Film Review: Hallow’s Eve (2013)

SYNOPSIS:

Years after a tragic accident leaves a young child scarred for life, the people responsible pay – with their lives.

REVIEW:

Bullying is bad, m’kay? And if your bullying leads to something to really terrible, the least you can do is learn from your mistake and maybe become a better person.

Apparently not if you’re one of the douche canoes in this story. and if you like to see a bunch of little a**holes get what they sorely deserve, then this is the movie for you.

Our story begins with a little girl named Eve working in her family’s cornfield. The local teens have nothing better to do than be horrible to an 8 year old girl, and they show up in force to beat on her a bit. She takes off running and gets lost in the cornfield.

She finds the edge of the cornfield and pops out onto the road…..and her brother runs over her with a tractor. Not his fault, of course. And as all the bullies catch up and see what they have caused, you would think this would be a teaching moment.

Ten years later, the farm is now a haunted attraction run by Eve’s dad and sister. Our bullies have grown up to be even bigger jerks than they were before, but every season they are invited to the haunt by the family and even given free VIP passes. Seems strange, but they come to party and have to a good time.

Eve bears permanent scars from the tractor accident. She wears a prosthetic over them, and spends most of her time alone. One of the boys brings his friends to peek in her window and sees her without the prosthetic, which leads to a lot of screaming. Eve drops it and it breaks.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group show up at the haunt, cases of beer in hand, and set themselves up to party at an unused stage. We get some of the usual drama – one sister dating the other’s ex, one guy pawing another guy’s little sister – the kind of douche-y things that happen with a bunch like this. Then there is the weed. What else would they need to party, right? SO we have a drug deal going on as well.

Eventually, everyone starts splitting up and checking out different parts of the haunt. And that’s where the fun begins, kids. Because you know what happens next, right?

They get picked off. one by one. In nasty, nasty ways. Glorious.

Question is….who’s culling the douche herd?

I realize I have several personal connections to this film, kind of like that Kevin Bacon game. The always fabulous Tiffany Shepis is in there, and the first Assistant Director Steve Nguyen was also first Assistant Director on a film I worked on.

And I work in the haunt industry in real life, and I am familiar with the Bates Motel Haunted Attraction, where the majority of the film was shot. I recognized the gift shop and everything. Like a trip down memory lane.

That being said, this film has quite an amazing cast.

Courtney Baxter, who plays the adult Eve, has quite a list of credits, including Sharknado 2.

Danielle Harris I have seen before. She was in a film I reviewed some time ago, Tom Holland’s Twisted Tales.

Raymond Mamrak (Matthew Bates) has appeared in Boardwalk Empire, Blue Bloods, and Orange is the New Black, just to name a few. He is also the writer of this film.

I could fill this entire space with the credits for this cast, to be honest. This is a full on SAG production, and everyone in it has lots of experience. There’s a lot of recognizable faces.

Visually the film is good. I’ve filmed at haunts before and it can be a serious challenge. The theatrical lighting isn’t designed for film, so I understand.

The special effects are fun. One advantage to shooting at a haunted attraction is no shortage of locations and props that you can get good and gooey with. The scar make up on Eve is really well done, although I’m not sure the scar matches the type of injury. That’s just me splitting hairs, though.

On the whole, it’s a fun little revenge film. Maybe not the best film ever made, but fun to watch. and isn’t that what a movie should be, after all?

So on a scale of one to ten, ten being awesome, I’m giving this film 6 VIP passes.