Review of The Hollow

Excepting the glaring fact that the gallopingly grisly head-chopping nemesis of the sadly neglected noughties horror film 'The Hollow' would, perhaps, better suit the more cumbrous moniker of 'oversized Pumpkin-headed rider', Kyle Newman's frequently fun, teen-creamingly pulpy, B-monster update of the spooky Washington Irving classic is not without its own macabre merit. While bloodily anchored to a standard slasher plot, with its preternaturally perky, bodaciously buxom, uber-Karen cheerleader (Kaley Cuoco), lunk-headed jock, played with effortless verisimilitude by Nick Carter, and a truly epic doom-auguring graveyard caretaker in the crusty guise of bonkers booze-hound Klaus Von Ripper (Stacy Keach), and the earnest, floppy-haired, flouncily-inclined, fleet-footed fencing hero Ian Cranston (Kevin Zegers) who unsettlingly discovers that he is the descendent of the legendary Ichabod Crane, and on one fateful Halloween night, pretty boy Cranston must bravely bring the uncommonly ghoulish, cranium-collecting creep to his Scooby Doom! With a surprisingly eclectic cast, including a weirdly authoritarian turn from 80s icon Judge Reinhold, a deliciously bizarre cameo by the delightful Eileen 'Private Benjamin' Brennan, striking creature design by the iconic FX guru Gabe Bartalos, its playful pantomime spookiness and likeable cast, 'The Hollow' is arguably far less of an empty experience than you might think. Granted, some horror fans might balk at the The Hollow's lack of outrageous gore, I still righteously dug on its creepy-creaky throwback monster movie vibes, and, quite frankly, I pretty much lost my own head every time Kaley Cuoco showed up!