The Barn

THE BARN is a supernatural / neo-slasher horror film, done in a 1980s homage style. It's about a trio of killer spooks: a scarecrow, a miner, and a pumpkin headed ghoul, that haunt the titular structure, awaiting those who dare to trespass on Halloween Night. As luck would have it, a group of teens decide to enter the forbidden farm, resulting in grisly death.

While the story is pretty bare-bones, and the acting and dialogue are a bit clunky, this only adds to the overall charm. Is it a perfect masterpiece? No, but it is worth a watch on a crisp, Halloween evening.

Gorehounds will be in the stratosphere over the gushy practical effects! They really kick into high gear during the "Harvest Hootenanny" sequence, and continue from there.

For those who appreciate and enjoy low-budget horror films...

Judging by the recent plenitude of (horror) movies - and even entire TV-series - that are either taking place during OR unmistakably paying tribute to the 1980s, I think it's safe to say that a whole new generation of filmmakers suffer from "homesickness" (by lack of a better term) towards the decade in which it was so much easier and more fun to produce and watch horror movies! There's noticeably an immense longing for the good old times when stereotypical characters and clichéd plot lines weren't world-widely criticized on the Internet before the movie got properly released (what Internet?), when dumb teenage protagonists were still getting into physical trouble rather than belittling each other via social media, and when horror victims were still being massacred by killers & monsters with hideous make- up effects rather than by digitalized computer creations. "The Barn" obviously also belongs in this trend and, although not as popular or hyped as "Stranger Things" or "The Final Girls", it's definitely worth checking out for fans of old-school splatter as well as amateurish yet enthusiast low-budget film making. It's almost Halloween in the year 1989, and the 19-year-old but still very immature buddies Sam and Josh are petrifying the neighborhood children and annoying their teacher (cameo of none other than Linnea Quigley). The next day, on their way to a Halloween concert with a few more friends, they stop at a godforsaken barn where according to an ancient local legend three sinister Halloween monsters lie buried. Against the will of firm legend-believer Sam, the group knocks at the door and thus awakens the Boogeyman miner, Hallowed Jack-o-Lantern and Candycorn Scarecrow. The monsters promptly go on a killing spree in the nearby town Helen's Valley, with as gory highlight the extermination of nearly the entire village during the annual Halloween dance. Writer/director Justin Seaman has a lot of heart for the genre and many bright ideas, and therefore you also gladly forgive the lack of style and the many directorial defaults. There are too many overlong dialogues, redundant sequences and questionable performances, but it doesn't matter all that much because this is a full-blooded Halloween feature and highly recommended for the fans. Too many gore-highlights to choose from, including decapitations, eye- gouging, pickax in the head, etc… There's also a good soundtrack and – like it was the case in the 80s - even a bit of totally gratuitous nudity.

I get what they were trying to do here. It's the same kind of retro nostalgia that actually works in Stranger Things. Clever marketing and a good cover, but the film doesn't quite stand up to the hype. A good effort which needed a bigger budget.

The movie itself was very amateur...the dialogue, acting, story line...everything screams amateur...except the score and soundtrack, that was a great, retro, horror movie score. The action scenes are too short...left me wanting more...it was like there was a build up to each, then they were over in two hits. It really didn't hold my interest, but I did like the idea of the movie, it just needed to be fleshed out a little more. Overall, nice attempt at a horror movie throwback to the 80's, but not spectacular.

The music, however was very well done for such a low budget film. The soundtrack and score were both pretty good, I was impressed and that's the main reason for writing the review...the score and soundtrack deserved a shout out.

So the movie is pretty cheesy and campy, but that was also clearly the intent. I thought it was hilarious.