User reviews

This movie is about 5 friends - 4 guys, 1 girl - who go on a roadtrip to various Halloween haunted houses. Along the way, they discover some rather weird people. Still, they're not satisfied with the "Mickey Mouse" halloween houses, so they opt for those of a darker, more realistic nature, which they soon find. Some of them chase the group of out the houses with chainsaws. That leads the group to wonder just how far some people will go not just to scare the guests, but to also a thrill for themselves, which is the message of the movie: How far will people go for a thrill.

The acting was good enough for what this was. Brandy Schaefer - the lead actress - is hot She reminded me a lot of Danielle Harris :D It's filmed through camcorders, which is an overused and rather annoying leftover gimmick from The Blair Witchcraft days. The movie finally starts moving along about 20 minutes before it ends; it's running time is 91 minutes, so yeah it's a bit boring up until then. I've heard there was an underworld of drugs, sex, and other dark vises, but I guess this movie is trying to say there's an underworld of Halloween houses, too. lol There is some nudity in this. The group goes to a strip club, and there are topless dancers with some of the fakest breasts I've ever seen.

I gave this a 4-star rating. The storyline about visiting haunted houses was original, and as I said, the acting was pretty good for a low-budget indie. I love Halloween; it's probably my favorite holiday, but this movie did very little to keep me interested. Most of it had the group traveling from one haunted house to another. It wasn't very enthralling. But if you're a fan of found-footage films, you might enjoy this more than I did. I would not watch this again because of the bore-factor.

Set up as a "real footage" amateur documentary, a group of friends set off to find real scares on Halloween. They encounter various run of the mill "haunted" attractions and begin to inquire with the locals if they know of any "really scary" happenings in the area but are pretty much rebuffed. The build up in this movie is slow, but if you stay with it, the atmosphere will seep into you. Once the group gives up their search as fruitless, things begin to change, and the "real scary" things start to find them. I guess I am a sucker for silent, masked, boogeymen because they were effective in my book. May not be for everyone but I was glad I gave it a watch.

This is not an entirely awful movie. I do think they could have done more with what the premise was supposed to be. There were about 5, maybe 6 times that I jumped in the movie, but it wasn't from the climax, at all... It was a tad bit gimmicky at times and when the actors were supposed to be "frightened" and "scared", they weren't good actors at all. All the other moments of the cast "acting" in between were alright though. They could've done a lot more than what they did, and made it a ton more scarier than what it was. I was disappointed with the ending as well.

I loved the plot of the movie and what I thought it was going to be, but ultimately I was let down.

I did enjoy going through the different haunted houses with the cast, but that was about all I enjoyed out of this movie. If you like haunted houses, and don't mind cheesy acting here and there, give this movie a go. If you're looking for something entirely inventive and scary, this movie is not that.

If you go into watching this movie with low expectations, you'll probably be more satisfied than me.

Five hard drinking friends go on a booze-fuelled roadtrip looking for the most extreme haunted house experience America's backcountry has to offer. It's actually a fantastic premise as the film-makers are able to play with loads of creepy imagery, ratcheting up the tension without shooting their bolt too soon. The assumption is that none of it is real, but underlying these visits is the tension that... what if they aren't? For a low-budget film the acting and the script is really good. Found footage always benefits from believable characters exchanging natural dialogue, which is what you get here without a doubt. Some of the back and forth is actually pretty funny and at times I found myself chuckling along; which I think is a good thing in a horror film as it builds a rapport between the viewer and characters, which draws you into their world. It's a pretty slow film all told and the last act spoiled the build up for me, leaving me rather unsatisfied.

Was I sad I watched it though? Hell no! This film is all about the tension and the imagery. The uncertainty, the questioning of what's real and what isn't. It isn't perfect, but with a few simple tweaks and a better ending, it could have been. If you like horror and you like found footage, this film will totally entertain you. If you liked the trailer and you're sitting on the fence, get off that fence and stick it on. It gets more right than wrong, some of the scenes are so downright creepy they'll be knocking around in my psyche for some time to come.

This film sets itself up like a documentary, but veers very quickly from that point. If you don't know what you're watching, you'll be in for either a treat or a surprise. For a horror film, which is what this is, it can get pretty weird. Probably one of the weirder horror films that I've seen.

The film had a slow pace to begin with, but gets slower towards the end; and the ending is really strange. Best to watch when you're fully awake so you can figure out what's going on, and best to watch with someone if you scare easily.

I was surprised when a sequel was announced.

The only reason I'm giving this a 2 is because of the interesting content that may or may not be real revolving around their interviews with haunted house workers. It's boring, predictable, and I think by now everyone with a clown phobia has made a decision to avoid movies like this, not flock to them.

For those of us looking for a thoughtful movie, a scary movie, a movie that you'll look back on the next day and go "Damn, that was good," this is not it. This is lazy, self-indulgent and drags across the screen like the corpse we never get dragged off camera but kind of wish we do, since nobody is the least bit likable. You sit through the end because you think, as with most FF movies, the slow build will pay off. It does not. If you think you can guess the ending, you're probably right, if you're over the age of eight. That's about as much worldly experience you need to call it.

You want to be scared sleepless? You want amazing writing and genius use of FF perspective? You want Hell House LLC. That movie kicks this house's butt, on so, so many levels.

I watched this thinking I'd get a least a similar thrill ride, and what I got was held hostage on a stupid RV for an hour and a half of my life. Oh, and hey, literally everyone involved with this movie? I also see there's a sequel who's trailer advertises any semblance of what you wanted us to believe about the ending—that right there kills your market for those who you wanted to leave hanging. You guys need to get off this ride before you dig your own grave.

The Houses October Built is such a clever take on found footage horror! It blurs the line between reality and fiction, following a group of friends exploring real haunted attractions while diving into some truly unsettling real-world stories-like the haunting case of Brandon Menard and the bizarre tale of Elmer McCurdy's body. The mix of real interviews with haunted house and experience creators adds a layer of authenticity that makes the scares even more chilling. While the ending might be predictable, the journey there is full of eerie twists, making this a fun, fascinating watch for any horror fan!

I scored this high because it isn't like any movie I've seen before. Its not as much as scary as it is creepy, however. In my opinion, its a movie that plays more on an individuals phobias than anything else for that kind of fear factor. I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil it for anyone - but you have to be into hand held camera movies like 'The Blair Witch Project' to enjoy it.

I read through the negative 'don't waste your time' comments and came across a positive one which swayed it for me, I watched it and wasn't disappointed, so hopefully you won't be either. Its original, realistic, and if you get really into it, it will certainly creep you out.

I really liked this movie. It was pretty creepy. Some parts were a little unsettling. It'll make you think twice, before you go looking for the ultimate scare. Road trip of horror.

Nevermind the actual film, the idea is one of the most potent I've seen in some time.

A group of friends set out in a van in search of horror, haunted house attractions scattered around rural America. It's the days leading up to Halloween so we can have a pervasive atmosphere of masks and monsters roaming the streets. I like that it's a glimpse outside the usual and tied to a larger fabric of make-believe.

The idea is that we'll venture into these houses where horror is supposed to be controlled around us, the work of fiction, only to discover more slippery boundaries of truth. This would touch at the very essence of horror, exploiting the same perturbations that move viewers in both the actual houses and film; see, we know it's not real, but what to do when your body tells you otherwise?

So nevermind that it's actors we see and scripted reactions. Some of the most potent footage here are from within these houses where we go in with a camera and a swirl of monsters lunges at us, staged but it comes alive. I'm guessing these are actual places that partnered with the filmmakers and this is what tantalized me going in; it would be at least in part an actual tour of that America that goes to pilgrimage in actual places.

They manage to bungle this for my taste, the part where fiction blurs and we go to something that comes alive in the moment of watching.

For one, they chose the "found footage" mode (silly name, largely the baggage of Blairwitch - it really means "someone is filming this now"). It's the most apt choice I've seen since Last Exorcism, but no one ever films a sense of place and passing time, a physical sense of journey; they waste it on lots of blathering around a camera so that it ends up feeling like an episode of cable TV. Indicative of the actual makers holding the camera I guess.

And then there's the ending. This is where the staged scenarios in these attractions don't cut it any more as the characters push for more and more "real" stuff. Lo, there's rumor of a secret place that you can only reach by invitation. But once there, it's the most obviously staged part of the film, the complete opposite of where we were meant to be viewing-wise.

So this is a miss, filmmakers with maybe the strongest idea of any of their peers this year but none of the tools of insight to cultivate it. They outline enough for me to imagine it in more intuitive hands so all in all I would have this over the next paranormal film.

Someone has gone out with the urge for horror in mind (and it's our very urge to inhabit illusion that made us build these houses), thinking he knows illusion from real, but it begins to spill outside, perturbing reality. From a certain point on, the apparitions become aware of someone watching, aware inside the fiction, so conspire to stage the real thing as a cosmic prank that shatters lives.

Watch The Funhouse, Hooper's film driven by the same instinct, a funhouse that extends from the actual place to haunt the whole film.

I like a good found footage movie, when it's done right it can be creepier than most 'regular' horror movies.

This movie however... was, not done right.

The acting isn't terrible but the plot can't sustain the duration of a movie by a long-shot, it would probably have worked as a 30 minute TALES FROM THE CRYPT episode but not as a 90 minute movie.

The first hour you wait for something to happen and when it finally does you don't have the patience or energy to care how it's all gonna end, it all feels so tediously dull and in the end completely pointless.

I originally wrote that they should have just made it a documentary on Haunted House attractions instead BUT then I found out that the makers of this movie actually made a documentary about just that in 2011 called the exact same thing as this is.

Now I haven't seen that documentary but I think you're better off watching that than this.

When I stumbled upon 'The Houses October Built' on Netflix, I was hesitant, yet intrigued by both the trailer and the poster. Not many movies give us the glimpse of haunted houses on Halloween Night, especially to the found footage extent. Within the first twenty minutes, I was utterly bored, but did not want to stop without finishing. I'm glad I didn't stop, because it got creepier by the minute. The movie does explain well what to expect in haunted houses and the scary nature of the unknown when stepping inside. However, the movie does not do a good job (as many are) of explaining what the hell happened at the end to the characters and why were they being chased after. The doll girl... CREEPY! My advice, don't go in with high expectations and you'll be quite satisfied.

I for one am someone who has jumped on the bandwagon supporting the new onslaught of found footage horror movies. I review them, list them and enjoy them as a whole. The problem lately is that they seem to be limited to just a few plots. Alien attack/abduction, people exploring haunted asylums, bigfoot etc.

Here we have something kind of new. A group of five people load up an R.V. and decide to tour the country visiting haunted houses, not the spirit haunted kind, but the ones run by people in costume designed scare people around Halloween. They film what they see inside and this is interspersed with what seems to be actual footage of interviews with people who work in these attractions.

This goes on for a while as they become bored of these cookie cutter haunts and try to find something more extreme. Eventually they find what they want and it becomes much more than what they bargained for.

As seems to be the case with a lot of these found footage movies, this one takes a while to get to the scary stuff but the tours through the haunts are interesting and some of the interactions with the (possible) workers are frightening. When things start to go horribly wrong, there are some pretty intense sequences and a pretty frightening ending.

All in all this was good fun if not perfect and a great view for this time of the season.