All Hallows' Hell: "Haunt" a seasonal genre gem that's grisly, tense, and scary


Haunt (2019)
92 min.
Release Date: September 13, 2019 (Limited & VOD)

A group of friends entering a “haunted house” where it's hard to tell the difference between someone playing a part and actually begging for his or her life on All Hallows' Eve is the premise for the high-concept slasher film “Haunt,” the writing-directing debut of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the screenwriters behind 2018’s “A Quiet Place”). It reminds of 1981's Tobe Hooper-directed "The Funhouse," as well as two most recent worthwhile slashers (2018’s “Terrifier” and “Hell Fest”), while never resting on the laurels of its conceit and actually knowing how to give audiences a solid scare for their buck. “Haunt” may not reinvent the wheel of slasher pics, but it’s extremely effective at what it accomplishes with atmosphere and technical know-how.

Carbondale, Illinois college student Harper (Katie Stevens) is tired of being abused by her alcoholic boyfriend—and so is her roommate Bailey (Lauryn Alisa McClain). It happens to be Halloween night, so Bailey and their two friends, Angela (Shazi Raja) and Mallory (Schuyler Helford), persuade her to go out to the club. Once meeting up with nice jock Nathan (Will Brittain) and loudmouth Evan (Andrew Caldwell), the four girls decide to go to a haunt since it’s still early in the night. When the group finds an “extreme” haunt off the beaten path in the backwoods (with one review on Yelp), they are greeted by a silent clown, who makes them sign a liability waver and hand over their cell phones. The haunted house seems harmless enough with cobwebs and a skeleton popping out, until a bit with a screaming co-ed having her face branded with a hot iron by one of the masked workers, and it seems awfully real. 

Aside from being set in the present with cell phones that get locked away at the entrance of the haunt, “Haunt” plays like a pleasing throwback to a 1980s slasher film without name-checking — it just does. It would not have been enough for a film like this to just rest on its premise, and fortunately, there is more to the production design within the maze-like industrial warehouse and, in the case of Harper, enough characterization to distinguish itself from the pack. Directing team Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are skilled at building dread and apprehension, as with a tunnel where each character must enter one at a time so a trap door doesn’t open on them and a “Guess the Body Parts” sensory game where characters put their hands into three different mystery holes. The filmmakers also know exactly how to twist expectations and have their timing down pat in scenes where a jump scare would ordinarily be placed, and their use of cross-cutting between different characters in different rooms only ramps up the jittery tension that much more.

The characters are standard fodder, but the cast does a fine job enlivening their roles enough for the viewer to care whether or not they get out alive. Katie Stevens, in particular, is strong as Harper, the likely “final girl,” as she might be the most well-drawn character of the bunch, having not been back home in four years because of her abusive father. The antagonists of the piece are menacing, both when they’re masked and unmasked, and their motives smartly remain mysterious enough but unsettling that one might never willfully enter a haunt again. The ending might seem tacked-on and more than a little preposterous, but it is immensely satisfying nonetheless. Grisly, tense, and never at a loss for figuring out ingenious ways to put its characters in peril, “Haunt” is doubly a genre gem and a perfect option for the early Halloween season.

Grade: B +

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