Hollow Creek (2016)

   

Produced, Written & Directed by: Guisela Moro

Starring:

.... Blake Blackman 
 .... Angelica Santoro 
.... Officer Thompson 
Tony Reichert .... Mark Melbourne 
Alyn Darnay .... Leonard Cunnings
 .... Margaret Cunnings
Steve Alberts .... Sheriff McFadden
Michael Varde  .... Officer Travis
Anthony Boggs .... Tobias Barrette

Special Appearance: 

Burt Reynolds .... Seagrass Lambert

Release Date: Direct-to-DVD: January 18, 2016 (UK)

 

 

Rating:

 

A writer Blake Blackman (Steve Daron) and his mistress Angelica Santoro () travel to a cabin but are haunted by a dead child as well that there's a backwoods couple who kidnaps little boys and Angelica becomes the next target in which they kidnap and is pregnant while Blake tries to search for months on where she is held up and tries to find the missing pieces on that dead child.

 

Nicely dark shot on the maniac Leonard Cunnings chasing after a child running away in the field as well as what happens to this poor little boy as this is a great horror start.
Then there's the situation with the affair that the writer Blake Blackman goes travelling with his mistress Angelica Santoro up to his cabin to focus on his novel in which there's a nice calm moment when she is taking her bath with a light on and candles surrounding her which was nicely shot as well as a perfect brief creepy moment on the ghost of the child near the doorway.
Also a nice ghostly moment with her hair moving and then we see the ghost of this child doing this to her along with a nice camera shot looking up on the light going out. So far this was a decent start for a horror story making me wonder as to what will unravel later on. 
Perfect bone chilling moments when both Blake and Angelica are in bed and she hears a wild animal sound that's out of the ordinary and gets spooked by it as this for sure can give you the chills especially when she goes outside to call her dog in which you wonder if something will happen right there and then. Plus nice creepy whispering types of sounds which works in greatly along with when she flashes her flashlight and sees the ghoulish child briefly which was supposed to look scary but not quite but at the same time creepy. 
More effective situations when Angelica is out looking for her dog and hears strange whispering sounds as well as a tree falling near her which showed nice suspenseful timing while spotting all of this happening.
Effective arguments with both Blake and Angelica arguing on what's out in the woods and moments like that which looked perfectly powerful while watching all of this unravel.
Perfectly mysterious moments when Angelica starts stalking Leonard with his vehicle after spotting a child in the passenger car in the rain but you could tell they were using a rain sprinklers since you could tell that it looked sunny as well as later on spying on his property as well as her being chased and attacked by their dogs which also looked fairly terrorising. Plus a good good on him slamming the back of his rifle onto her which looked perfectly intimidating.
Then the situations looked perfectly powerful when she is tied up and he gets nasty towards her as well as the person's wife Margaret speaking strangely and discussing of her unborn child and their plans of having this baby to themselves. Plus good dark shots on two boys caged up which was a nice setting for a psychological horror story such as this one.
However when things take place 5 months later with Blake trying to find Angelica the story becomes terribly slow with conversations on locals or getting in touch with the police for these matters as I wondered to when we will see Angelica in the cellar again as some of these moments looked fairly bland. However there's effective moments when the police challenge him by acting unpleasant which shows nice tension during this moment.
The story does take place back with what is happening towards Angelica though which things get rolling again like when the police tries to check out the home and Margaret is clever on how to prevent them going in the cellar on how she moves stuff to make out that there isn't one.
Plus some nice situations when the boys manage to escape in the woods with the dogs chasing after them which kept me in suspense by wondering if they will get away.
Also lots of struggling moments when Angelica gets away but is in labor which is a good psychological moments wondering if she will escape the grasps of Leonard as this looked wonderfully well done especially a dark scene with them at a graveyard which was a great touch to the story. Also we have the ghost of that boy helping her which worked out great as it explains as to why there was a ghost to this child which didn't in the beginning.
Bottom line is at first the story seemed a bit mediocre with many slow spots as well as moments that didn't work like they should have but it picks up the pace showing lots of tension and in the end things are well explained. It was fairly well done for what it was. It's both a psychological and supernatural horror flick as it seemed to do okay hand in hand.

The acting is decently performed but only certain one's worth mentioning such as (Blake Blackman) to which he seemed to show off his charm as well as his happy type of attitude and knew on how to be romantic. Plus shows good energy when he gets aggressive or argumentive. Shows off great dynamic energy when he goes in for the kill with his shotgun just springing into action. He was a fine character actor and had the guy next door looks and appeal which was another nice pointer to his character.
 (Angelica Santoro) does a great job with her character in which she does a nice job by being alert on stuff or acting worried as well as calling to her dog in which she was in the right motive for making all of this look truly believeable. Also seemed to do a nice job acting emotional with her crying or acting fearfully scared too. Shows good struggling energy while trying to get away.
(Officer Thompson) shows off a good cocky and smart alecky attitude in which he made this realistitc to the point that you don't want to deal with him. Seemed to do well with his troublemaking behavior. Had the perfect motives throughout whatever he did here. 
Alyn Darnay (Leonard Cunnings) certainly brought it out as a redneck terror in which he played the perfect horror type of character. Brings a full thrust with his obnoxious and violent behavior. Seemed to ome across as truly dangerous and intimidating too. Had the creepy looks and lived to play this role. In fact I considered him to be the best out of the cast.
 (Margaret Cunnings) was another fine character performer in which she does well with her eccentric and slurry speaking along with looking genuinely creepy along with her actions too. She studied this role pretty well as someone whom is crazy and demented. Also does well losing control by what she is talking about in certain scene's. 

There's light tapping echoey piano playing for the mellow moments which is too common as I've heard it in many other flicks such as this one. Also there's fast drum paced pounding which is okay for the suspenseful and chasing moments. Good creepy deep sounds for the real dark horror moments along with the odd bonging sounds too which was really catchy as well as some other classical composing which seemed to do in a mediocre pace. Plus there's some nice harmonising sounds for a near after death sequence which sounded really strong.