Hallows Eve

Genuinely loved this... Solid premise and a fine movie that left me chilled. Fantastic closing shot!

I guess on virtually every review page there will be someone who describes the film they are reviewing as the "worst film ever made".....well they are all wrong because this IS the worst and most stupid film ever made.

Why is it stupid? The timeline in the narrative makes no sense - the vigilantes start posting their "tags" and planning their revenge BEFORE the most heinous of the acts they seek vengeance for has even occurred. The revenge takes place against some completely innocent people for no reason whatsoever. We are expected to believe that the ordinary working class dad's who are the vigilantes apparently decided it was important to spend around 8 hours huddled together making about 100 pumpkin lanterns - and even the most stupid policeman would then know to arrest the blokes who bought at consignment of 100 pumpkins.

The direction is flat and lifeless. The editing is by the numbers. The dialogue is laughable. And the acting.....oh the "acting"....Ethan Taylor and Lenox Kambaba, the toughest, baddest guys in town, are 2 of the biggest mummy's boys you are likely to encounter in any film. I'm afraid to say that Sarah Akokhia, who is supposed to have had some previous romance with Mr Kambaba and is supposedly at University looks old enough to be his mum! Lots of running around, lots of very sub Attack the Block attitude, lots of silly and inconsistent behaviour and not a single brain cell in use.

I have honestly seen thousands of films and obviously among that number there have been some truly awful films over the years but none that made me feel as if my intelligence was being insulted quite as badly as this one.

There is a great inter generational horror film to be made about the old killing the young with a post Brexit sub text but this isn't it, this is simply STUPID. There are so many great films to watch so I'm just trying to save your precious time by warning you.......please don't waste your time on this utter rubbish.

I've being working in the film industry for several years and this film doesn't look bad at all, especially considering the budget they claim to have spent.

When it comes to horror movies, I think the two most crucial elements are the cinematography, the soundtrack. Actually, sometimes I prefer there to be no music at all but in this case it created a good 80's mood and the main theme got stuck in my head for a few days.

The storyline is pretty decent. It's not genuinely creepy on it's own but together with the great cinematography and sound design it does a decent enough job to keep your interest and sell what your seeing unfold on screen. And it's safe to say that this is a very different take on your typical low-budget Halloween/horror movie.

I'm not a really big fan of that British accent but the acting was more than decent in my opinion. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of those guys on mainstream productions one day.

'Hallows Eve' or 'Attack of the Thug-Trashing Sack Heads' is a serviceable low budget, high-polish British horror/thriller gloomily set on the crime beleaguered Hallows Estate. This deprived, volatile suburb is being threateningly daubed with some especially evil-looking graffiti, grimly forewarning the locals of 'Haddonfield' of some terrible pending event on Halloween Night. While the acting performances are variable, they are,frankly, a little 'generic', but the energised Sarah Akokhia certainly puts in a feisty show as the enjoyably boisterous 'Cassie', and the script, is, shall we say, perfunctorily adequate, it made for a passable terror-tinged time-waster, and Director Brad Watson's sinister synth score, is, for me, the film's true glistering highlight. And to the film-makers enormous credit, the smart camera work is very accomplished, the more eloquent shots proving to be remarkably effective, having some deliciously moody lighting flourishes, but, sadly, 'Hallows Eve' ultimately lacked the knock-out punch, the Grange Hill theatrics, dearth of risk taking, and the bizarrely tame kills overall make 'Hallows Eve' a trifle anaemic, and I personally would have prescribed a grisly infusion of greatly revivifying gore, all that being said, it looks pretty spiffy, and non-gorehounds might still get a kick out of it, worth watching the next time it comes on the ol' telly box.

I'll admit I only gave this a chance because of the fantastic cover art by Graham Humpreys, who if you didn't know already is responsible for some of the greatest VHS horror cover art of the 1980's. What I got was one of the worst acted, unoriginal, and terrible films that I've seen for years.

The acting from pretty much the entire cast was unbelievable bad, especially the main kid Derren played by Ethan Taylor. Obviously the cast aren't Oscar winning actors, but even for unknowns there was some unforgivable displays of 'acting' throughout. The sound mixing was also a massive issue in some scenes and felt like I was watching an old school Jackie Chan film at times.

The attempt to create a Halloween atmosphere littered with pumpkins and various other decorations around the estate, while wasn't a bad effort just didn't really add anything, and the need to add even more pumpkins to the third act of the film in the abandoned factory setting was just completely unnecessary and just seemed forced to try and create a 'spooky' atmosphere and failing miserably.

Overall though it really is a boring, clichéd, drab piece of work which will no doubt be found on the horror channel repeating itself every other week, or in the bargain section of HMV.