This article contains spoilers for Haunt (2019)Now that Halloween is just a couple of weeks away, it’s time to focus on creepy flicks to really set the mood for the spooky season.Haunt, which was released in 2019 and is criminally underrated, is the perfect horror film to get the night going and to be thoroughly creeped out. It was written and directed by Scott Beck, whose known for writingA Quiet Place, so one can be confident thatHauntis a frightening ride.Hauntis about a group of friends who want the ultimate scare on Halloween night, because a simple house party won’t do it. They drive around for a bit, searching forthe scariest haunted house they could possibly find, until one seems to conveniently find them. The group isn’t turned off by the fact that it’s mostly abandoned by the time they roll up; a creepy clown waiting for them at the door. They have to sign a waiver before entering, of course, and turn over their phones before the real horrors begin. Here’s whyHauntis the perfect addition to your Halloween lineup.
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Common Tropes We Know and Love
Withinthe characters that head into the haunted house, each one has certain characteristics that we often see in horror movies. Harper (Katie Stevens) is the main female protagonist, and from the jump, audiences are made aware that she has more to her than meets the eye. She has an abusive boyfriend that she’s struggling to distance herself from; her roommates are affected when he throws a pumpkin at their door. So she wasn’t necessarily thrilled with going to this haunted house, but nevertheless, she was convinced by Nathan.
Nathan (Will Brittain) is the character you find yourself rooting for towards the end of the movie; the final boy who ends up getting several second winds in order to save not only himself, but the final girl as well. He’s almost unstoppable as he gets shot, but keeps going, on a mission to not succumb as another victim to this insane group of people. Will Brittain is a semi-well-known actor, but he’s memorable in this film as well as his role in the newestPurgemovie,The Forever Purge, Anthem states.
Evan (Andrew Caldwell) is the comedic relief; a character that’s designed to give the audience a few moments of distraction from the jump scares and murders on the screen. That being said, there are tons of jump scares that fill this movie. Some are corny and ill-timed, and others will make you jump out of your skin, such as a sudden downpour of spiders on one character’s head (she doesn’t last long). Tropes that could be seen as overused and not needed in most horror movies work extremely well inHaunt.
More Than One Villain
Broken Road Productions
Unlike other horror movies that feature one villain, with one big bad that the characters have to team up to take down,Hauntfeatures a group of creepers. It’s revealed throughout the movie that each person working at the haunted attraction, has had some sort of facial disfigurement. Whether it’s terrifying piercings, burn marks, or placing someone else’s face onto their own face, it’s terrible. Clown is the first worker audiences and the group is introduced to, standing menacingly at the front of the building. He’s the ring leader of the entire thing, and the one who burns it all to the ground at the end of it.
Ghost is the one that the audience gets to know the most, acting like he’s helping the group out of the torture. Ghost is a double crosser and proves to be one of the scariest ones, with how he kills one of the characters by ripping their face off. Devil is the one with the most facial disfiguration; his eyes completely black, and voice distorted as he targets Harper throughout the maze. Also, Harper’s abusive boyfriend, Sam, is another villain added to the plot as he tries to hunt down Harper, but ultimately gets a taste of his own medicine at the end.
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Doesn’t Rely on Gore
While this movie relies on torture and jump scares, it doesn’t overdo it with the gore. Some horror movies seem todrown the setting with blood and guts, butHaunttakes a different approach. Sure,Hauntis still gory, but it doesn’t handle it in a way that ruins the entire film. Instead, it relies more on the thriller aspect of it, moments where audiences are left stunned by what turn it takes. Rotten Tomatoes states thatHauntis similar to theSawmovieswith the amount of mind games and torture it has packed in. And when there is gore, it’s weirdly tasteful and perfectly timed, without being abrasive and unnecessary. When Ghost rips off someone’s face with the backend of a hammer, it isn’t necessarily shown on screen, but the idea is, and that’s enough to send shivers down one’s spine.
Hauntmakes you really think, because once you rely on certain characters, the plot will change and things will completely trip you up. The thrill of it all is the most exciting part of it; the jump scares and scoring of the film making the audience immersed in the storytelling of it all. When it was released, it becamethe number one horror movie on Shudder, and because it didn’t have a national blockbuster release in theaters, that could be the reason why it’s such an underrated horror movie in general. There have been plenty of newer movies that have toed the line between being thriller-based and being a bloodbath, andHauntsits right in the balance of that.
