Much like "Unrest", "Crazy Eights" is the same thing currently oversaturated in big-budget horror and something that shouldn't be showing at a horror festival. I would've thought the people hosting it would have the sense to instead show something with imagination and ambition behind it, not some concept produces every other month.
Some old friends reunite after the death of one of their own. On request of the dead man they journey to somewhere they buried a time capsule, which they dig up.
While trying to leave, they seemingly travel in circles, passing the same house again and again. It's similar to the spacial distortion trick commonly found in haunted house films except they haven't entered a haunted house yet. Additionally, the mandatory "no way out" scenario provides the only other haunted building tradition.
And then, well, people stumble about, jump scares will substitute for attempts at atmosphere, and a ghostly woman goes around killing anyone who - sorry, there's no "anyone who", she kills people she's intending to murder, but takes longer to murder them than you'd expect. Seriously, they can't hurt her - lets not forget, she's a spirit! And they're locked in the building through her powers so therefore, nothing's really stopping her from slaughtering everyone very quickly.
Of course the ghost's past becomes relevant. Of course the opening scene involves people studying a subject important to the plot. Apparently someone forgot to write one of the characters as a skeptic who doesn't believe a spirit could be killing, but don't worry, people will have other things to be skeptical about as the plot progresses.
Jump scares cause most problems here because while normally a poor replacement for atmosphere, for "Crazy Eights" lacking atmosphere leaves viewers watching people sitting in a room while daylight pours through the windows talking about how there's no escape. The building refusing its captives an escape route is a commonly used idea, no atmosphere means the building comes across as nothing more than some building.
If it was some big budget Hollywood film this would get four stars on account of its what I expect from them. However it's a horror festival selectee and whoever runs Afterdark should've known better. Higher expectations equals lower rating therefore.
