If you’ve ever looked at a rotting log and thought, “You know what would make a great movie? This.” — congratulations, you may have inspired The Hallow. Directed by Corin Hardy, this 2015 supernatural horror film is a gloomy, spore-infested Irish fairy tale about the dangers of ignoring local folklore, basic lighting, and basic logic.
It’s one of those movies that desperately wants to be both The Descent and Pan’s Labyrinth, but ends up as National Geographic: When Fungi Attack. You’ll spend 90 minutes wondering who the real villain is: the monsters, the mycelium, or the screenplay.
The Setup: Urban Hippies vs. Angry Mushrooms
Our protagonists are Adam (Joseph Mawle), a British conservationist, and Claire (Bojana Novakovic), his perpetually worried wife. Along with their baby Finn, they move into a remote Irish cottage surrounded by a haunted forest — because apparently, no one in horror movies has ever heard of AirBnB reviews.
Adam’s job is to study trees and fungi, which he does by touching things that are visibly oozing evil. He finds a dead animal stuffed with what looks like the world’s worst pesto, shrugs, and takes a sample home. Somewhere, every biologist in the audience facepalms in unison.
The locals, including a perpetually unshaven man named Colm (Michael McElhatton), immediately warn the couple that the woods are cursed and full of “The Hallow” — fairies, changelings, and other folklore creatures that make the Irish countryside less “quaint” and more “potential murder zone.” Naturally, Adam ignores them, because science and hubris go together like Guinness and bad decisions.
The Horror: Attack of the Spore People
The film spends its first half building atmosphere, which is code for “nothing happens except fog.” Then, the spooky activity begins: windows break, lights flicker, and the baby monitor starts doing its best impression of Satan’s podcast.
Eventually, the creatures appear — slimy, fungal fairies that look like what would happen if The Lord of the Rings’ orcs and a moldy baguette had a child. They crawl, hiss, and occasionally poke people in the eye with parasitic stingers that turn humans into walking mushroom gardens. It’s like The Last of Us, but without the emotional depth or budget.
One of the film’s key scares involves Adam getting stabbed in the eyeball. It’s gruesome, yes, but it also perfectly symbolizes the viewer’s experience — by this point, you too will feel like you’ve been visually assaulted.
The creatures don’t just infect; they also dabble in baby swapping. Because why simply murder people when you can add a changeling subplot? Soon, Mia’s baby gets abducted and replaced with a fungal replica, leading to the most disturbing game of “Which One’s the Real Baby?” ever played.
The Characters: Spore Brains in Human Form
Adam is the kind of protagonist you root against by the 30-minute mark. His entire character arc can be summarized as:
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Ignore everyone’s advice.
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Poke cursed fungus.
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Whine about consequences.
Claire fares slightly better — mainly because she’s the only person with a survival instinct — but even she makes choices that defy common sense. If your baby’s been replaced by a glowing spore child and your husband’s mutating into a truffle, maybe don’t go deeper into the haunted woods.
Then there’s Colm, the obligatory “local who knows what’s up.” He spends most of the film lurking in doorways, muttering ominous things like “They’ll take what’s theirs” while doing nothing helpful. By the time he finally points a shotgun at our heroes, you’re almost cheering for him to pull the trigger — not because you hate them, but because you’d like something to happen.
The Tone: Fairy Tale by Way of Fungal Infection
The film wants to be a dark fable about nature’s wrath and human arrogance, but it mostly ends up as an anti-deforestation PSA written by someone high on mushrooms — metaphorically and possibly literally.
Corin Hardy fills every frame with damp leaves, decaying trees, and a color palette so gray it makes The Road look like La La Land. There’s atmosphere, yes, but atmosphere alone doesn’t make up for pacing so slow you could grow actual mold in real time.
Even the supposed “mythological horror” angle falls flat. These aren’t mischievous fairies or haunting banshees; they’re just slimy, semi-intelligent compost heaps. It’s hard to feel fear when your antagonist could be defeated by a bottle of bleach.
The Science: Sponsored by “Don’t Try This at Home”
The Hallow tries to blend folklore with pseudo-science, and the result is unintentionally hilarious. Adam keeps using scientific jargon like “spore propagation” and “fungal symbiosis,” which sounds impressive until you remember he’s studying cursed goo from a dead deer.
There’s a moment where his car breaks down because the fungus grew inside the engine. That’s not horror — that’s a weird ad for why you should always get your vehicle serviced. Later, when he starts mutating, it’s unclear whether he’s turning into a monster or just developing the world’s worst case of athlete’s foot.
By the end, when the changeling plot collides with the infection subplot, the science and folklore have merged into one glorious nonsense stew. The takeaway seems to be: “If you find a weird mushroom, don’t lick it.”
The Ending: Fungal Family Values
The climax involves baby swapping, forest fires, camera flashes used as weapons, and emotional yelling. Adam, now halfway to becoming a fungal Picasso, sacrifices himself to save his wife and their real child, proving that love can conquer even rampant bio-contamination.
Claire escapes with baby Finn, crying heroically while surrounded by smoldering mushrooms. Then, just when you think it’s over, the film ends with a logging company chopping down the forest, spreading the infection to the wider world. Because nothing says “environmental message” like sequel bait no one asked for.
It’s supposed to be tragic and thought-provoking. Instead, it’s like the film is wagging its finger at you and saying, “See? This is what happens when you don’t recycle.”
The Performances: Good Actors, Bad Luck
To their credit, the cast tries. Joseph Mawle (who later redeemed himself in Game of Thrones) gives a committed, sweaty performance as a man slowly losing his humanity — or possibly just his patience. Bojana Novakovic spends the film running, crying, and screaming, which is impressive considering how underwritten her character is.
Michael Smiley shows up as a cop long enough to remind you he’s Irish and underpaid, while Michael McElhatton’s Colm gives off big “I should’ve stayed home and had a pint” energy.
They all deserve medals for keeping straight faces while discussing evil fairies and weaponized mold.
Final Thoughts: Mushroom Cloud of Mediocrity
The Hallow had all the ingredients for a solid folk horror gem — an eerie Irish setting, talented actors, and a mythological premise ripe for exploration. Unfortunately, it squandered them on repetitive jump scares, slow pacing, and a fungus fixation that would make even a microbiologist roll their eyes.
It’s not scary enough to be horror, not clever enough to be folklore, and not weird enough to be cult. It’s just… moist.
If you’re looking for a movie about the horrors of nature, watch The Witch or The Ritual. If you want to watch something that’ll make you afraid of mushrooms, just eat the wrong ones.
Final Score: 3/10
An eco-horror that tries to be deep but ends up shallow — like a puddle of swamp water filled with spores. “The Hallow” proves that sometimes, the scariest thing in the forest is a script with fungus growing on it.
