"Haunts" follows Ingrid, a young Swedish woman living with her American uncle in northern California. Their small town is suddenly plagued by several scissor-murders and rapes; meanwhile, Ingrid finds herself recurrently assailed by a lecherous butcher in town. Are the attacks connected? Does a newcomer to Ingrid's church choir have something to do with it? Or could it be someone else?
This little-seen psychological horror film is very much in the vein of other "mad women" films of the 1970s such as "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" or Robert Altman's "Images," packed with dreamlike energy, haunting cinematography of dreary rural abodes, and a thin demarcation between hallucination and reality that cuts through it all. "Haunts" is a bit more of a slipshod production than the aforementioned two films, but it exists in the same universe.
There are definitely effective moments here, particularly the attack sequences that intersperse the melodrama of Ingrid as a character. The film does grow tedious in its last act and loses momentum to a degree, while the last ten or fifteen minutes err into baffling quasi-supernatural territory that feels underdeveloped and there simply to shock the audience (or leave them scratching their heads). May Britt is believable here as a naive and devoutly religious Swedish expat, while Cameron Mitchell turns in an odd performance as her possibly-lecherous uncle . Aldo Ray is also present as the town's sheriff investigating the crimes.
In the end, I found "Haunts" to be quite captivating in many ways, mainly due to it being rich in atmosphere. It's a very dreary and dour-looking film, and possesses the same kind of sensibility of its contemporaries that I enjoy very much. The screenplay is admittedly sloppy as the film attempts to resolve itself, and the last act throws concepts into the mix that don't really gel, but I ultimately think the film works as a mood piece more than a straightforward thriller. It is an oddity for sure, and it's somewhat surprising that it has not found an audience over all these years. 7/10.
