HAUNT

Haunt turned out to be an extremely effective slasher film despite being linked to Eli Roth (the “auteur” behind Cabin Fever and the Death Wish remake is listed as a producer). It was written and directed by the duo who scribed A Quiet Place, another effective thriller that had my interest as soon as I heard Emily Blunt was attached. 

Haunt follows a group of college students who decide to enter an extreme haunted house one Halloween night (maybe it was this Halloween, maybe it was last year’s. I don’t know, no one checked to see what the status of Trump’s impeachment was on their iPhone). Of course, the half-dozen masked men running the place turn out to be full-blown psychopaths that take their craft one step too far. Well, maybe a few steps too far.

I’ve seen my fair share of “Dead Teenager” movies and I’m starting to feel a little self-conscious when I pop a new one on. I mean, I haven’t been a teenager in a long time and am beginning to feel more akin to the slashers that disembowel them (“youth is wasted on the young!” “why are they walking down my street at 1 am?!” “get off my lawn!”) The batch of youngsters in Haunt aren’t the most three-dimensional in the world but they’re also far from being the dipshits that populate a typical Friday the 13th movie. In fact, there’s a scene I quite liked where the guy who is the group dipshit actually realizes how dangerous the situation is, and starts acting strategically with the group. The rest of the group rides a fine line between being present and forgettable. The only one who stood out was our final girl, who like most slasher films, has some personal issues to overcome while finding the strength to get through the night.

The masked marauders are about as creepy as they get. IMDB says a dude named Hugo Villasenor was the Key Makeup Artist. If he’s the man behind these characters’ faces, then he deserves some hefty praise. As well, a couple of them actually have personalities above the typical “stalk/scare/kill” trope — although why they actually do the things they do is still a big-ol’-mystery by the time the credits roll.

I mean, to set up good motivation, all the filmmakers had to do was show the kids talking loud and smoking weed in the area where I walk my dogs… I mean where the *killers* walk their dogs.