Well, my favorite month is upon us, and, as a near-lifetime long horror fan, 'tis the season for scary movies! Having already tackled the Halloween franchise in its entirety last year (see here for links), this year I thought I'd get into some of the slightly lesser-known horror movies set on or around every fear flick fan's fave holiday, Halloween. 🎃
Surprisingly, there aren't as many as one might think, though by no means a small amount. Still, in the race for the most horror movies set on a certain holiday, Christmas wins that particular battle hands down, with literally hundreds of movies set on or around Christmas time. Go figure- the supposedly happiest holiday of the year has also been deemed the scariest, at least by horror filmmakers.
Be that as it may, there's still plenty to choose from for Halloween, and I'm going to cover as many as I can this month. If I don't get to one of your favorites, hang in there- maybe next year. The idea is to have a good mix of stuff I already know and love, and movies I've never seen before. By all means, if you have any suggestions, leave them in the comments section down below, or in the comment section/replies on my various social media. If I see something that sounds interesting, I might just do it!
First up, I take a look at a flick I've never seen before...
As those of you who read my reviews of Hell Fest and Blood Fest know, I'm a big fan of scare-houses and the like, and never miss an opportunity to go to a new one whenever possible. I already went into some of this in-depth in my review of Hell Fest, so click on that link above if you want to read more about that, but one thing I neglected to mention was that, once upon a time, I got myself banned from the local Jaycees Haunted House when I flat-out decked a guy and kicked another in the nuts one year!
You see, I have a condition some have called "fear-punching," in which, if someone jumps out at me, I tend to punch or kick first and ask questions later. This no doubt comes from having grown up on a steady diet of horror movies ever since I was a kid, and having learned the lesson from rap music to "protect yourself before you wreck yourself," lol. Back then, it was the workers at such places that had more to fear from the patrons. My, how things have changed.
As noted at the beginning of The Houses October Built, the people who put together scare-houses these days rarely bother with such silly things as, I don't know, a proper background check of the people they employ. After all, save maybe the more elaborate affairs like Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, or Knott's Scary Farm, most of these places work with volunteers that don't get paid- they literally just do it because they get off on scaring people.
But what happens when such people get a little carried away? When they take things just a little too far? Or even worse, when things turn deadly? In The Houses October Built, we find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. Oh, wait- that's actually MTV's The Real World. So, I guess in this case, it's when people stop playing games, and start getting... deadly.
The film follows the exploits of a group of five friends- Brandy (Brandy Schaefer), the lone girl of the group, who we see being sinisterly loaded into a trunk at the beginning of the film; her boyfriend, Zack (Zack Andrews, who also co-produced and co-wrote the film), who is obsessed with finding the scariest of scare-houses; Jeff (Jeff Larson), the lead cameraman on the documentary the gang is shooting on their experiences; and brothers Bobby (Bobby Roe, who co-wrote and directed) and Mikey (Mikey Roe).
As you might have guessed from the fact that everyone is going by their real names here, the film is presented, Blair Witch Project-style, as a collection of footage shot by all of those concerned, as well as members of the so-called "Blue Skeleton" collective, a roving scare-house attraction that is located in a new place every year, and is the gang's ultimate destination- if they can find it.
The problem is, the "Blue Skeleton" crew is ultra-secret, being as how they do things a little differently, and offer up an immersive, full-throttle experience that goes far beyond that found in a typical attraction, and one that is so in-your-face as to skirt illegality- hence the whole off-the-books, roving location thing. Basically, to get a bead on their location, you have to go above and beyond in your search, and seek it out, talking to select people who give you clues, which lead to other clues, which hopefully will lead to an ultimate destination for said scare-house.
The gang also look to the internet for help, using online forums about scare-houses to guide them in the right direction. This being a horror movie and all, you would be right in that weird things start happening to them, the closer they get to their "final destination," so to speak- which may indeed be their last, if what the people involved in this thing have in mind is deadlier than most scare-house antics.
For instance, individual characters they encounter in their visits to other scare-houses start cropping up elsewhere. At first, it's easy to explain away, as their original focus is wholly in Texas- after all, isn't it possible that different people simply bought the same costume? But as time goes by, the coincidences start piling up and become harder to explain away, such as the instance in which someone appears to have snuck into their RV while they were asleep and filmed them and then posted it on the aforementioned online forums for all to see. Creepy!
Alas, as with Blair Witch, nothing major really happens until approximately the final fifteen minutes, which, as per usual, is the expected shaky-cam and hard-to-see climax, in which the entire gang is terrorized in earnest by said "Blue Skeleton" crew, quite possibly ending up dead in the end, if what we see last is any indication. Then again, if you weren't aware, there is a sequel, which I will be covering next, so maybe they aren't. In that sense, what happens may actually be a bit of a cliffhanger, which some may see as a cheat.
Hard to say, with my not having seen the sequel yet, but the entire gang is listed in the credits for said movie, so it seems likely that it really was just an extreme scare-house tactic, as promised. Then again, it may be a fake-out, to lead people to believe the gang is still alive, when, in fact, the bulk of the sequel covers a new group of people and the original gang is only seen in flashbacks or the like. I'll see soon enough, but until then, know that this one ends abruptly, with the implication that things don't end well for all concerned, to say the least.
I originally hesitated to watch this one, as it looked like your ordinary, average, run-of-the-mill horror flick. I first saw it listed on Netflix and at the local Redbox, where it appeared to just be just another generic haunted house movie. But word of mouth has persisted on this one, and I eventually discovered it was actually about scare-houses, not haunted houses, and, if you read my reviews of Hell Fest and Blood Fest, then you know I'm a bit of a sucker for such films, which is to say, horror films (or whatever genre, really, save maybe musicals) revolving around scare-houses, carnivals, and, to a slightly lesser extent, circuses.
Once I found that out, I snapped it up in spite of my initial reservations. As for the found footage angle, I'm also a bit of a sucker for those as well. While few of them actually scared me- [Rec] probably came the closest- I still find them a lot of fun, even as they pivot into the unlikely, as in: How the hell would anyone still be filming when the shit hits the fan in earnest? Answer: they wouldn't. But such is the subgenre - you either go with it or you don't.
For the most part, I went with it here. After all, the crew here also use hidden cameras they wear on their person, in addition to the standard camera, so it makes more sense that they would keep filming in that case, as they're filming everything whether consciously or not. Also, even the "Blue Skeleton" crew conveniently- if dubiously- provide cameras to them after they are willingly "abducted" by them late in the movie to travel to the location of the actual scare-house.
So, basically, whether or not you enjoy the movie will largely depend on how you feel about the premise and the whole "found footage" thing in general. If you found Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity to be the definition of a boring horror flick, then you probably won't find much to change your mind about the oft-reviled subgenre here, as it follows the formula to the letter. But if you just can't help yourself to watch every "found footage" flick you come across, then you might dig it.
In addition, if, like me, you are fascinated by the inner workings and goings-on at scare-houses in general, you might enjoy it, even if "found footage" flicks aren't generally your cup of ghoul-ash. I gather from my research that this film was actually inspired by a documentary of the same name by the same people- now that film I'd actually love to see, and I suspect that I might like that more than this film, which is largely fictional, naturally. I haven't tracked it down as of yet, but if I do, I might review it here at some point on down the line.
Until such a time, look out for my review of the sequel later this week, and you should know that, while it's nothing earth-shattering, I did enjoy The Houses October Built for what it was. The cast is mostly likable- more than you can say for a lot of modern horror as it is- and I actually had fun traveling with them from scare-house to scare-house, until they started doing actively stupid shit, at least, i.e. not abandoning their quest the minute that footage of them sleeping was posted online, to say nothing of one of them "losing" their license, which may point the way forward to the sequel, i.e. in Part Two, the "Blue Skeleton" crew bring the scare-house to the gang, instead of the gang bringing themselves to the scare-house.
The zombie paintball thing looked like fun, and I've already had the dubious pleasure of attending a "haunted" strip club, where the dancers dressed up as various ghouls and monsters, which is quite a sight to see, let me tell you. (I'd give a shout-out to the club in question, but I can't remember the name- it was in Nashville, Tennessee, just outside the downtown area, though, if that helps, lol.)
I myself don't have any inclination towards finding the most "extreme" scare-house like these yahoos- why would you actively try and put yourself in danger with an "underground" group of wackos that could well be made up of criminals and actual murderers that managed to get out of jail and may now be using this approach as a way to take people out on the sly? Hard pass.
BTW, there's an incident mentioned in the film as having happened in Alabama. To the best of my knowledge, it's absolutely true, though I don't have any proof to that end. Basically, the real story is a bit more tragic than it's related here. A girl, who was prone to extreme depression, got herself a job at a local scare-house, and at some point, hung herself, thinking no one would notice, given the surrounding circumstances. She was right- patrons didn't notice, thinking it was part of the show- but perhaps needless to say, the workers did later on, and the attraction ended up closing for the rest of the season, for obvious reasons.
Maybe it's bullshit- but I don't think so. For one thing, it's not like anyone was saying that someone working there hauled off and killed a bunch of people, as implied in this film. This was strictly a self-inflicted situation, and all too believable as such. Also, I distinctly remember that the group that put on the scare-house switched locations the very next year, thus cementing the story as true- why would they do so, otherwise?
Of course, as an adult, I know of all sorts of reasons why that could be, but it sure seemed plausible then. So, maybe it's true, maybe it isn't- but I sure remember it happening and that it was the talk of the town at the time- maybe there's a news article to verify? I'll see what I can dig up.
In the meantime, speaking of digging up, I'll set my sights on The Houses October Built 2 next, so keep an eye out for that soon, and we'll see if the gang was able to extricate themselves from their un-enviable positions here in the sequel! 😱
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