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Hallowed Ground
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Stevie McCleary (20th October 2007). |
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The Film
 Just what the world was asking for: another scarecrow horror movie. Yippee. Liz (Jaimie Alexander) is driving through the small town of Hope when her car breaks down. This would normally be no big thing (actually, according to the American movies I've seen, this is probably the worst and last thing that'll ever happen to you) but she's part of the film "Hallowed Ground". Which means that in the next 85 minutes Liz also finds herself having one heck of a bad night. See, it seems that a fanatical Preacher (Ethan Phillips) used to string people up as scarecrows to ward off...well...crows. This was all back just before the beginning of the 20th century and it all ended up pretty bad for the Preacher and his happy-go-lucky townsfolk who aided him in the sacrifices. People from a neighboring town eventually took an interest and burned the preacher alive. Good for them. Anyhow, back in the present day, Liz and a reporter lady (Hudson Leick) she befriended end up heading out to take photos of the site where he was burned. And put up a scarecrow, naturally. Shockingly to all concerned, the scarecrow comes to life and begins a killing spree. But as it turns out, he's not working alone... But then again, he's barely working as it is. You know, in the sense of making sense. While all films have their own type of internal logic that you have to accept, this one just stretches until you find yourself asking a lot of questions. At one point, when a character actually asks one of the many burning questions that the script raises, they are answered with a "that's not important right now". That answer is right up there with "I'll explain later". In fact, most of the plot hinges on a prophecy being fulfilled and yet we just get two big pieces of exposition to explain it all. And there is no reason given to why any of it is happening this way or why there are certain restrictions on the when and where. It's just that it's 'been foretold'. The acting is all passable, but that's probably only because it's a low-budget horror film. In any serious type of cinema they would most likely be out of their depth or tedious at best. Still, one guy did have a fantastic beard. It had huge handlebars. It was the most memorable part of the film. The CGI effects are fairly poor. People shouldn't try to animate fire if they don't have the budget. And all the actual gore deaths were okay, but not spectacular. In fact, like most of everything, it was simply passable. What you'd expect to find without going above and beyond. For a film about 'Hallowed Ground' it most certainly doesn't try to cover any new ground, choosing to just tread the same beaten path over and over, in fact, nothing bad would have occurred if the film had stayed buried itself. There is no real tension even when falling back on faithful creepy stereotypes (like people in small towns staring at an outsider...) and certain scenes suddenly change the time of day, exposing either poor working conditions or incompetent filmmakers. Through most of the film the only reaction is one of disappointment that the creators didn't try and reach a bit higher with their goals, and a tinge of sadness that the script comes across as so lazily built.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer is as passable as many of the film's elements itself. While the image is clean and display no dirt and sharpness is maintained although some night scenes appear a bit soft the majority of the problem with this transfer is that it's largely flat and unimpressive. The colors were a little over exposed at times especially a lot of the day time exteriors from Liz's drive to the town of Hope, I spotted some moire effect against patterned lines and some minor noise amid the blacks.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is included, and as unimpressed with the transfer I was equally unimpressed with this lackluster 5.1 track. It's as rudimentary as they come. The filmmakers either had a limited budget for the post-sound or they simply didn't really care about creating a dynamic soundtrack with depth and range. Instead the soundtrack fizzles and really only kicks in when absolutely necessary. Dialogue is crisp and distortion free which is at least a bonus, depending on how you look at this movie that is. This film does not include any optional subtitles.
Extras
Genius Products has released this film along with it's theatrical trailer and a series of bonus trailers only. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 1 minute 52 seconds. Rounding out the extras are a series of start-up bonus trailers for: - "1408" which runs for 2 minutes 33 seconds. - "Final Draft" which runs for 2 minutes 5 seconds. - "Black Sheep" which runs for 2 minutes 2 seconds. - "Frostbitten" which runs for 1 minute 23 seconds.
Overall
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