Movie Review: Haunt (2019)
Haunt is a horror film written and directed by Scott Beck, and Bryan Woods. Both are mostly known for writing the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place. Haunt also has Eli Roth on board as a producer, and this is a fantastic look into what could happen when things go from 0-100 in a haunted house.
The story is set on Halloween night and focuses on a girl named Harper (Katie Stevens). She is having some issues with her abusive boyfriend, so her friends Bailey (Lauryn Alisa McClain), Angela (Shazi Raja) and Mallory (Schuyler Helford) convince her to go out to party with them. After meeting up with Nathan (Will Brittain) and Evan (Andrew Caldwell) at a club, they drive around looking for haunted houses in the area, and happen across one in the middle of nowhere that they decide to check out. The haunted house tour starts off normal enough, but after some cheap scare gags, things start to get much more intense very quickly. As they make their way through, they realize that this is much more than an ordinary haunted house they are in.
This film excelled in some departments and could have done a bit better in others. They did a pretty good job at creating a believable and terrifying haunted house environment, but it also strays from that main focus at times, which pulls you out of the immersion. There was a brief part of the film when a new character is introduced to the group which temporarily changes the dynamic. We liked the character, but at the same time felt like it slowed down the snowball effect of tension and atmosphere that was building up. It did pick right back up afterward, though, so it doesn’t really detract from the overall experience and the scares resumed.
When it did stay on task, Haunt really shined. The score for this film is great and kept the tension right in the pocket when it most needed to be. The sound and lighting departments, in general, did a great job setting the tone for the unsettling maze of the haunted house. The gore was pretty good, and there was a nice mix of practical and digital effects. The digital gore was also done well and didn’t stand out much, which was nice. When it comes to writing, there were some outstanding moments that outweighed any small shortcomings. The cinematography and direction stood out at times as well, and in a good way. There were a lot of scenes that were really creepy, and the villains were on their game when it came to bringing the scares to the haunted house visitors, and the costume and makeup design was fantastic for the villains. The kill scenes were really brutal at times and they didn’t shy away from showing them which is how horror should be.
Overall, Haunt is a great horror film to add to your watch list on Halloween. There are a lot of classic horror elements in it that will definitely leave you just a bit more on edge the next time you sign a waiver to get into that next haunted house and may even have you wondering if you will get out.
You can find Haunt in theaters and on VOD starting tomorrow, Friday the 13th everywhere.
