Survive the Hollow Shoals (2018) Reviews

• Fun

  phenomynouss2018-03-31

  This film is about a guy who, for inexplicable reasons, decides to go live in the woods for 60 days with basically nothing but a video camera, a knife, and presumably some things in his backpack like a metal cup and the like. He seems to be enjoying it and even making progress. However he starts being harassed by an evil entity that haunts the Shoals. This is in the description so it's not a spoiler. For some reason I found this manner of haunting to be funny. It's a standard, typical type of found footage in the woods tale, as every single night the exact same sequence of random shouting, screaming, and voices occur, occasionally joined by some minor bits of action and the appearance of the entity in the form of a cliché woman in a dress reminiscent of The Ring or The Grudge or the anything horror. some of what kept my interest was the odd little details, such as a point later on when Zach realizes that there are no longer any animals or insects in the woods around him, or the constant monitoring of his caloric intake and how the lack of any animals means he's spending most days wandering around aimlessly and sleeping more often due to lack of energy. The instances where the evil entity pops up tend to be rather funny, with all of them punctuated by loud music stings, and it becomes apparent after the 3rd or 4th night that it's unclear if this entity is even "evil" or just wandering about making noise as well. The film narrowly avoids going on for too long with its bit, but then suffers from a rather abrupt, unsatisfying ending that just seemed to feel like they were aware they were going nowhere with the plot and so decided to end it. This film is what it is. I can easily imagine people being bored by it or turned off by the subtle lack of any real stuff happening. There are some odd elements thrown in, such as random totems scattered throughout the woods, or an old abandoned camp with a conveniently placed journal from previous campers explaining how they experienced the same events as Zach. Any major drawbacks of the film seem to be up to personal taste, it would seem. The only faults with the film I had were:

• Really scary! We screamed!

  saphira_dragon-802702019-02-01

  Wow!!! We were incredibly pleased with this movie. It really is a gem. Very very watchable, main character is likable, acting is great as well. It truly has some very scary parts. Give it a shot and you won't be disappointed!! Highly recommend!

• It does its job...

  user-628-532502019-02-14

  This film is designed to do one thing only... ...and that is to scare. There's not much plot and the camera work isn't stylish. What the film has is unbelievable tension with well placed jump scares. The acting must be fine as the film's lead came across as an ordinary Youtube survival vlogger, if anything he may have come across as too calm when the **** really hits the fan. For spookiness I give this 10/10 but overall I have to limit it to 8/10 due to there being an eerie soundtrack, music has no place in Found Footage in my opinion, though it did increase the tension.

• A must see...

  kremdelakrem2019-02-06

  Trust me, definitely one to watch.. Got me good a few times.. Keeps you tense all the way through it.. You will not be disappointed..