Hollow Trees (2026): Release Date, the Skinwalker, and Where to Watch Cathal Fitzpatrick's Debut

Hollow Trees has no general release date, because it has no distributor. As of August 12, 2026 the film has had one public screening: its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on Saturday, July 11, 2026, at 22:00 in Pálás Screen 3.

Fitzpatrick has distribution offers and has not accepted one. He told the Newry Reporter that "already, from the Galway Film Fleadh, a few people have reached out to me about distribution," and that he has not made up his mind "because I want to wait until I get it over to America."

His stated reason is his audience: "from the short film, the majority of my audience comes from America." He named the Newport Beach Film Festival in California, the Big Apple Film Festival in New York, and festivals in Vancouver and Toronto as targets for an American premiere.

As of August 12, 2026 it is not on Netflix, Shudder, Prime Video or any other service, and it is not available to rent or buy. Any site claiming to stream it is not a legitimate source. We will update this page and the film page when a release date exists.

A war has killed about half the world's population. Years later, Kent (Tom Kerrisk), a survivor, lives with a young boy, Danny (Louis Kirwan). On a scavenging run, Kent encounters a creature that can imitate humans. The two are forced from their home and travel north in search of refuge, and the journey strains the bond between them.

Rosey Hayes plays Amelia. Colin Malone plays both Father Malachai and the creature. The tagline is "The last thing you hear… Is yourself."

A skinwalker is a figure from Navajo tradition, yee naaldlooshii, usually translated as "by means of it, it goes on all fours": a harmful witch said to be able to take the form of an animal or a person. Within Navajo culture it is a serious subject that many people consider inappropriate to discuss with outsiders. The version that circulates online is detached from that context.

Fitzpatrick has said his version is the online one. "The whole skinwalker idea was sort of just from internet popularity," he told the Newry Reporter. "I loved the lore of it myself and was always a fan of creepypastas and stuff." Creepypasta is horror fiction that spreads through forums and short-form video, and skinwalkers are a recurring subject of it. That strain is the one the film draws on.

In the film's published synopsis, the creature imitates humans. That premise, a threat that can pass for a person, is the one it shares with The Thing, listed below.

The budget was £9,000, self-funded. "We only had £9k for Hollow Trees. That was our budget," Fitzpatrick told the Newry Reporter. "But to make that it was two years of tarring roads and saving money." TMDB separately lists the budget as $10,000.

It was shot in August 2025, over two weeks, with ten cast and crew in total. Every location is in or near the Mourne Mountains in County Down. The furthest the production travelled was Gilford Mill, about forty minutes from Hilltown. Fitzpatrick, on the area: "This was obviously post-apocalyptic and everything was supposed to be very isolated and abandoned. You have everything you need."

The cinematographer is Ross Power. The score is by Dennis Dryja. The production company is Ardú Films, which also produced the short film the feature grew out of.

Hollow Trees expands A Hollow Tree, a 23-minute short Fitzpatrick made as his dissertation project while studying Cinematic Arts at Ulster University. The short won the Drama category at the Royal Television Society's 2023 Northern Ireland Student Television Awards, and has around four and a half million views on YouTube.

Tom Kerrisk played Kent in the short and plays him again in the feature. Fitzpatrick has said the lead role was always going to be Kerrisk. Danny was recast: "My cousin played Danny, the young boy in the short film. He grew up, obviously, so I couldn't cast him." Around seven boys auditioned before Louis Kirwan got the part.

Kerrisk also starred as Éamon in An Taibhse (The Ghost), widely described as the first Irish-language horror feature. It was directed by John Farrelly, a Warrenpoint filmmaker Fitzpatrick collaborates with, and executive-produced by six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan. Kerrisk executive-produced that film and co-composed its music with Ally Donald.

We have not seen it, so we do not know. We score films only after watching them, and its Fear, Gore, Atmosphere, Intensity and Overall scores will be published on the film page once we have seen it.

The Galway Film Fleadh programmed it in its Horror strand and described it as a visually striking sci-fi horror debut. That description comes from the festival programme, not from a review. No MPA or IFCO rating exists, because there has been no general release. The runtime is 82 minutes in the Fleadh programme; TMDB lists 85.

The teaser runs 48 seconds and was posted on June 25, 2026 on Fitzpatrick's YouTube channel. The film has no distributor, so his channel is its official source. As of August 12, 2026 it is the only footage that has been released.

Hollow Trees premiered in a year with two major successes for horror made outside the studio system by directors who built their audiences online.

Obsession, directed by Curry Barker, was made for $750,000 and had grossed about $488 million worldwide by August 2026, per Box Office Mojo. Backrooms was directed by Kane Parsons, who built an audience with a web horror series based on the Backrooms creepypasta and was twenty at the time of the film's release. Both directors reached features through YouTube. Fitzpatrick's route was a dissertation short with around four and a half million YouTube views.

Fitzpatrick, to the Newry Reporter: "Now is the best time to be doing what myself and John and Peter are doing really. Long live independent film." Peter Young, from Crossgar, won the Bingham Ray New Talent Award at the same Fleadh for Our House. Frank Berry's The Lost Children of Tuam won Best Irish Film.