In Haunt, a group of college kids looking for some late night Halloween fun stumble across an extreme haunted house and decide to venture inside. Not long after they enter, they discover that this attraction might be more than it appears. The actors inside and those running the haunt might have sinister intentions, or it might all just be part of the experience. Either way, our gang will have to band together and find a way out.
Haunt is directed and written by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who previously wrote the screenplay for A Quiet Place.The script here is fine, though there are some bad lines within the first 10 minutes that had me worried. Luckily, once our protagonists enter the haunt, things start to get interesting and fun (We enter the haunt around 16 minutes into the film). Scott Beck and Bryan Woods do a surprisingly good job at directing Haunt. The film is tense and suspenseful when it needs to be, and it's always entertaining and a joy to watch.
Our leads include Katie Stevens as Harper (our main lead), Will Brittain as Nathan (The handsome jock with a heart of gold), Lauren McClaine as Bailey (Harper's roommate), Shazi Raja as Angela (a friend of Harper and Bailey), Schuyler Helford as Mallory (another friend who has a fear of spiders), and Andrew Caldwell as Evan (a douche-bro friend of Nathan). All of our leads are likable and well cast, with the best of the bunch being Harper and Nathan. Harper in particular gets some nice character development and backstory (she is dealing with childhood trauma as well as a toxic boyfriend).A film like this doesn't necessarily need good or likable characters, so the fact that we get any is a nice bonus.
As for supporting characters, Samuel Hunt plays Harper's abusive, alcoholic boyfriend. Haunt plays up his character a bit like he might be important later on, but ultimately his role is pretty minor. Justin Marxen and Damian Maffei play Clown and Devil, respectively. They are both intimidating and freaky. Chaney Morrow makes an impression as Mitch, one of the actors inside the haunt. He seems genuinely concerned when he sees things have gone south and offers to help our leads, but are his intentions sincere? He is easily the most memorable character/actor out of the supporting players.
Haunt was clearly shot on a low-ish budget, but the film makes that work to its advantage. The titular haunt is very well designed and feels like a real homemade haunted house. The traps and rooms inside are creative and fun, and the whole haunted house looks very cool. The violent/bloody scenes are very grody, fucked up, brutal, and entertaining. Haunt is a film that isn't afraid to to put our heroes through the wringer. No one escapes unscathed. The design of the actors inside the haunt are very impressive and creepy as well (Wait till the masks come off). It's also nice that Haunt keeps us guessing as to the truth of the haunted house until around the 50 minutes mark.
Our protagonists and antagonists all do fine acting jobs. Most of the characters are a bit one-dimensional, but the actors all effectively breathe life into them. The first 10 minutes and the final 2 minutes aren't great (despite a killer final line), but Haunt still has plenty of great maimings/injuries (and maybe much worse), some cool villain designs, and one memorable location that the film makes full advantage of. This is easily the best haunted house/haunted event flick I've seen. In the end, Haunt easily emerges as a new Halloween time classic.
4 STARS
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