HAUNT

Canada, 2019, 92 minutes, Colour.
Katie Stevens, Will Britain,.
Directed by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods.

It is Halloween night. Everyone is in costume. There is an atmosphere of superstitions and fears.

The main part of this horror film takes place in an extraordinary Haunted House, out in the countryside. A group of young adults – the target audience for this kind of film that they might watch together, jumping in fear, laughing at the episodes and characters – have been out on celebration and drive out into the countryside, thinking they were followed, veering to a side road discovering the house.

The set designers have given a great deal of attention to the exteriors of the house, the wide range of interiors, many of which might be expected in some kind of ghost house, but far more extensive and weight wide-ranging, corridors, shoots, warehouse settings, corridors, mysterious doors…

In some ways, the main characters are interchangeable. The main human focus is on Harper (Katie Stevens), some sad flashbacks to her unhappy bringing up, her reticence, being persuaded to go out for Halloween. In a club, she encounters Nathan (Will Britain) and there is some bonding. This would be most important in the Haunted House, four women, two men, initially being scared, taking the challenge, finding ugly and mysterious creatures with masks, deadly episodes, an increasing body count.

There are various heroics but the final action focuses on Harper and Nathan.

So, instead of a visit to a haunted house at the carnival, here it is all put together in 90+ minutes of special effects and scares.