The Sideling Hill (2017)-A Gore Drenched Psychological Mind F***- Fitz of Horror Review

Bryan Fitzgerald (Fitz of Horror) March 9, 2019

Synopsis- Friends Harry and Allie take friend Adam to an abandoned turnpike tunnel that locals say is haunted. Once inside the tunnel, Adam realizes that the local legends are true which have murderous consequences.

Nathan Hine aka Harry Collins, founder of the Hardgore Core group on Facebook and champion of all things gore related makes his feature-length film writing/directing/acting debut with The Sideling Hill, a gore-fest that also brings a deeper story to the table.

Hine stars as Adam a hard-partying dude with some serious PTSD, marital problems and drug and alcohol issues. When friends Harry and Allie come to get him out of the house for a much-needed break from reality, our journey to the Sideling Hill tunnel begins. Harry’s GPS continues to get them lost along the way resulting in an interesting interaction with some fucked up locals. When the crew finally arrives at the site they have to hike another 10 miles to get to the tunnels but when they finally arrive that is when shit begins to get going. 

It was said that the Sideling Hill tunnel was built on sacred Indian land and will forever be cursed. They quickly realize that the myths and legends of this tunnel are true. After getting lost and being seemingly stuck between the unseen beginning and end of the tunnel, Adam begins to psychologically break and begins seeing things from his troubled past and possibly his potentially doomed future. This results in some gruesome and intense scenes within the claustrophobic setting of the dark and ominous tunnel.

The Sideling Hill as a whole was an intriguing and well thought out film with several moments of greatness and one hell of a potential splatter reel for YouTube. My only complaint is the 2 hour run time. Granted, Hine had an elaborate story to tell and took the time and effort to convey it to the viewer but I feel that this movie could have been just as if not more effective with a 60-80 minute run time. The acting and sound were a little uneven but the film did take nearly 3 years to complete so that is understandable but the score of the film was great and gave legitimacy to the sense of pain that was trying to be attributed to Adam as a broken war veteran.

This film will probably only be very well received by us in the “Gore Community” but hopefully more horror fans give it a chance because it is clear that Hine put his all into this story and the film. I fully forgive any lag in the long run time of the film because of the amazingly inspired, well executed and ultra-violent last 30 minutes of the movie was well worth the price of admission.