News

[REVIEW] ‘Haunt’ Is All Bloody, Well & Good

Published

5 years ago

September 13, 2019

A group of college kids find themselves stalked inside an extreme haunted house attraction in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ (A Quiet Place) violent new feature film Haunt (2019). Things go slice in the night as the group is pursued by a gang of bloodthirsty psychos who seem preoccupied with altering their faces and the body parts of hapless guests.

It also happens to be Halloween night and our beautiful heroine Harper (Katie Stevens) has just reluctantly ended it with her abusive boyfriend only to immediately rebound with the even hunkier Nathan (Will Brittain) at a party. Although nothing happens between them, they orchestrate a perfect meet-cute and decide to gather up four other friends to celebrate the holiday at a haunt attraction.

En route, Harper feels they are being followed and demands they pull over on a desolate Chicago dirt road when out of nowhere a trailer marquee lights up near the car reading “Haunted House” with the “Haunt” part glowing brighter than the rest.

Intrigued, the group throw caution to the wind and follow the road leading to the attraction where they willingly give up their cellphones to a creepy clown attendant before signing a waiver and venturing inside. What they endure is a bloody Grand Guignol production where the actors attack the audience with an assortment of weapons and booby traps.

It all gets pretty bloody as each of them starts realizing the kills aren’t performances and try to escape.

Haunt is a slasher plain and simple. There is a backstory about Harper’s abusive father and her ongoing bout with PTSD. But in the end, various sharp implements and traps are used in the funhouse to dispose of the visitors in various ways; usually through extreme trauma to the head.

Carotid arteries don’t pump this much blood.

Beck and Woods know how to gather an ensemble and flesh them out to be more than just psycho fodder and in this film they again work with an excellent cast who elevate themselves above shopworn tropes.

Katie Stevens is better known for her television roles, but broadens her emotional range here as an abused young woman taking risks to break the cycle only to be thrust into a more extreme version. Stevens gives her character a victim’s heart but doesn’t let her hide behind it. She knows the character is at the verge of an epiphany which she allows her to claim even through the horrors of the night.

Mention should also go to a wonderful performance by Andrew Caldwell who plays Evan, the comic relief of the group. Caldwell has some strong scenes and even though he plays the class clown he doesn’t reduce Evan to a sight gag. It’s a great performance that might get lost in the buckets of blood.

The villains are also remarkable, each dressed in stylized versions of classic Halloween characters, from a witch to a clown to a ghost. They are scary enough in disguise, but more grotesque once their freakish faces are unmasked.

Haunt is the perfect Halloween movie. It’s got blood, realistic kills, and nicely edited suspense. We get a final girl and even a pre-credits stinger which I’m still not sure works.

Where it fails is in its mechanics of percieved free will. I felt that some of the setups required the characters to be in the right spot at the right time which makes it feel as though the killers could foresee the choices long before the victims made them naturally. The “serendipitous” placement of the marquee for instance.

It’s those things that pull you out of the film, like seeing the strings in a carnival dark ride but getting a kick out of it anyway.

Haunt is a slaughterhouse stocked with great gore effects tempered with above-par acting and genuinely creepy monsters. Its heart remains visible through the many other brutalized organs.

“Haunt” is in Theaters, On Demand/Digital: September 13, 2019.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Editorial

Yay or Nay: What’s Good and Bad in Horror This Week

Published

4 hours ago

May 4, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Welcome to Yay or Nay a weekly mini post about what I think is good and bad news in the horror community written in bite-sized chunks.

Yay:

Mike Flanagan talking about directing the next chapter in the Exorcist trilogy. That might mean he saw the last one and realized there were two left and if he does anything well it’s draw out a story.

Yay:

To the announcement of a new IP-based film Mickey Vs Winnie. It’s fun to read comical hot takes from people who haven’t even seen the movie yet.

Nay:

The new Faces of Death reboot gets an R rating. It’s not really fair — Gen-Z should get an unrated version like past generations so they can question their mortality the same as the rest of us did.

Yay:

Russell Crowe is doing another possession movie. He’s quickly becoming another Nic Cage by saying yes to every script, bringing the magic back to B-movies, and more money into VOD.

Nay:

Putting The Crow back in theaters for its 30th anniversary. Re-releasing classic movies at the cinema to celebrate a milestone is perfectly fine, but doing so when the lead actor in that film was killed on set due to neglect is a cash grab of the worst kind.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Lists

The Top-Searched Free Horror/Action Movies on Tubi This Week

Published

20 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The free streaming service Tubi is a great place to scroll when you’re unsure what to watch. They are not sponsored or affiliated with iHorror. Still, we really appreciate their library because it’s so robust and has many obscure horror movies so rare you can’t find them anywhere in the wild except, if you’re lucky, in a moist cardboard box at a yard sale. Other than Tubi, where else are you going to find Nightwish (1990), Spookies (1986), or The Power (1984)?

We take a look at the most searched horror titles on the platform this week, hopefully, to save you some time in your endeavor to find something free to watch on Tubi.

Interestingly at the top of the list is one of the most polarizing sequels ever made, the female-led Ghostbusters reboot from 2016. Perhaps viewers have seen the latest sequel Frozen Empire and are curious about this franchise anomaly. They will be happy to know it’s not as bad as some think and is genuinely funny in spots.

So take a look at the list below and tell us if you are interested in any of them this weekend.

1. Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters (2016)

An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.

2. Rampage

When a group of animals becomes vicious after a genetic experiment goes awry, a primatologist must find an antidote to avert a global catastrophe.

3. The Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren uncover an occult conspiracy as they help a defendant argue that a demon forced him to commit murder.

4. Terrifier 2

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County, where his next victims, a teenage girl and her brother, await.

5. Don’t Breathe

A group of teens breaks into a blind man’s home, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime but get more than they bargained for once inside.

6. The Conjuring 2

In one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, Lorraine and Ed Warren help a single mother of four in a house plagued by sinister spirits.

7. Child’s Play (1988)

A dying serial killer uses voodoo to transfer his soul into a Chucky doll which winds up in the hands of a boy who may be the doll’s next victim.

8. Jeepers Creepers 2

When their bus breaks down on a deserted road, a team of high school athletes discovers an opponent they cannot defeat and may not survive.

9. Jeepers Creepers

After making a horrific discovery in the basement of an old church, a pair of siblings find themselves the chosen prey of an indestructible force.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

News

Morticia & Wednesday Addams Join Monster High Skullector Series

Published

24 hours ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Believe it or not, Mattel’s Monster High doll brand has an immense following with both young and not-so-young collectors.

In that same vein, the fan base for The Addams Family is also very large. Now, the two are collaborating to create a line of collectible dolls that celebrate both worlds and what they have created is a combination of fashion dolls and goth fantasy. Forget Barbie, these ladies know who they are.

The dolls are based on Morticia and Wednesday Addams from the 2019 Addams Family animated movie.

As with any niche collectibles these aren’t cheap they bring with them a $90 price tag, but it’s an investment as a lot of these toys become more valuable over time.

“There goes the neighborhood. Meet the Addams Family’s ghoulishly glamorous mother-daughter duo with a Monster High twist. Inspired by the animated movie and clad in spiderweb lace and skull prints, the Morticia and Wednesday Addams Skullector doll two-pack makes for a gift that’s so macabre, it’s downright pathological.”

If you want to pre-purchase this set check out The Monster High website.