10/31 : Part 1

Good little mindless horror film. Definitely worth a watch.

10/31 is a horror anthology that features five different stories. All of the stories take place on Halloween. The quality of each story varies with the third story probably being my favorite of the bunch.

The first story involves two friends shooting a commercial at a haunted bed and breakfast. One of the friends keeps seeing this old woman.

Story number two; "Trespass" involves a young couple on their first date. The female decides that they movie that they went to is too boring so she suggests checking out an old country property with a spooky legend about an old scarecrow on the land.

The third tale involves a killer on the loose at a skating rink's Halloween party. This is probably my favorite of the stories. It has a good pace and an interesting twist.

Story number four might be the most bizarre. You've got a kid that loves Halloween, creepy trick or treaters, and Santa Claus!

The final story involves a slasher crashing a teen Halloween bash. Pretty standard fare.

Overall 10/31 is a pretty decent horror anthology.

"10/31" is a portmanteau style horror film, made as a showcase for five independent writer/directors and largely crowdfunded. It's hard to be too harsh on the films, given the budgets, some of which look decent and occasionally have good effects, but generally it's a collection that includes performances that are too amateurish and stories that are confusing. I've detailed more about each episode below.

The Old Hag - Two aspiring filmmakers, Tyler (Nick Edwards) and Kevin (Mitchell Musolino) arrive at Kathy's (Cindy Maples) bed and breakfast to produce a promotional video. Though the hotel specifically doesn't have any guests - Tyler has an interaction with an elderly guest on the third floor. Performances are a little amateurish and the prosthetic for said old hag are a little too clean and over lit to convince it's anything other than prosthetics. Story is a sadly predictable and the only scare is the cheap one right at the end.

Trespassers - After an underwhelming Halloween date Stephanie (Sable Griedel) takes new in town Jeff (Chad Bruns) to a local farm where, legend has it, decades ago the farmer went mad and killed his family after a scarecrow was put up on his land. Performances are a little better in this one and shooting in a cinema helps production value - but the creature at the end looks like a shop bought mask and the story is muddled. Better, but not good.

Killing the Dance - On her last night before leaving home, Ashley (Bailey Ingersoll) takes her brother Mikey (Noah Howland) to work at a roller-skating rink. After dark, the rink switches to a roller disco and secrets are revealed. Then a masked character begins to attack the other patrons with a straight razor. This felt much longer than the previous two entries. There were some nice early moments, including a tracking shot that was more ambitious than anything seen so far, and shooting on the rink is well done. Storyline wise though it's a little obvious, way too long and the budget betrays the effects somewhat.

Halloween Blizzard of '91 - During a snowstorm that seemingly cancels trick or treating, a family is visited by three small characters in old style costumes. After giving them candy, they leave, but not before leaving a sleigh bell on the porch. This was the worst episode of the four. Really amateurish performances, with the exception of the mother Katie (Katie Walgrave), bad choppy cutting and a story that didn't make much sense.

The Samhain Slasher - Peter McNeely (Greg Fallon) is haunted by horrific dreams. His daughter Mary (Jordan Phipps) goes to a Halloween party but both have ignored TV reports about an escaped murderer in the area. Performances and effects were a lot better this time, but the story was confounding mixing supernatural and slasher elements but never making clear what was what.

Provided you accept this for what it is, it's not the worst collection you'll ever see - but go in expecting anything more and you'll be sorely disappointed.

For every decent actor here they are paired up with someone stiff and bland. The script in these segments could maybe have had some critical notes by their peers. The mask they use are straight outta horror cons. They're not Spirit Halloween bad but I feel like if you've been to a con you've seen these on display at booths. Since every segment was done by different people the color grading is kinda everywhere. This is something I find common with these mixed director anthologies. With all this being said, I've seen far worse anthologies. Overall the sound design is decent and the dialogue sound isn't all over the place. If you're looking for something fun to watch on Halloween, stick to Trick R Treat, as this really gives off 0 Halloween vibes even tho every story is on 10/31.

10/31 is an indie horror anthology partially funded by Indiegogo from the director of The Barn, the composer of the same film, and a few others with stories that are based around Halloween. The film begins with two children watching "Malvolia's Halloween Monster Marathon" where an Elvira type character introduces the audience to four shorts. First up is "The Old Hag" from Justin Seaman. Two guys arrive at an old home to shoot a promo video to help it rent out a few rooms. One guy keeps seeing a creepy looking old woman and learns about how the locals call it the Gingerbread House where apparently an old hag chokes out victims. Is he seeing things or is it all in his head?? Overall it's a fun segment with appealing leads and a decent story (3.5/5)

Up next is "Trespassers" directed by Zane Hershberger. After a disappointing movie a cute purple-haired chick takes her lame first date boyfriend to an abandoned murder house where legend has it a scarecrow appeared and possibly cursed those living there. She wants to find out the truth about what happened. This is another fun entry and features a decent synth score while the story and it's conclusion are great (3.5/5). Director John William Holt takes over for the third story called "Killing the Dance." A teen girl has to babysit her younger brother while she works Halloween night at the roller rink where things turn out horrifically wrong. This segment is a bit too long and repetitive with too many scenes of skating, but is still fun with it's retro feel, another good synth score, and ridiculous ending (3.5/5)

The last entry is easily the weakest and is the directorial debut of Rocky Gray and it's called "The Samhain Slasher". It's a bit of a jumbled mess that is probably a bit overambitious in trying to jam too much into its short run time. It's basically a cult film and slasher jammed into 20 minutes that suffers a bit from some weak CGI as well (2.5/5). Things finish up with the wraparound and while it doesn't do anything particularly memorable it's decent overall (3/5).

The budget limitations of this film definitely show sometimes, but it's all a part of the charm and it's easy to look past most of the wrinkles because of the obvious love and passion put into it all. There are so many bigger budgeted anthology films that may look cleaner and shinier, but tell the same old stale tales that we've all seen too many times. The stories here do a good job with some good old Halloween look and feel and each story feels like it's trying to do something familiar yet original. If you love horror anthologies then 10/31 is definitely worth seeking out. It doesn't and shouldn't look like Trick r Treat, but it's a small budget indie horror that both needs and deserves our support.

Additional notes: I viewed a festival version of this film for this review that is missing one segment directed by Brett DeJager (Bonejangles) titled "The Halloween Blizzard of '91" which is still going through some post-production work, but will appear in the DVD release of the film. There are still some fixes coming to the film itself too with some of the audio. I put some money towards the film during its campaign, but I am in no way associated with the film other than that.