Hallowed Ground starts out in isolated Midwest of the US where Liz Chambers (Jaimie Alexander) has car trouble & breaks down, Liz manages to make it to the small town of Hope where local mechanic Earl (Jim Cody Williams) says he will have to order a part for Liz's car & she's stuck there for the night. Liz heads over to the local diner & meets newspaper reporter Sarah Austin (Hudson Leick) who is writing a story about Hope's sinister past & it's evil founding Preacher Jonas Hathaway (Nick Chinlund) who used to crucify sinners & leave them in the corn fields so their anguished screams would scare away the Crow's who ate the corn before Jonas himself was crucified & burnt by neighbouring townspeople. Liz decides to join Sarah & they drive out to Jonas's house where legend has it his evil spirit still lurks, as Jonas himself prophesied he comes back from the dead to reclaim a new body for himself & he needs Liz to provide a baby for him to possess...
Written & directed by David Benullo this originally premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel before going direct to video & isn't that bad a film I suppose but at the same time it's far from great, a mix of Children of the Corn (1984) & Rosemary's Baby (1968) if you can even begin to imagine such a thing Hallowed Ground passed 80 odd minutes harmlessly enough & it had one or two good ideas if nothing else. I did like the idea of crucifying someone & stringing them up in the middle of a cornfield like a human Scarecrow to let their screams of pain scare all the Crow's away but apart from the opening flashback it's an underused idea & the climax where the soul's of the murder posses the Crow's to dish out some justice is a nice idea too but again underused & a bit random & how did Liz know the Crow's were possessed anyway? At only one hour & twenty minutes long it has a good pace & never lets up but things start a bit quickly without much build-up, there's never any given reason why Liz is the chosen one or how Hathaway can possess a baby without it dying but not an adult or how the town of Hope was planning to get away with it especially after murdering the entire neighbouring town including the police force or even why the townspeople of Hope believed Hathaway's ancient prophecies. Character's are alright, the plot is alright & it moves along at a fair pace so I guess you could do worse but you could do better too.
For those who like to spot film mistakes there's a biggie at the end, when Liz & Sabrina are in that old dude's jeep listening to the radio look at the window next to them & you can clearly see the reflection of the camera filming them from the opposite side. There's a bit of gore, a few nails hammed through peoples hands, a pitchfork shoved through someones body & through someones throat. The first half of Hallowed Ground feels like a Halloween (1978) style slasher in which a Scarecrow novelty killer is running around bumping people off but thankfully the film abandons the killer Scarecrow idea & becomes a demonic possession flick. The Scarecrow looks alright if a little silly, although competent Hallowed Ground isn't that scary or atmospheric but it is well shot.
With a supposed budget of about $1,500,000 the production values are fine & it's quite a nice looking film although some of the CGI computer effects are poor as they are in most low budget films so Hallowed Ground isn't unique on that point. The acting is OK, Hudson Leick is quite good & brings some life to her character but she is killed off early on.
Hallowed Ground is a middle of the road direct to video low budget horror film that isn't terrible but at the same time just isn't that good either. If you actually think about it the script falls apart but at least it's short & provides a few decent scenes & a one or two nice ideas.
Written & directed by David Benullo this originally premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel before going direct to video & isn't that bad a film I suppose but at the same time it's far from great, a mix of Children of the Corn (1984) & Rosemary's Baby (1968) if you can even begin to imagine such a thing Hallowed Ground passed 80 odd minutes harmlessly enough & it had one or two good ideas if nothing else. I did like the idea of crucifying someone & stringing them up in the middle of a cornfield like a human Scarecrow to let their screams of pain scare all the Crow's away but apart from the opening flashback it's an underused idea & the climax where the soul's of the murder posses the Crow's to dish out some justice is a nice idea too but again underused & a bit random & how did Liz know the Crow's were possessed anyway? At only one hour & twenty minutes long it has a good pace & never lets up but things start a bit quickly without much build-up, there's never any given reason why Liz is the chosen one or how Hathaway can possess a baby without it dying but not an adult or how the town of Hope was planning to get away with it especially after murdering the entire neighbouring town including the police force or even why the townspeople of Hope believed Hathaway's ancient prophecies. Character's are alright, the plot is alright & it moves along at a fair pace so I guess you could do worse but you could do better too.
For those who like to spot film mistakes there's a biggie at the end, when Liz & Sabrina are in that old dude's jeep listening to the radio look at the window next to them & you can clearly see the reflection of the camera filming them from the opposite side. There's a bit of gore, a few nails hammed through peoples hands, a pitchfork shoved through someones body & through someones throat. The first half of Hallowed Ground feels like a Halloween (1978) style slasher in which a Scarecrow novelty killer is running around bumping people off but thankfully the film abandons the killer Scarecrow idea & becomes a demonic possession flick. The Scarecrow looks alright if a little silly, although competent Hallowed Ground isn't that scary or atmospheric but it is well shot.
With a supposed budget of about $1,500,000 the production values are fine & it's quite a nice looking film although some of the CGI computer effects are poor as they are in most low budget films so Hallowed Ground isn't unique on that point. The acting is OK, Hudson Leick is quite good & brings some life to her character but she is killed off early on.
Hallowed Ground is a middle of the road direct to video low budget horror film that isn't terrible but at the same time just isn't that good either. If you actually think about it the script falls apart but at least it's short & provides a few decent scenes & a one or two nice ideas.