The Hollow, 2016.
Directed and Written by Miles Doleac.
Starring James Callis, Mile Doleac, Christiane Seidel, William Sadler, and William Forsythe.
SYNOPSIS:
When a Congressman’s daughter is killed in a triple homicide, Agent Vaughn Killinger (James Callis) gets assigned to Mississippi to investigate. His partner, Agent Sarah Desoto (Christiane Seidel), carries him through the case.
The series of circumstances that lead to the events of Miles Doleac’s, The Hollow, are pretty crazy to contemplate. Starting with a Congressman’s daughter being in the wrong place at the wrong time, for the FBI to be involved at all, three teenagers are senselessly killed and the adults around them are scrambling, not with grief, but over what collateral damage the FBI’s presence might dig up. It’s this fear of what could happen that leads to further bloodshed, but if anyone actually paid attention to the agents that have been sent to their small, little town, they might have less reason to fret.
The entrance of the FBI on your basic TV procedural usually comes with a few expectations. Efficiency, Professionalism. Territorial scuffles with the local police. Agent Killinger and Desoto aren’t wanted in Cutler County—that much is clear from the lack of cooperation they receive—but neither are they the FBI agents you’re used to encountering on TV and the movies. At least Killinger isn’t. Desoto keeps telling him he’s up for the job and needs to think about the “big picture” but for Killinger, big picture’s not his career. If it were he would actually be interviewing people when he says he’s going to, instead of stealing opportunities to drink from his flask (a task made more difficult by Cutler being a dry county). On the rare occasions he does question someone he loses his patience. Having almost turned down the job to spend time with his son, who he recently lost custody of, he instead takes the job and allows guilt to override his ability to function on it. Between that and professing his love for Desoto, his mind is never on the case and despite having no illusions about his complete lack of investment, he (barely) goes through the motions. Callis and the script completely commit to drawing Killinger as he is in the present, a man who isn’t bad but whose horrible decisions hurt others, and in avoiding any latent reminders of the man who might, or might not, have once been good at this job, allow viewers to see him with the clear eyes Desoto currently can’t.
If this is Killinger at his most washed out, the murders serve as local deputy, Ray Everett’s, brutal wakeup call as he’s served his own, personal ‘six degrees of Everett’ nightmare. All of his vices culminate during a graveyard shift into unintentionally setting the scene for the homicides to take place. Everett is Killinger without a partner who calls him out, and his slow downfall makes for a crackling showcase of Miles Doleac’s talents. Between struggling to get ahead of the investigation and staying on good terms with Big John Dawson, Cutler’s top cheese and concerned grandparent of one of the victim’s boyfriends (played with quiet, focused menace by William Forsythe), Everett only makes things worse by bringing more attention on himself. I hope, where Doleac is concerned, The Hollow does bring him more attention, so there can be further, smart projects like this one in his future.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Rachel Bellwoar
Originally published October 5, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
