The Scarehouse

This started off ok. I had to figure out the story since it was done with flashbacks. The two culprits were just as much as fault as the others. Instead of moving on, they want revenge. I wanted so bad for someone to kill them first. Very unlikeable characters as I wanted them to just go away. Sorry, the story line was old and nothing but a bunch of women cussing and talking dirty. I don't understand why anyone would join or try to join a sorority. Seems they are the evil students at school. I can see why they went to jail and not the others. They od the guy by using too much. Then they acted like fools. It was better than I thought it was going to be. Just don't expect much. Oh yeah, bad acting.

'The Scarehouse' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an slightly intriguing but very derivative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Scarehouse' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is next to nothing to recommend and it is a complete un-scary experience.

Lets start with the sole positive. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky.

Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both dreadfully done. Not to mention a whole novel's worth of inconsistencies and continuity errors.

A lot of 'The Scarehouse' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative, very repetitive and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror and resorting to cheap typical horror tropes. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden, inexperience seems to be all over the film, and the music doesn't really fit.

Concluding, near-irredeemably awful. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Honestly at a loss to all the 1 star reviews, to say the least. I prefer to start any movie with default/neutral 5 and go from there, and have never dropped below 3 (for House of Fears, an utterly lifeless Halloween flick that somehow rates higher than this...)

I've seen plenty of Halloween-based flicks and this is definitely on the upper range, with most being passable 5s or slightly positive 6. I'd rate this 8 along with Rob Zombies Halloween (Carpenter original getting 10).

It is essentially torture porn as two girls enact a plan of torture kill revenge. Some of the scenes become quite uncomfortable, but I can't see this being any worse than Saw, which has a much higher rating? Granted their justification for such, revealed slowly throughout, is arguably weak compared to what is likely an overkill of revenge. In any event, it's just a movie, they were wronged but by varying degrees amongst their victims, and 2 years in jail didn't seem to help their state of mind.

The film is what it is, and it does what it does with a certain stylish quality. The performances were solid all around, there are some nice Halloween-styled visuals, and the quality of film and music were above average for most Halloween films (granted the more modern ones have all seemingly reached a rather consistent tone here).

If the trailer strikes your fancy, you'll probably enjoy it. Another review very apt in "Mean Girls meets Saw." Reminded me of a behind the scenes/inverted take on Scream or Scream 2 in which we follow instead the killers point of view of events. Strangely enough it also felt at times like an alternative "Ginger Snaps" sequel in which the two sisters have averted lycan encounters and matured their outcast duet into a Halloween murder house (the one looks very much like the dark haired sis, and the other is even Ginger-esque and more often is the one pushing their plans moral boundaries).

Just by watching the trailer you can get a good idea of what this movie is going to be about. I am a big horror buff, and I enjoy even the worst B-rated horror movies. Scarehouse is definitely in that category, but it takes a swing and misses on many aspects that other B-rated movies do well.

Let me say this before continuing. Horror movies lately have rarely ever made me truly feel a moment of dread, but they typically have a story you can roll your eyes at, but The Scarehouse is painful to watch even for the strongest movie buff.

I wont give a synopsis since you can read it on IMDb, but I will say that it's a petty story of revenge. The movie looks like it was done on a budget, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The setting fits very well for the direction the story wanted to go in. I did enjoy that there were no moments when I couldn't see what was happening and there are never any moments that purposely attempt to make you jump. That is about the only place this movie shines at. The acting honestly is not bad. All the actress did a believable job for a horror movie of this class, but the short roles of the male actors felt unrehearsed and thrown together to quickly.

The problem with this movie is its terrible story telling. You are given bits and pieces of past events through out the movie, and by time the climax comes it still doesn't feel like any of the actions are justified even slightly. The whole movie plays out like an emotional teenagers diary. I usually don't mind revenge tales, but this one just didn't pull me in.

FINAL VERDICT: For a horror movie the lead actresses are the only reason you may stay. The performance is not Oscar worthy, but I did not find myself hating it. The story is poorly done and ruins any possible chance of enjoying this movie. Mixed with torture and a late climax you're better off watching paint dry for the evening.

"The Scarehouse" is yet another example as to what is wrong with the Canadian film industry. The biggest reason as to why the movie fails can be seen in its credits. The person who is given credit for the direction (Gavin Michael Booth) not only directed the movie, he is given credit for the script, editing, and as one of the movie's producers. The Canadian government loves to fund movie projects by "auteurs", even though there are very few people in the Canadian film industry (or film industries in other countries, for that matter) that can successfully take on more that one role on the production of a movie. Obviously, there was really no one on board this movie project that could interfere with Booth's vision, and as a result, this movie fails like so many vanity productions. The characters in the movie are all repulsive, the narrative is garbled, and the production values (such as with bargain basement cinematography and lighting) are absolutely rock bottom... among many other problems. While I'm glad that the Canadian government is starting to fund more commercial movies instead of just art house dramas, they still don't seem to understand that the bulk of the movies they are choosing to fund (regardless of genre) simply are doomed to failure because they are badly conceived vanity projects. Unless the Canadian government changes their policy, Canadians will continue to ignore their filmmakers' films.