Arctic Hollow

Just think of the things you could do with 5k. Here we have a movie that is basically filmed 90% in a dark basement so there is no spending on set design, or much of anything else.

The script and dialogue sequences are bad, plane rental is $1500, actors are friends of the writer/director and paid min wage. Not much else to spend the budget on. Oh, the shock ending, $1000 on cgi.

Movies like this should be reserved for a separate part of IMDB. Self funded, vanity projects or Indie categories so that expectations are super low before hand.

Not much else to write here, ended up watching at 2x speed and then switched to 4x. Not much time wasted.

Trying to get past a traumatic incident, a fighter pilot gets wind of his assistance in a necessary extraction mission to rescue friends of his in a trek to the Alaskan circle to find a passageway to a Middle Earth, but when he gets stranded with them finds the area guarded by savage, unbelievable creatures.

There wasn't a whole lot to be had with this one. Among its few positives stem from the general setup at play here which manages to generate a solid setup at its main core. With the early setup showing the pilot to be dealing with his issues involving the tragic accident and his memories of the strange encounter that drags him into the search to rescue them, this provides the kind of intriguing setup that would work quite well as a means of getting him into the mix to battle the creatures. That has quite a lot to like about it with the final half featuring the atmospheric encounters within the darkened caves underground as the creatures emerge to battle the survivors that provides some rather chilling conceptual sequences at the center of this one for the main likable points here. This one does have a few major drawbacks to be had here. The main drawback to be had with this one is a seriously dull and plodding pace that's almost impossible to explain why due to the film being this short. There's little reason why a film that barely cracks the running time this one does to spend as much time as it does with so much extraneous material where it focuses on his backstory with the couple at the bar which brings him together into their sphere, his history including the traumatic accident that sends him into the heavy drinking stupor, and the utterly bland setup with the group being stranded on the mountain and needing to be rescued. None of these aspects are all that interesting or enjoyable to see play out and just lead to a wholly plodding and uneventful focus here. On top of that, there's also the excessively problematic special effects. The fact that the generally underutilized creatures look so terrible when they're shown on-screen in the absolute darkness of the caves at the end is a massively disappointing factor where it's just so lackluster to have them shown in such an environment that it's so laughably cheesy and inexcusable to be shown so briefly for what barely amounts to be worth it in terms of how bad it all looks. As well, the fact that the other effects featured here are just as bad, with a horrendously bad sound design that brings everything into a generally unlistenable muffle and a lighting design that makes everything so dark as to be hard to make out, these factors all bring about a rather large series of factors that holds it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

This was honestly awful. For most of the film you can see literally nothing. I know they are in a dark cave, but it was in desperate need of better lighting. So you could at least see more than pitch black, and the actors faces.

I have seen teenagers on YouTube do a better job with less budget. You couldn't see the creatures at all. You just heard roaring noises. I think I caught a glimpse of a claw?

As well as not being visually interesting. It was just all round dull. With little story, and dull acting. The concept seemed interesting, so it was a let down that it was this boring. It's the most boring film I've seen in a while.

Imagination. Setting. Story.

It's a great idea. It's intriguing. Deals with the inner earth theory with a possible entrance in the Arctic. Hooked me.

It's a great setting. Dark, cold, foreboding. Give the filmmakers credit for trudging up into the mountainous wilderness and getting difficult shots in 4 feet of snow. People keep complaining the film was too dark when it got into the cave system. Well, caves are dark, and it's not that dark. Problem people have today is that they watch films on their phones with brightness turned down. This movie is meant to be watched in the dark, at night, in a dark room. Watch it like that and it's fine.

Story. It's actually got a good story. Two lonely people with difficult life backstories full of regret trying to find meaning and companionship in their lives in the most desolate of situations.

This isn't a traditional horror movie with gore and blood, this is more like a fantasy with a story to tell.

Lastly, it's ultra low budget, and better than most low budget films. If you need a 50 million dollar production with A list actors just move along. Don't pretend you didn't know it was a low budget and then come on here and rant about it being a low budget.

At least complain about the story. Who cares what the budget is? Are movies like this perfect? No, but at least look at what they actually did do on a $3K budget. It's actually impressive when you think about it.

So tired of reading reviews where people complain about the budget. Who cares? They make terrible movies for 100 million. A budget isn't the concern. The story is. I thought the story was fine. 70 mins. No complaints.

Arctic Hollow has a good deal of potential to be a really great fill, however it doesn't fulfill the narrative and ends on a rather bland and dissatisfying level.

It starts out intriguingly, with the lone, isolated cabin dweller, sitting in front of the fireplace, silently contemplating, reminiscing, where he hears on his radio of a couple who have fallen victim to the snow swept wilderness.

The interactions between Bruce and Ally give off warm vibes and this element works well in the movie, largely due to decent acting and script. Their quest to find the underworld where Ally believes is where her father has gone, is tantalizing, as ancient cultures world wide believe in such a place and give the possibility of it's existence credence.

As I say, some really good ideas here, but it takes too long to arrive at its point. I wondered why they didn't make this go for at least another 30 minutes, as it ends very abruptly and doesn't explore the hollow earth aspect enough, for it's title would lead us to believe otherwise.