Have you noticed anything different about Olivia since she's been back?
The Hollow Child is a 2017 horror film about a foster teen named Samantha after her little sister goes missing in the woods and turns up seemingly unharmed in the middle of the night a few days later. However, Sam notices that there's something different about Olivia, but no one will believe her.
The Hollow Child contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Many of the adults fall under this with the exception of Alison, the town 'crazy' lady who is the only one to believe Sam because 30 years ago, her sister was taken too.
- Affectionate Nickname: Samantha's usually called Sam by her friend Emily (who it turns out is also attracted to her).
- Alien Blood: The Hollow Ones it turns out have black blood, as one more sign they aren't really human.
- Big Sister Instinct: Samantha sees her younger foster sister Olivia as more annoying than anything else initially. Once she disappears in the woods then returns in a form Sam recognizes as not really her, she sets out to get her back. No adults will believe and aid Sam, so it's left to her. Sam greatly risks her own life doing this, but saves Olivia in the end, with the film closing on her saying she'll always be there to protect her. Sam had lost her own biological sister earlier, with obvious guilt over not being able to help, so this serves as a way that she makes up for it.
- Bisexual Love Triangle: Emily, Sam's best friend, it turns out is attracted to her. She kisses Sam, who is surprised by this and seems unsure what to think. Later too Logan, a boy who becomes her friend, kisses Sam as well and she reacts the same way as with Emily. Sam doesn't choose either of them since she's busy pursuing the Hollow Ones (it isn't clear if she finds either attractive too) and both are murdered.
- Bury Your Gays: Emily, who came on to her best friend Samantha, gets brutally killed later. She is the only explicit LGBT+ character in the film.
- The Cassandra: Sam tries to get her foster parents and friends to believe her when she says that there's something wrong with Olivia, but they won't listen.
- Creepy Child: The whole plot of the movie revolves around this trope. Olivia is a nice, normal little girl until she returns from the forest after being lost. Then she begins antagonizing people, killing dogs, and ripping the eyes out of her stuffed animals.
- Demonic Possession: The Hollow Ones are revealed to be malicious spirits which lure young children out in the forest where they possess them, then cause harm to their families out of hatred for humans.
- Don't Go Into the Woods: Sam and Emily let Olivia walk home alone through the woods, and then she disappears.
- Foreshadowing: Olivia's stuffed animals have all had their eyes ripped out. During the later half of the movie, Sam's best friend Emily is brutally murdered by the 'fake' Olivia and her eyes have been torn out.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Subverted. The movie seems to enjoy rubbing the two gory scenes there are in the faces of the viewers. First, Logan is attacked by Olivia in the woods and there is often a close up of his bone sticking out of his leg, and another is Emily's bloody corpse with a close-up of her eye being crushed in Olivia's fingers.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Allison holds back the Hollow One possessing Olivia temporarily so Sam can escape, being killed offscreen in doing so.
- Humanoid Abomination: The 'Hollow Ones' are creatures or spirits that lure young children into the woods and then 'inhabit' them and return to wreak havoc on their poor families because they hate people for destroying their home.
- Lights Off, Somebody Dies: When Emily gets up and goes to the kitchen, the scene turns back to her room, where all the lights in Emily's house suddenly go off. Sam goes into the kitchen to find that Emily has been brutally murdered by the creature.
- Nature Is Not Nice: The woods are a creepy place where children disappear then imposters return in their place, who are really malicious nature spirits called Hollow Ones seeking to harm humans for having diminished their wilderness.
- Nature Spirit: The Hollow Ones live in the woods, with a grudge against humanity for depleting it. In their natural form they have barklike skin and wear leaf masks. Their victims are also held captive inside trees.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Samantha is called Sam most of the time.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Emily kisses Sam, her best friend, in a bonding moment. Sam is taken aback by this and leaves. This doesn't get explored further before Emily is killed.
- Self-Harm: Sam does this whenever she's distressed. We see that her arms are crisscrossed with old scars or newer wounds, and she cuts herself on screen too.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Emily's death is incredibly gory for something that happened so quickly and quietly. She is in the kitchen and becomes startled, then there's a crashing noise and the next thing you know, she's dead and just had her eyeballs ripped out.
