Haunt (2019)

Sometimes I don't know if a movie gets good word of mouth and reviews simply because audiences are so starved for new content that they'll glom on to anything.  Such is how I feel about Haunt, directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the cowriters of A Quiet Place, which was basically how distributors pushed this movie.  It also has Eli Roth producing, and it seems as if there is a lot of effort to throw names around and mention better movies.  That is never a good sign. 

Harper (Katie Stevens) has an abusive boyfriend named Sam (Samuel Hunt) who she finally breaks up with.  It's Halloween and, at the urging of her roommate Bailey (Lauryn Alisa McClain) and friends Mallory (Schuyler Helford) and Angela (Shazi Raja), she decides to go out on the town.  At a local bar they meet Evan (Andrew Lewis Caldwell) and his friend Nathan (Will Brittain), and Harper takes a liking to Nathan.  The group decides to leave the bar and check out an "extreme" haunted house.

After signing release forms and surrendering their cell phones the group enter the attraction, which at first seems to be a rather ramshackle and disappointing affair.  Soon, though, it becomes a bit more sinister, as Mallory suddenly disappears and Bailey is hurt after reaching in to an exhibit.  The group soon decides they have had enough and decides to leave, but soon find out that leaving is not an option. 

I have often said that a truly bad movie, especially if the director thought they were making a good one, is much more interesting than a bland movie.  Haunt is as bland as they come, with the added irritation of the characters.  The villains never become interesting as Beck and Woods purposely left out any backstory on why they do what they do.  While the backstory probably would not have made them any more interesting it would have at least given them a purpose.  In this case they are just random creeps killing a bunch of annoying characters that one can't care any more about than the villains.  They try to build some story for Harper about the continuing cycle of abuse, but it's done in such a hamfisted way that it also doesn't quite work. 

Haunt also has a problem with pacing, with the first half being pretty much nothing happening and then, when the killing starts, not doing anything interesting with it.  It is also hard to keep track of where people are or how they got there since it seems like large chunks of the movie may have been chopped out at some point, particularly at the end.  They went for a twist but the way it is done, once again, is clumsy and makes little sense. 

I know people like this movie and, again, I don't know if it is the lack of original content available these days or people just wanting more of the guys that wrote A Quiet Place.  As for originality there is none here at all, with Rob Zombie using a similar concept in 2016 for his movie 31,which is superior to this.  In fact, it feels as if they were trying to write a Rob Zombie film, right down to that awful cover of "Dragula" over the end credits.  While his movies are not necessarily high art at least most of them are entertaining, unlike Haunt.  

Haunt (2019)

Time: 92 minutes

Starring: Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, Lauryn Alisa McClain

Directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods