“The slasher element in the third act was particularly brutal with some surprising practical effects and gore... mix that with characters that slowly grew on me, and there’s a great balance between horror, comedy, and a message that isn’t lost on me.”
Sensual, campy, and unapologetically brutal, Hollow Lake is a queer slasher horror film released in 2026. Written and directed by Troy Escamilla (co-written by Zach Shildwachter), the film stars Anthony Dain as Baker and Santiago Sky as Max, alongside Elias Alexandro, Roger Conners, and Brandon Perras-Sanchez. So basically, this stressed-out couple heads out to a remote lake house to fix their rocky marriage by trying a wild hookup idea, but then an uninvited psycho shows up and turns their weekend trip into an insanely gory, blood-soaked slasher nightmare where everyone has to pull off some crazy, desperate stuff just to make it out alive.
So, this marks the first film in my official coverage of the GenreBlast Film Festival 2026. I’m always excited for GenreBlast, as it’s easily one of my absolute favorite festivals in existence for showcasing up-and-coming talent in independent filmmaking. Though, like everything else in the world, it’s like a box of chocolates... you never know what you’ll get. There will undoubtedly be some winners and some losers in the mix. Where does Hollow Lake land? If I had to wager a bet, I’d place it mid-range in the whole list of available titles, but still within the winners category.
Audiences should know this is an extremely steamy, sensual, sexy horror thriller in the LGBTQ market. Homophobic people are most certainly not welcome here and should avoid the movie at all costs. Then again, if you’re homophobic in 2026, you need some therapy. I think there was one straight character in the entire movie, and no women. The rest of the characters are raging homosexuals, so prepare to see a lot of kissing, canoodling, gyrating, and other sexy things in the movie for the first hour or so. If you’re lucky, you might be able to see a butthole or two if you’re into that kind of thing (wink).
It should also be driven home that GenreBlast is a festival that features a lot of indie, low-budget flicks out there. So, if you’re turned off by lower production or sound quality, there are undoubtedly elements of the movie that you’ll deem problematic. I’ll get into that in a second.
However, I think it is much more important to mention that once the film gets into the meat and potatoes of its story, I really enjoyed what was going on here. The slasher element of the film in the third act was particularly brutal with some surprising use of practical effects and gore. Mix that between these characters that slowly grew on me throughout the movie, and their range of character dynamics helped me care deeply about who died when. There’s a great balance between horror and comedy, and the message at the heart of the film about how the decisions we make have profound consequences is not lost on me. The killer of our story seems to be a clear metaphor for temptation, guilt, and consequence all rolled into one. In real life, we may never be hunted down by a slasher with a lust for blood and violence, but we will make decisions in life that affect us and everyone around us in significant ways... sometimes permanently, and often not in a way we would be proud to admit. There are bits and pieces of this script that I think are subtly brilliant.
However, it’s not without its set of flaws, either. Narratively, the killer of the film... whether he was meant as a metaphor or an idea... is a moot point when he doesn’t have the strongest foundation. At the end of the day, he wants to kill because these guys pulled him into a threesome and then said, “Kay, thanks, bye,” sending him on his way. From that moment on, he’s like... I guess I will just kill them all in the most brutal of ways. I do believe he was meant as more of an allegory than anything, but narratively, he was a bit one-sided and hard to take seriously.
That being said, my favorite character and performance in the entire movie was undoubtedly our killer, Cody. While granted, I would have liked to see him a bit more fleshed out and complex, Elias Alexandro did a particularly impressive job acting creepy in his role. In more ways than one, he reminded me of the guy who played Hannibal in the forgotten prequel film, Hannibal Rising. Which... not a great film, but the performance of that Hannibal was definitely equally creepy, and both get under your skin a little bit. Sometimes, I will say Elias lays it on a little thick, but I do think it works, as every character in the film also lays it on really thick.
Between our group of heroes in the story, my favorite was undoubtedly Justin, played by Roger Conners. While he was technically one of the smaller roles, his performance was the most flamboyant, fun, and full of life. Even though among the four of them there wasn’t any specific grounding character, his was easily the closest that fit that mold, as he certainly voiced reason and dignity to each and every single character throughout the film. The rest of the characters all have these significant flaws that they’re allowing to dictate their every action.
I also said that there are elements of the film on a technical level that some people are going to deem problematic. This is true. Apart from in general being lower budget, which is going to throw a lot of people off automatically, the version I watched has some issues in the sound department. I did watch a review screener, and sometimes those don’t reflect the final published version, so take this with a grain of salt... but there were significant differences in audio levels between takes, and sometimes in the middle of a conversation, as if they’re switching microphones and choosing the best take. There are these random pops and ruffling sound effects that I heard that were unnatural... kind of like a microphone rubbing against fabric. Some lines of dialogue seem to cut in or out when the camera cuts, which seems to be an error in audio transitions at the bare minimum... and listening to this in a pair of headphones makes everything all that much clearer for me. Once again, this might not be true for everyone. It might be an unfinished version that I watched. I may never know. But as a critic, I felt it important to mention what I experienced, in case I’m not the only one.
At the end of the day, I found the movie to be a great start for the festival. There are a couple of other movies scheduled to air on the first day of the festival as well. I will not be watching them, as they are sequels and I’m unfamiliar with the series up to this point for them. But I will be back tomorrow with a few movies to talk about for this year’s GenreBlast. So stick around for those reviews. Make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss my coverage.
Technical/Unbiased Score: 33/50 (66%)
Biased/Entertainment Score: 31/50 (62%)
Total Combined Score: 64/100 (64%) — 3/5 on Letterboxd