When I heard the basic description of this one — billionaire plays a virtual reality game where he gets to be a serial killer, only he discovers that it may not be what it seems — I assumed that it would be something essentially similar to the underrated virtual reality thriller, Brainscan from back in the Nineties.
Not even close.
In fact, despite all the gory slasher scenes, Hollow Scream plays out as more of a mystery story than a horror film: Billionaire investor Peter Benjamin brings his brother, John when he goes to test the game in VGR’s secret headquarters. Despite his decision to take an elementary math teacher job he loves rather than do anything else with his talents, John is a master hacker, and he decides to find out as much as he can about the company while he’s there.
Of course, we all know that they have a sinister agenda. You knew that when you first walked into the theater (or popped the disk into the player. Or clicked on the streaming button).
Now I’ll confess that I like the mystery plot far better than the slasher attacks: they come across as fairly routine, while the question of who VGR is and what they are after is far more interesting.
Unfortunately, there’s a big problem with mystery films: one accepts the occasional logic lapse in a horror film as the whole point of the exercise is to shock and scare the audience. Consistency is nice, but not strictly necessary.
However, a mystery is all about the solution. We want to know what’s going on and why. If it doesn’t make sense, if the logic falls apart at the end, if you are left with parts of the story which seem to have no reason for being there, then no one’s going to be happy.
In this case, the gap undermines most of the story. We are left with no real explanation for the virtual reality game, for Peter Benjamin being there in the suit controlling the game, or why he wasn’t merely given a virtual role as one of the potential victims.
[Spoiler] I mean, if you’re planning to kill him, there are surely easier ways to do it.
As a result, the story falls apart badly at the end, whether you like the rather dark ending or not.
It’s a pity. It was reasonably good up until that point.
It amused me to discover that part of the film was shot at Scream Hollow Wicked Halloween Park in Smithville, Texas. There’s a certain fundamental rightness to shooting a movie about a realistic video game in a theme park. I don’t know if they offer a “being hunted by slashers” package, but it is one way to get a classic creepy slasher’s cabin for next to nothing.
But that really isn’t enough to save the film.
Oh, well. So close…
rivets on the poster 