WNUF Halloween Special

WNUF Halloween Special is a truly unique work unlike anything else out there. It's not a "film" so much as an experience, an 82 minute portal back to 1987 and the days of VHS, arcades, and after-school specials.

Combining masterfully crafted commercials (many of which make for excellent satire) with the paranormal investigation of a local "murder house" alleged to be haunted, we follow a tv host and a psychic couple, clearly inspired by Ed and Lorraine Warren, inside on Halloween night. The film is all made to mirror a home video recording of the live broadcast.

For what this film sets out to do, it is beyond successful. As a film, less so, but I'm really in awe of how well this was crafted. The skill shows in every detail. At its core, this is a love letter to the Late 80's, VHS tapes, and Retro Local Television. It is beyond convicing, and if I didn't know better, I would have no doubt this wasn't a lost relic from the 80's, in the vein of Ghostwatch. Just rad!

The WNUF Halloween Special is the horror-holiday hidden gem you've been looking for! Presented as a VHS recording, faux commercials included, of a televised Halloween broadcast from the 80s, this flick is a fun and refreshing take on the worn-out "found footage" genre. And it could have fooled me, as a real recording of a local news station attempting a live call-in séance/exorcism at the haunted location of a double homicide. Either shot as an honorable homage to the legendary BBC horror-mockumentary Ghostwatch (1992) or an outright ripoff, the WNUF Halloween Special still hits all the right notes, and seamlessly blends awkward reality-style comedy with spooks. Add it to the list, catch it if you can, it's a fun lil gem not to be missed by aficionados of the halloween horror movie exploratorium. And I believe it's currently streaming on Shudder. 7/10

This is cool. The creators were completely dedicated to the bit. Is it campy? Yes, but it never shows its hand or winks to the audience to get an extra laugh, NEVER. That's impressive in a found footage movie.

This movie left me feeling like I had almost been hit by a truck. Something big had missed me but I was shaken and my heart was racing. I guess that's an ideal outcome for a found footage horror.

If you like weird found footage movies check out Last Broadcast. You might like it.

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.

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.