Woodyanders
Liz Chambers (a solid and sympathetic performance by fetching brunette Jaimie Alexander) finds herself stuck in a small town after her car breaks down. Chambers soon discovers the town's grisly past involving a crazed deceased priest and his legacy of sacrifices. Liz eventually winds up thrust into a battle for survival with the deranged locals as well as a lethal murderous scarecrow.Writer/director David Benullo relates the derivative, yet still effective and enjoyable story at a quick pace, delivers a decent amount of mild gore, and builds a reasonable amount of tension and spooky atmosphere (the scarecrow in particular is genuinely creepy and unnerving). Moreover, the sound acting from the capable cast holds this picture together: Chloe Grace Moretz does well as frightened little girl Sabrina, Brian McNamara likewise registers nicely as the earnest Sheriff O'Connor, Nick Chinlund has a field day as evil preacher Jonas Hatheway, and Hudson Leick provides plenty of winning spark as eager and unscrupulous tabloid newspaper reporter Sarah Austin. Keith J. Duggan's sharp cinematography provides a neat stylish look. Neal Acree's spirited shivery score does the rousing trick. Marred by some regrettably cruddy CGI, this one overall still sizes up as a better than average shocker.
Michael O'Keefe
This film is photographed well and the acting is actually decent; but the story line seems so familiar. Ms. Jaime Alexander carries the movie and makes it worthwhile. This supernatural horror rendering has an attractive young woman(Alexander)being stranded in a seemingly quiet small town while her car all but dies. She is befriended by a reporter trying to gather information on a local farm that has been the site of human sacrifices. An animated scarecrow wants her...dead. A satanical preacher(Ethan Phillips), who also has a taste and hankering for her, convinces her and anyone with sanity to escape.Other players include: Brian McNamara, Chloe Moretz, Ned Vaughn and Tamara Clutterbuck. It is not too hard to figure why this went direct-to-video. Kudos to director David Benullo, who did successfully present a good project, albeit predictable.
bobwildhorror
Compared to most of the dreck I've seen on the Sci Fi Channel, this wasn't bad. It had descent production values, acceptable acting, and a generally involving pace.But as many other reviewers have pointed out, it's so ridiculously derivative that it's sometimes difficult to watch. CHILDREN OF THE CORN is definitely an inspiration. Creepy town. Creepy cornfield. Crazed zealots loose.It's the climax that did me in, though. It was stolen verbatim from 1963's THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, although HALLOWED GROUND substitutes CGI crows for animated bats (and comes off the worse for it).It's always frustrating to see a film with potential, particularly an independent film, fail to capitalize on its assets. An original idea is all that was needed.
davidkruschke
Every week I stop into Blockbuster and rent the new direct to video horror movie and every week I'm pretty much disappointed. Most are shot with non-actors in lead roles, some with home video equipment. Some are boring and some are painful. This is the rare gem of a movie in this field of crap.For a direct to video feature, the movie has scope. Yes, the CGI isn't top notch but great CGI doesn't make a great movie.This is a horror movie with complex characters that does not conform to a specific genre's rules. It could easily have been a scarecrow slasher movie with lots of dead teenagers but it tries for more.I applaud it for that.For those direct to video junkies like myself, Hallowed Ground has great production value, great acting (for the genre), and best of all...An original concept.
AD
