The Scarehouse

I don't mind watching the odd horror movie which has you on the edge of your seat with a decent story and great acting. (or even average acting) This has none of them, its like something a bunch of kids would make with gore for the sake of it and silly cheap thrills like young girls half naked messing around in a room it has absolutely no suspense or story nothing keeps you gripped to the screen to see what happens next. I actually started to fast forward the movie in places hoping things would improve..... but they did not.

If you gave a camera and some fake blood to a teenage and told him to go and make a horror movie this is what he would come up with

Just by watching the trailer you can get a good idea of what this movie is going to be about. I am a big horror buff, and I enjoy even the worst B-rated horror movies. Scarehouse is definitely in that category, but it takes a swing and misses on many aspects that other B-rated movies do well.

Let me say this before continuing. Horror movies lately have rarely ever made me truly feel a moment of dread, but they typically have a story you can roll your eyes at, but The Scarehouse is painful to watch even for the strongest movie buff.

I wont give a synopsis since you can read it on IMDb, but I will say that it's a petty story of revenge. The movie looks like it was done on a budget, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The setting fits very well for the direction the story wanted to go in. I did enjoy that there were no moments when I couldn't see what was happening and there are never any moments that purposely attempt to make you jump. That is about the only place this movie shines at. The acting honestly is not bad. All the actress did a believable job for a horror movie of this class, but the short roles of the male actors felt unrehearsed and thrown together to quickly.

The problem with this movie is its terrible story telling. You are given bits and pieces of past events through out the movie, and by time the climax comes it still doesn't feel like any of the actions are justified even slightly. The whole movie plays out like an emotional teenagers diary. I usually don't mind revenge tales, but this one just didn't pull me in.

FINAL VERDICT: For a horror movie the lead actresses are the only reason you may stay. The performance is not Oscar worthy, but I did not find myself hating it. The story is poorly done and ruins any possible chance of enjoying this movie. Mixed with torture and a late climax you're better off watching paint dry for the evening.

"The Scarehouse" is yet another example as to what is wrong with the Canadian film industry. The biggest reason as to why the movie fails can be seen in its credits. The person who is given credit for the direction (Gavin Michael Booth) not only directed the movie, he is given credit for the script, editing, and as one of the movie's producers. The Canadian government loves to fund movie projects by "auteurs", even though there are very few people in the Canadian film industry (or film industries in other countries, for that matter) that can successfully take on more that one role on the production of a movie. Obviously, there was really no one on board this movie project that could interfere with Booth's vision, and as a result, this movie fails like so many vanity productions. The characters in the movie are all repulsive, the narrative is garbled, and the production values (such as with bargain basement cinematography and lighting) are absolutely rock bottom... among many other problems. While I'm glad that the Canadian government is starting to fund more commercial movies instead of just art house dramas, they still don't seem to understand that the bulk of the movies they are choosing to fund (regardless of genre) simply are doomed to failure because they are badly conceived vanity projects. Unless the Canadian government changes their policy, Canadians will continue to ignore their filmmakers' films.

Sorority girls have set up a scarehouse for Halloween. Non of these girls are compelling. It's hazing style revenge torture. It's not scary nor compelling because nobody cares about any of them. It's low budget. There is one or two moments where it's so bad that it's kinda fun.

Everyone saying this is the worst movie are exaggerating a lot, it's good for a teenage petty drama slasher film and I enjoyed the overall plot and the acting. But everyone knows it's a made for TV type of late night film. Never expected it to be oscar worthy. I'd honestly recommend it to people who like gory movies or psychological gory horror flicks. Also the ending was a bit of a cool twist though not super shocking, still was more interesting than I assumed it would end.