On Halloween

It's not that hard to pull off a killer clown movie - take one clown, add weapons, add victims, shake, serve. On Halloween just tries way too hard to improve on that formula and doesn't succeed. S There's a plucky female journalist who shares a lot of research about killer clown sightings over the past 100 years, there are cops on a reality show for a little found footage presence, there's the requisite group of teens who get trapped in a spooky old house, and there's a (nonsensical) twist at the end. There are also terrible American accents, interchangeable characters, multiple timelines that I really couldn't keep straight, and most of the fun gore is either just off camera or too dark to see. The biggest problem I had (although I had many) was trying to be afraid of the killer clowns, as one was named Whaa and the other was named Boo. That they spoke in rhyme was goofy enough, but when trying to seduce someone into the immortal clown life, the viewer does not want to hear "drink and be a Boo" or "choose to be a Boo" over and over.

Seriously, if you're a filmmaker watch this film! Not because it's well done, but because it's exactly what you should try to avoid. Bad acting, terrible dialogue, cliche and mediocre production value.

But not the worst film of 2020 either. Remember back in the old days when pornos had acting and storylines? That's quality of directing at the start. It's kind of amusing, with its short snappy lines I'm thinking this would work okay in episode of Archer. The badness of it all wears thin, broken up occasionally when Boo is delivery lines quite well and the directing during action scenes improves. At its core is a story with potential, but it needs more fleshing out and a bigger budget to be great.

Everything about this movie just feels bottom of the barrel. The story is awful, the acting is even worse, and the dialogue feels dubbed in. No matter where the actors are, all the dialogue comes in at the same volume, feeling unnatural. The villain is laughable but at least he took an acting class or 2.

"The name's Boo, how do you do?"

On Halloween (2020) is an Australian horror movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a news reporter who believes in the legends of the local woods where bad things have happened in the area every Halloween season. When a string of murders start again as usual she looks to find whom or what is responsible. The police believe they've found the person responsible, but when the killing continues they're left with no choice but to listen to the reporter.

This movie is written and directed by Timothy Boyle (The Plex) and stars Terry Serio (Running on Empty), Mike Flokis (Underbelly), Patch May (Shadow Wars), James Pratt (Malibu Crush), Ava Caryofyllis (Thor: Love & Thunder) and Robert Harrell (Reckoning).

The writing acting is fairly average and isn't too bad. The storyline is fairly straightforward and not overly clever. The face paint and masks were solid and created the appropriate menacing looks. The kills and violence were sudden and well executed but not gory. The twist(s) at the end wasn't as smart as Boyle hoped.

Overall, this movie is a below average addition to the horror genre that I wouldn't go too out of my way to see. I would score this a 3.5-4/10 and recommend skipping it.