The Houses October Built

Set up as a "real footage" amateur documentary, a group of friends set off to find real scares on Halloween. They encounter various run of the mill "haunted" attractions and begin to inquire with the locals if they know of any "really scary" happenings in the area but are pretty much rebuffed. The build up in this movie is slow, but if you stay with it, the atmosphere will seep into you. Once the group gives up their search as fruitless, things begin to change, and the "real scary" things start to find them. I guess I am a sucker for silent, masked, boogeymen because they were effective in my book. May not be for everyone but I was glad I gave it a watch.

This is not an entirely awful movie. I do think they could have done more with what the premise was supposed to be. There were about 5, maybe 6 times that I jumped in the movie, but it wasn't from the climax, at all... It was a tad bit gimmicky at times and when the actors were supposed to be "frightened" and "scared", they weren't good actors at all. All the other moments of the cast "acting" in between were alright though. They could've done a lot more than what they did, and made it a ton more scarier than what it was. I was disappointed with the ending as well.

I loved the plot of the movie and what I thought it was going to be, but ultimately I was let down.

I did enjoy going through the different haunted houses with the cast, but that was about all I enjoyed out of this movie. If you like haunted houses, and don't mind cheesy acting here and there, give this movie a go. If you're looking for something entirely inventive and scary, this movie is not that.

If you go into watching this movie with low expectations, you'll probably be more satisfied than me.

Five hard drinking friends go on a booze-fuelled roadtrip looking for the most extreme haunted house experience America's backcountry has to offer. It's actually a fantastic premise as the film-makers are able to play with loads of creepy imagery, ratcheting up the tension without shooting their bolt too soon. The assumption is that none of it is real, but underlying these visits is the tension that... what if they aren't? For a low-budget film the acting and the script is really good. Found footage always benefits from believable characters exchanging natural dialogue, which is what you get here without a doubt. Some of the back and forth is actually pretty funny and at times I found myself chuckling along; which I think is a good thing in a horror film as it builds a rapport between the viewer and characters, which draws you into their world. It's a pretty slow film all told and the last act spoiled the build up for me, leaving me rather unsatisfied.

Was I sad I watched it though? Hell no! This film is all about the tension and the imagery. The uncertainty, the questioning of what's real and what isn't. It isn't perfect, but with a few simple tweaks and a better ending, it could have been. If you like horror and you like found footage, this film will totally entertain you. If you liked the trailer and you're sitting on the fence, get off that fence and stick it on. It gets more right than wrong, some of the scenes are so downright creepy they'll be knocking around in my psyche for some time to come.

This film sets itself up like a documentary, but veers very quickly from that point. If you don't know what you're watching, you'll be in for either a treat or a surprise. For a horror film, which is what this is, it can get pretty weird. Probably one of the weirder horror films that I've seen.

The film had a slow pace to begin with, but gets slower towards the end; and the ending is really strange. Best to watch when you're fully awake so you can figure out what's going on, and best to watch with someone if you scare easily.

I was surprised when a sequel was announced.

This movie is about 5 friends - 4 guys, 1 girl - who go on a roadtrip to various Halloween haunted houses. Along the way, they discover some rather weird people. Still, they're not satisfied with the "Mickey Mouse" halloween houses, so they opt for those of a darker, more realistic nature, which they soon find. Some of them chase the group of out the houses with chainsaws. That leads the group to wonder just how far some people will go not just to scare the guests, but to also a thrill for themselves, which is the message of the movie: How far will people go for a thrill.

The acting was good enough for what this was. Brandy Schaefer - the lead actress - is hot She reminded me a lot of Danielle Harris :D It's filmed through camcorders, which is an overused and rather annoying leftover gimmick from The Blair Witchcraft days. The movie finally starts moving along about 20 minutes before it ends; it's running time is 91 minutes, so yeah it's a bit boring up until then. I've heard there was an underworld of drugs, sex, and other dark vises, but I guess this movie is trying to say there's an underworld of Halloween houses, too. lol There is some nudity in this. The group goes to a strip club, and there are topless dancers with some of the fakest breasts I've ever seen.

I gave this a 4-star rating. The storyline about visiting haunted houses was original, and as I said, the acting was pretty good for a low-budget indie. I love Halloween; it's probably my favorite holiday, but this movie did very little to keep me interested. Most of it had the group traveling from one haunted house to another. It wasn't very enthralling. But if you're a fan of found-footage films, you might enjoy this more than I did. I would not watch this again because of the bore-factor.