A haunted house depends on a simple agreement between its owners and its customers: the scares may feel real, but nobody is supposed to get hurt. HauntedWeen builds its slasher premise around the collapse of that agreement, placing unsuspecting college students in charge of an attraction whose horrors are no longer staged. It is an idea with genuine possibilities, particularly for a film interested in the uneasy relationship between entertainment, fear, and violence, written and directed by Doug Robertson struggles to turn it into an effective horror story; he used his local area of Bowling Green, Kentucky, with the participation of Western Kentucky University students and members of the local community. The independent origins are evident, although the film’s problems extend beyond its rough production values filmed on 16mm film later converted to video to the storytelling and performances. On the limited positives is the passion for the film as well as practical effects and love of Halloween attractions give the film some character, but the inconsistent acting and poor story mean it doesn’t live up to its slasher potential.
Brien Blakely
The film starts in 1971 with young Eddie Burber (Craig Bitterling) helping his family run their House of Horrors; but he is too young to work in the attraction, so he collects money from customers. However, Eddie’s sneaks into the haunt and inadvertently scares a girl his age in a dreadful manner causing he and his mother (Pat Sprouse) to go into hiding. Twenty years later a college fraternity is struggling financially and is in danger of losing their charter. The Burber property could be the answer to their problems. Kurt (Brien Blakely (Rough Draft [1998])), on/off his girlfriend Sally (Leslee Legacy) and fraternity brothers decide to create their own haunted attraction with the help of Mel (Blake Pickett (Vampire Trailer Park [1991])) and Bentley (Bentley Tittle (Dark Universe [1993])). They use costumes, props and fake scares to create a scary attraction in the house, hoping to attract enough customers to save their organization. Unbeknownst to them, Eddie (Ethan Adler) has returned and is creating a real attraction. While the students’ decision to create the attraction makes sense due to their desperation to make money, they lack depth, even these so-call relationships don’t feel true such as JoAnne (Angela Scanlan) and Farris (Franklin Martin). The relationship between Kurt and Sally isn’t explored enough to create any real emotional connection. Eddie is the most unsettling character; his prank as a child suggests he already had a warped view of scaring someone as giving him power to further make the scares as reality and to a grotesque level. Sadly, this isn’t explored in depth throughout the film, never explored past typical slasher villain.
Franklin Martin and Angela Scanlan
The practical effects are one of the better aspects of the film; the DIY props, gory make-up and fake blood all fit the theme of a haunted attraction, led by Dave Snyder (Bad Moon [1996]). It is meant to be a bit of a rough attraction with fake scares so the lack of polish can sometimes help the film; however, the inconsistent acting and awkward dialogue resulted the scary scenes lacking any emotion. The filming just a tad over 23 days around Bowling Green, with Western Kentucky University used as one of the locations and the Burber House was filmed in a warehouse. Robertson self-distributed the movie as he was concerned over being involved with a bad deal, hence, it took two years to get onto home video. This shows how determined Robertson was to create the film, yet it still feels like it has a lot of potential but just doesn’t quite come together.
Blake Pickett
The main concept ties into a long history of horror films where they use entertainment to hide real danger, such as Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse (1981) also turns an attraction into a dangerous place. Hooper understands how to create a scary atmosphere using architecture, shadows and slow reveals, but a real haunted “Dark Ride.” The concept of the film does raise an interesting point how far does the attraction need to push the violence scares to satisfy the ‘rush’ for paying customers? Eddie uses this to his advantage, using a set for torture and murder his attempt to use control environment for absolute. The film uses the fake versus real scare from Eddie though never the intention to explore the psychological undertones of both our killer nor the passion of the attendees.
Hi Eddie
HauntedWeen isn’t a hidden gem but should still be criticized due to its indie nature and underdeveloped horror comedy. The characters lack depth, acting is inconsistent and the directing rarely creates the tension needed to make the best concepts scary. Nonetheless, those seeking a forgotten horror film to see around the Halloween season might find this as a curiosity for fans of regional horror and obscure slashers.
TAGLINE: When Fantasy Becomes A Deadly Reality
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0150855/
IMDb Rating: 5.1/10
Baron’s Rating: 4.5/10