“Thank God”

RELEASED IN 2016 and written & directed by Guisela Moro, "Hollow Creek” chronicles events in the heart of West Virginia when a popular horror writer (Steve Daron) retreats to a vacation home with his girlfriend (Guisela Moro). Strange things start happening; then everything goes awry. Burt Reynolds is featured in a couple sequences.

The movie starts like it’s going to be a ‘cabin in the woods’ flick, except with adults in their mid-to-late 40s. But the story quickly veers from that standard plot in the second act. This is a crime thriller with ghostly elements rather than typical ghost/slasher horror. The movie compellingly shows how facts can be misinterpreted and a person wrongly judged.

Some of the acting by the peripherals isn’t so great (e.g. the cops in the last act) but, then, the movie only cost $500,000 and Moro had to take what she could get. But the main cast members are all convincing.

The issue of sexual immorality is raised and how “Your sin will find you out,” but this is later balanced out with God’s grace. We’ve all effed up, one way or another, and desperately need grace in order to have hope and live free. The film works up some haunting ambiance and the West Virginia locations are a plus.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 56 minutes and was shot in West Virginia (Wyoming County, Pineville, Mullens, Ritchie County, Harrisville). ADDITIONAL WRITER: Steve Daron.

GRADE: B