Anyone
working at a haunted house attraction must be a sadistic sicko. That is clearly
what horror movies are telling us these days. Initially, the Houses October Built duology was the lone
voice wailing in the darkness, but it was soon joined by Blood Fest and Hell Fest.
Yet another extreme haunted house turns out to be more extreme than advertised
in Scott Beck & Bryan Woods’ Haunt,
which opens Friday in Los Angeles.
Harper
is the nice girl, who makes excuses for her abusive boyfriend and lacks
sufficient money (and fun) for a decent Halloween costume. She really ought to
be with a nice guy like Nathan, a college baseball player with a spectacularly
obnoxious buddy named Evan. Along with her bestie Bailey and two other prime
victims, they decide to visit an extreme haunt for no good reason (aside from a
Yelp review claiming all proceeds go to the Red Cross).
Of
course, things get horrifically violent awfully quickly. Frankly, it is hard to
believe a group of millennials would agree to surrender their smart phones at
the door, because what is the point of facing extreme horrors, if you can’t
take the selfies to prove it? Regardless, many of them will not live to regret
that mistake.
Let’s
not mince words. Initially, Haunt is largely
derivative and the violence is often legitimately disturbing. However, you have
to give Beck & Woods (best known for co-writing The Quiet Place with Krasinski) credit for a surprisingly strong
ending that is massively cathartic. Most of the film is pretty standard stuff,
but when they deviate from the established horror formula, it is always for the
better.
Most
viewers will want to kill the abrasive Evan themselves, but at least he stands
out. The rest are a bland lot, with almost no personality to speak of. It is
totally the material. Arguably, Will Brittain manages to be okay as Nathan, but
he was terrific as the titular Neanderthal in Tim Disney’s William. As for the rest, you could sit next to one of them on the
subway home from the theater and not recognize them.
Still,
when you have seen as many horror movies as we, you have to appreciate the
small favors. If Beck & Woods had embraced the themes of empowerment more,
they really might have gotten someplace. We don’t hate it, but there is a good
chance a lot of “casual” horror fans will. Haunt
just isn’t worthy of a recommendation, but we’re curious to see what the
filmmakers do next, for what that’s worth. For now, Haunt opens Friday (9/13) in LA, at the Arena CineLounge.
