Haunt Season

Behind the Screams: Haunt Season Blends Drama and Gore in a Haunted House Setting

I enjoyed Haunt Season for several reasons. The characters are likable and well-developed, with realistic social issues like financial stress and job worries. Watching actors and makeup artists prep for the haunted house is intriguing. Though the film has well-crafted gore, it leans more toward drama than horror, and isn't particularly scary. For those looking for a true scare, Hell House LLC does a better job delivering thrills. Still, Haunt Season stands out with its unique approach to haunted attractions, blending character depth with a backstage look that adds authenticity.

I genuinely wanted to enjoy Haunted Season. The trailer promised a solid horror experience within its subgenre-perhaps not groundbreaking, but at least something entertaining. Sadly, the film itself turned out to be a letdown. Poor directing, cringeworthy dialogue, and acting straight out of a high school drama class completely sank any hopes I had.

Admittedly, the cinematography was decent-at least someone on set seemed to know which direction to point the camera. Initially, I suspected this was an earnest attempt by recent film grads, so I was prepared to overlook some rookie mistakes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the director is in his 40s with twenty years of filmmaking experience behind him. If this is his best after two decades, perhaps a career change should be considered.

Ultimately, Haunted Season isn't frightening or engaging-it's just disappointing. Save yourself the trouble and find a film made by someone who still enjoys making movies.

In the Realm of Terror, a haunted house at a Carnival, the performer Taylor (Ana Dragovich) is murdered by a maniac wearing costumer. She vanishes and her colleagues believe she has flaked out, and the manager Bradford (Stephen Kristof) replaces her by the wannabe actress Matilda (Sarah Elizabeth), who has a powerful scream, to be scalped many times during the show. Soon, other performers are murdered by the maniac, who plans a crime spree on the All Hallows Eve.

"Haunt Season" (2024) is a very bad slasher, with a poor storyline and awful dialogs. The way Stephen Kristof speaks is very difficult to be understood, at least for a viewer not native in English. The gore is intense but with no character development. The best scene is the funny sequence at the bowling, when the manic Danny makes the people cheer for him to kill Matilda. Indeed, it is the best moment of this forgettable movie. My advice is, if you are not cast, crew, member of the family or friend of them, do not waste your time watching this flick. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available.

All of these positive reviews were probably written by cast members or their friends and family because it's just ridiculous. I'm severely mad that I had to pay 8 bucks to see this. It's definitely giving off school project vibes.

The acting isn't absolutely terrible, but it's not all that great either. There's too much talking and hanging out and not enough of anything scary whatsoever. The main thing that made me write this review is the obvious lies that the positive reviews gush. I hate when people involved with the movie take it upon themselves to comment. They bump this movie up to a 5.9 rating when it should be nowhere near it.

Even though it had a lot of bad reviews, I had to give this movie a chance just for the fact that it is set in a haunted attraction. This blossoming horror sub-genre hasn't produced very many great films yet, and maybe there won't be any more besides Hell House, but I will watch all of them I can find. Any time the action takes place in some kind of theme park or elaborate haunt, I will want to see how it turned out visually. I thought Haunt Season was one of the better efforts that has used this device. The characters were only midly interesting, but it was enough to make me want to see what happened to them. I do think it was pretty funny that one of the fake reviewers actually titled his post "Hard to believe this is an Independant film!" No one will NOT believe that. But I thought there was a level of effort visible that made me believe that this was made by people who really wanted to give us something fun, and I appreciate that.