I wasn’t going to watch this movie on DVD because it was labeled as slasher/horror.    At the beginning, you see and hear someone building something.    You watch the party scene, and you think it’s business as usual.  

But, once it got into the slasher phase, I thought it was intense, and not in a bad way.    It was so well done.   Although it was never revealed why the whole complicated maze of horror was even built, co-writers/co-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods did a great job of keeping you glued to your seat.   Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, etc.) was one of the producers.

It starts off as usual with a nice group of young people celebrating Halloween.    One of whom has been beaten up by her boyfriend, so you are led to believe that the boyfriend will provide the horror.   

However peer pressure, daring each other, was what got them into this mess.   What Generation Z you know is going to leave their phone with anyone?   After the initial stupidity of leaving their cell phones outside as required by the clown, I assumed stupidity would reign.   After that, there were a lot of moments when you hollered at the screen, but not because they were doing stupid things necessarily.

Here kicks in the psychology of knowing a great deal about young people.   The maze of tricks and fixtures looked grungy which added to the excitement of the place.    The place didn’t look like they spared no expense to make this trap, but someone in a mask was seen constructing and drilling things at the beginning of the movie but you sort of forget that while you are getting involved in these young, beautiful people’s lives.  However, these characters were not your usual stuck-up kids.   They were intelligent college kids.

Supervising sound editor, Mac Smith,” used Skywalker Sound’s catalog of sounds created for other films—using sound as a story-telling device”.    There was a good combination of strong and weak characters, but all of them “manned up” when it became obvious that the danger was real.   Many times, though, they failed to take advantage of an opportunity for psychological reasons such as the costumed person acting friendly or acting as if they too were a victim in the same dangerous situation.  

The music was great throughout the movie, but the song at the end “Dragula” by Lissie was so appropriate—solemn yet tender (“Dig through the ditches, burn through the witches…”).  

The clown face on the cover of the DVD reminds you of Stephen King’s “It”, but the character studies in Haunt don’t go as deeply into each character, except for Harper’s character.   

The perpetrators’ costumes were so authentic, much more than I would think they would be when they knew the blood that would be splashed on them.    The costumes looked so expensive and detailed.  Spoiler alert–the horror increases when you see what’s under the costumes.    They were killing for no reason other than they could.

The actors were so talented.    They made a believer out of me.   I believed the danger they were in.  The traps were ingenious.

Katie Stevens played “Harper” the abused young woman who (spoiler alert) turned out to be the strongest-willed.   Lauren Alisa McClain played “Bailey”, Harper’s best friend.    Harper’s other girlfriends were “Angela”, played by Shazi Raja, and “Mallory” played by Schuyler Helford.

Samuel Hunt was the abusive boyfriend “Sam”.   Will Brittain was the new man of interest named “Nathan”.    Andrew Caldwell played “Evan,” the humorous pal skilled in picking locks.

Justen Marxen was the clown, but not necessarily the boss of the killers.

Spoiler alert:   The paybacks were a bitch and made it all worthwhile.   You’ve got to see it!

Written by Rosa L. Griffin

I saw this movie recently and found it so shadowy in black and white.   But that was ok because it and the music added to the mysterious atmosphere of the movie.    A rich widow Christine Faber (Lynn Bari) is haunted by the apparition, voice, and piano-playing of her husband Paul (Donald Curtis) who died two years before.  

Then Alexis, a fake medium (Turhan Bey) comes along to suggest that her husband is trying to contact her, so of course, right away I think that the fake medium is behind the so-called haunting.  You know what opportunists they were.   That’s how they made their livings.  As a matter of fact, Alexis showed the viewing audience every trick he used.   

But, no, her “poor” husband is actually poor, alive, and trying to drive his wife crazy (or kill her) so he can get her money.    Her new fiancé Martin Abbott (Richard Carlson) tries to dissuade her from using a medium.   But her sister Janet (Cathy O’Donnell) falls for the charm of the medium, who is cool—no doubt.

Then, there’s the not-obvious twist that her bum husband is alive and trying to get her money.   He even threatens the medium to get the medium to work with him in his plan.   But the medium finds out that the husband means to start murdering the people in his way and tries to figure a way out for everyone.

The acting is superb.    I remember Turhan Bey playing Asian or other exotic parts but I am surprised to learn that he was Austrian-born Turkish-Czech Jewish and couldn’t marry Lana Turner because his mom disapproved and he never married.    I remember Cathy O’Donnell as the girlfriend of the sailor who lost his arms below the elbows in the after-war movie, The Best Years of Our Lives.   She was great in this movie, too. 

I wasn’t as familiar with Lynn Bari, but her face is familiar to me.   And it seems like Richard Carlson was in everybody’s movie.  I remember him in It Came from Outer Space and Creature from the Black Lagoon (from romance/comedy to horror/scifi later in his life).

Directed by Bernard Vorhaus.   Labeled as a thriller/indie film.

Sources:  Wikipedia, IMDb, etc.

Written by Rosa L. Griffin