The Official Movie Poster

Brian Keene’s fantasy/horror novel, and the first in the Levi Stoltzfus series, Dark Hollow, is coming to the big screen, as you may have already heard (the author has been talking about this one for a long time.) I can’t remember if I’ve shouted its praise here or on PBH back in the day, but some of you well know that this is my favorite piece by Keene. It’s wrought with an overbearing sense of despair, helplessness, angst, darkness, and absolute sadness as we watch the main character face some of the most brutal life experiences, all offered up by a villain I, for one, wasn’t expecting.

When I first read this novel, I literally took to the interwebz with “A SATYR? THAT’S BALLS, MR. KEENE!!”, and I really haven’t changed my stance, yet. The author’s choice to create a character so aluring, yet so vile, out of a mythological creature, was a great move just when the horror genre was looking like it needed a kick in the pants.

Shane Ranji

And now, with the help of Paul Campion, director of The Devil’s Rock, Keene’s vision is coming to the big (and little) screen in the not too distant future. Shane Rangi (Spartacus, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia) is attached to play Hylinus, with Weta Workshop attached for special makeup effects.

If you don’t know who Weta Workshops is, you’ve obviously been living under a goddamned rock, or haven’t watched the credits to ayn blockbuster movies in a long time. You’ve already experienced their Academy Award winning Visual Effects in Avatar, King Kong, I Robot, and all of the damned Lord of the Rings movies; but I’m most excited for the fact that they handled all of  the Special Makeup and Visual Effects for Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste, and created the puppets in Jackson’s Meet the Feebles. Seriously? HOW MUCH BETTER CAN THIS GET??? I’ve got to take a moment and relish the fact that

Keene is running, yet again, to film fans everywhere, but this time with a couple of howitzers under each arm, screaming war cries aplenty. This is going to be a bloodbath people. I expect awards here. I DEMAND awards, ’cause this is going to be a killer piece of horror film history, if the story stays true to the book.

We don’t condone calling women “bitches”, but seriously… it’s Viggo Mortensen…

Have a look at the official teaser trailer over at Keene’s website (because I’m having a helluva time embedding the damned thing here), and for the love of all that is fuzzy, go and get yourself aquainted with the original novel. I guarantee that it’s worth it. If I’m wrong, and you don’t dig it… blame someone else.

C.