Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Survive the Hollow Shoals’

Written by Scott Edwards

With all of the silly challenges being aired over the internet and TikTok (see: Tide Pod Challenge), there are some good ones out there as well. Like the challenge of not having a cell phone for a week and actually needing to talk to people face to face. Other challenges can take you far away from your comfort zone, like going out into the wilderness and trying to survive for certain amount of time. This is actually a pretty good idea when you think about it, because if (or when) the system fails, you now know of a way to survive, just you and nature for any stint of time. I leave it up to you to figure out what challenges you will take up, but please do not put a Tide Pod in your mouth or any other orifice.
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Wanting to prove that he can survive in the wild with nothing more than a few things to help him on his way, Zach Weiland gets dropped off near the Hollows Shoals of the Georgia wilderness. With camera in hand, he is happy to document his adventure and after walking for a couple hours into the woods, he is able to find a good spot to set up camp. Building a shelter that will always be improved on and having a water source nearby, he is ready to stay for the duration of a sixty-day challenge and show everyone how easy it is, but he is not the only one in the woods as he quickly finds out.

Being woken up in the middle of the night to footsteps outside of his shelter, along with strange screaming in the distance, Zach wants to know what is causing the sounds. Not being able to find anything around his camp site, Zach goes along with his daily duties of surviving and makes some improvements to his shelter and finds a frog to snack on. Knowing that he has everything that he could possibly need in the world, he is still being pestered by the same eerie sounds at night. Setting up a camera outside the shelter to see if he can catch what is stalking him, it comes up blank, but it is possible he does not want to see what images the camera has captured. 

As the days move on, Zach widens his search around the woods to try and find out who is messing with him. Coming across what seems to be an abandoned campsite, Zach finds a journal that holds some very strange truths inside. Not wanting to read it before he goes to sleep, he continues to be tormented at night by an unseen being and is getting tired of it. Trying to find out who or what it could be, he leaves the safety of his shelter and moves into the darkness, only to find out that whatever it is that is stalking him has the ability to knock over trees. With a lack of food taking its toll on him, along with the strange events happening at night getting worse, Zach decides it is time to pack up and make his way back to the highway, but not marking his path into the woods upon his arrival, he gets turned around and the real torment in the Hollow Shoals comes into full effect.

I had to put this movie on the side burner for a couple days, as I just reviewed another one in this vein not too long ago and I am sorry that I did. Seeing that this was actually a web series, it really did its job well in telling the story, along with showing the mental breakdown that Zach was going through. I liked how shots were taken at other reality shows that can show you how to survive in the wilderness with no one else and the importance of being able to talk to another human being once in a while. With strange sounds in the night, an unseen threat, stories about the Hollow Shoals, a big beard and a creepy black-haired woman in the woods, this movie will make you think twice about trying to beat nature on your own, especially when you find out that the things that go bump in the night are real. Stay Scared.

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