WhereHereticis bone chilling throughout,Scott BeckandBryan Woods’earlier horror film, 2019’sHaunt, is an incredibly fun, scary ride.Hauntfollows a group of young, American college kids on Halloween who go into an extreme haunted house expecting some spooky fun, but end up having to run for their lives as tattooed, surgically scarred villains take a stab at murder them all.
Throughout the film, you don’t know whether to laugh or scream, as the characters make poor choice after poor choice,culminating in brutal deaths that ratchet up the tension and horror.
If you were watching this in the movie theater, you would forgive people for yelling at the characters through the screen.Hauntis very different fromHereticin some ways, yetBeck and Wood’s interest in transformative survivors is still on show here, creating a cathartic ending to this Halloween nightmare.
Image Via Momentum Pictures
Slight spoilers do exist in the second half of the article, so go check outHauntif you haven’t before and come back to us.
All the Characters in ‘Haunt’ Are Stupid But Loveable
Elsewhere, both ‘Conclave’ and ‘We Live in Time’ passed important milestones.
‘Haunt’s Female Protagonist Goes Through a Similar Transformation to Sister Paxton in ‘Heretic’
Haunt’s protagonist Harper is similar toSister Paxton inHereticin that they both start out as naive but become badass survivors by the end of their respective films.
Image Via Momentum Pictures
Harper has several scenes throughoutHauntwhere she displays inaction to the point of stupidity, and it makes for a frustrating watch at times, especially in the first act.
However, the reveal that this is because of the PTSD resulting from her wife-beating father gives an entirely new context to these moments and means that we understand the strength it would take for Harper to break out of her defense mechanism.
The overall thematic exploration ofhowHarper overcomes her trauma, which gives her the strength to finally fight back, is such a cathartic release.This is especially so when she turns her old house, the very source of her nightmares, into her haunted house-style trap to get revenge on the last deranged killer.
Haunthas to be classed as ahorror-thriller, yet so much of it brings a comedic reaction from the audience, and it can be difficult to tell where Beck and Woods’ intentions begin and end.
So many of the characters' actions feel ill-planned and designed to get them into more trouble than they are already in.
However, there is nobility in many of the senseless actions that invoke a kind of bravery, even when the means of escape is right in front of them.
When a group of college kids go to a haunted house expecting fun, their night quickly becomes a desperate scramble for survival.
Perhaps this is not a film to watch if you have just seenHereticand want a continuation of those themes and tones, butit would be a huge surprise if you didn’t findHaunta thoroughly entertaining horror extravaganza.
Hauntis currently available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
Watch on Netflix
Your Rating
Your comment has not been saved
Cast
When a group of college kids go to a haunted house expecting fun, their night quickly becomes a desperate scramble for survival.
