... Luckily, John Nolan’s old-school effects are wicked good, and Martijn van Broekhuizen’s mossy photography is pleasingly sinister.

60

CineVue by Jamie Neish

What starts out as creepy descends into a creature feature that's more laughable than scary.