WNUF Halloween Special

I suppose if this film were to be summed up in a single word, it would be dedicated. The plot of the film surrounds a television broadcast that's recently been unearthed, and it was executed in such a way with careful dedication to detail that it was quite nostalgic to watch. Those of us who grew up in the times of only having a handful of channels and having everything we watched being interlaced with obnoxious commercials will find particular appeal and charm in this film. Of course, it's not totally inaccurate (VCRs don't squeal when fast-forwarded; nor does the tape itself), but it pulls itself off pretty well.

This is by far the most creative execution I've seen used for a horror movie, in that it plays on the nostalgia of the viewers. It's not like Disney in the sense that the past is thrown in your face in a disingenuous way and you're just expected to come along for the ride automatically. Rather, this film is a careful reconstruction of the way a lot of us watched TV. That alone is worth the price of admission. In fact, I forgot I was even watching a horror movie and instead was interested in the "old commercials" and broadcasting styles.

Yet again, thanks to Shudder for making this wonderful little horror film available to me.

I can't believe more people aren't praising this film. Its great, silly fun, doesn't work as a horror film that well, but its still entertaining and even hilarious at times. The commercials....someone was complaining about the commercials, I guess you had to be around at that time in some podunk town to understand how brilliant of a recreation this is. Somebody knows that time really well. The music, even the fonts, were all ridiculously of their time. This is the kind of local programming that really doesn't exist much at all (if at all) anymore. I felt like i was watching Channel 36 from Atlanta waiting for "Movie Macabre" to come on. They could have amped up the scares a bit, made it really spooky, but i still think this is one of the more brilliant takes on the whole "found footage" bit. Certainly the most humorous. I have to think this film was loads of fun to make.

Complete with fake TV ads, The WNUF Halloween Special really, really nails the low budget, awkward nature that an actual live TV special of the late 1980's might have had.

Unfortunately, I found it a little TOO authentic. After a while, it genuinely feels like the whole point of this "movie" is to string you along to sit through the next commercial break, full of tongue-in-cheek advertisements for businesses that don't exist. They're good fake commercials, don't get me wrong, but just like real TV, there's only so many "we'll find out when we come back after this commercial" cliffhangers you can take before it starts to get frustrating.

Which feeds in to a larger problem: not a lot actually happens over the course of the movie. Characters are almost non-existent, there's barely a narrative to follow, there's very little setup and next to no payoff. Things happen, of course, but they aren't structured to happen.

This is all in service of WNUF's attempts at found footage authenticity. If this was actually recorded off of television as the film maintains, it wouldn't have anything resembling a traditional movie narrative. It's supposed to be a crummy local access broadcast on Halloween. It's as impersonal as a weather report, because that's kind of the point. It's not totally devoid of fun, of course. They play up the awkwardness of live TV, and how the host reacts to audience members or callers is worth some laughs, but those moments are too few and too far between, nor do they really build towards anything.

You also have to consider that if what happens in this "tape" was actually real, it would just be clips on Youtube of only the relevant parts, not the full 90 minute recording with all the commercials still left in (including half of the nightly news that aired prior to the special).

I admire what the WNUF Halloween Special is going for, but its slavish dedication to authentically replicating even the worst aspects of television ended up making it kind of a bore. It's more entertaining on a conceptual level than it is when you're actually watching it. I'm sure there's people out there who are probably way in to something like this, but I don't think I am.

This is a film that in theory sounds really cool, and is actually executed in a well done way, but just doesn't work. It's the kind of thing that would work as a creepy pasta you would read online, but it doesn't have enough entertainment to be a movie.

The biggest issue here is just how much horror we get. The movie is supposed to look like an old VHS tape that contains a recording of an old 80s/90s broadcast of a live haunted house investigation. They really nail the feeling of nostalgia when you watch this. It really feels like a real old tape. But the issue is that they focus too much on that. We get these really well done commercials that at first are funny just because of how they really seem like an 80s/90s commercial, but the movie keeps cutting to these commercials over and over. The joke really starts to pound you over the head to the point where it essentially ruins the film. I want to see the strange events occurring in the live broadcast, not these well done but unfunny commercials. We occasionally get somebody fast forwarding through the commercials which is funny to see, but I really feel like the movie needed to fast forward through the commercials a lot more. It certainly is more of a comedy than a horror.

The horror aspect is okay, but it can be ruined by the comedy, which is a problem that I find happens very often with comedy/horror films. They are two genres that are EXTREMELY difficult to mix and turn out well, yet so many independent film makers try to do it with horrible results. Just because Evil Dead 2 did it, doesn't mean any movie can. This film kind of makes it work, but it's not perfect. I think the films ending gives it a bit more of a boost though, because it's kind of cool.

In the end, I think the concept to this is great, and it does work as a film that is trying to show that old nostalgic VHS tape style, but it just isn't entertaining enough. Maybe it would work if you showed someone this and told them it was real just to see their reactions, but other than that, it kind of falls flat.

This could've and should've been terrific. The filmmakers totally nail the look and feel of cheap, local 80's TV and waste it on a poorly acted and terribly crafted found-footage horror story that doesn't work in any way, start to finish.

There are moments when I truly thought I was watching an old VHS tape which makes it all the more sad that nothing besides the commercials are very well thought out. The story is truly lame as are the actors. Some so over the top you wouldn't be wrong thinking you'd stumbled into a high school play. That said, if these guys were given another venue, Adult Swim comes to mind, and some decent performers, this stuff could be damn entertaining.

Drop the Poughkeepsie Tapes angle and you've got the second coming of SCTV here.