Haunt: Film Review
A bunch of friends go to an artistically lit haunted house with a dope soundtrack and run into a bunch of spooky ghouls wearing well-designed masks. What could go wrong? Almost exactly what you think!
Harper (Katie Stevens) is having a bad Halloween. Her boyfriend got physical the night before, leaving her with a black eye. Her friends convince her to ditch the dude and come out with them for a night of partying. The group discover an “extreme” haunted house, where they’re told to leave their phones at the door (I mean I’d never) and enter to face their deepest, darkest fears. Unfortunately for them, their fears turn out to be really real, and really life-threatening.
HAUNT is a cool looking movie, sticking closely to the current “neon” lighting trend of modern, college-kid horror movies like THE NIGHT SITTER. It sounds great, too. I’d love a copy of the sound effects soundtrack to replace my “Sounds of Terror” record from the 1950s that I usually play on Halloween.
It also hits a lot of our childhood fears, like spiders, ghosts, and the dark, and amplifies them so they still feel spooky even if you’re all growed up. But it also touches on more serious fears. Fears millions of women deal with every day, because the trauma of Harper’s abuse, that she’s experienced both in childhood (that we see through flashbacks) and in her most recent relationship, follow her throughout the film. When friend Evan (Andrew Caldwell, doing his best TJ Miller impression) is driving the group to the haunted house, she thinks she sees her ex’s truck in the rear view mirror, and we feel that fear with her. In the most (only?) poignant moment of the flick, when a masked maniac who’s been terrorizing her and her friends is about to attack her, she begs “Sam,” her ex, to stop.
Because that’s what she thinks he’s capable of.
HAUNT doesn’t give perfect insight into the trauma or mental state of abuse survivors, but it does a good job representing that deep fear that, no matter what kinds of REAL monsters are after you, still leave you sick over the thought it’s probably your ex behind the mask.
As for the rest of the movie? Practical effects resonant of HOSTEL will keep gore hounds interested (which shouldn’t be a surprise considering Eli Roth is a producer) and writer/director duo Scott Beck and Brian Woods do a fine job of keeping the action moving along. But unlike, say, SAW, the tricks and traps don’t really bring anything new to the table (for instance, one character finds himself in a room full of spooky, sheet-covered, mannequins, and another sticks her hand in an… ominous looking hole). So if you’re looking for something you haven’t seen before, this one may not be for you—that is, until the last act where things get a bit weird.
So although somewhat predictable, HAUNT is a fun flick with a few good scares that just might surprise you (but be sure to turn your brain off so you can really enjoy it).