Haunt (2019 Film)

''Haunt'' is a 2019 American slasher film written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. The film stars Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, and Lauryn McClain. Set on a Halloween night, it follows a group of friends who encounter a haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears, unknowing that the performers have a murderous intent.

''Haunt'' premiered at Popcorn Frights Film Festival on August 8, 2019, and subsequently had a limited release in the United States on September 13, by Momentum Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $2.4 million worldwide.

Plot

On Halloween night in Carbondale, Illinois, someone throws a pumpkin at the front door of college roommates Harper and Bailey. Harper hides a black eye with makeup given to her by her abusive boyfriend, Sam, and Bailey encourages her to break up with him over text. Harper and Bailey attend a Halloween bar party with their friends Angela and Mallory. The group befriends two college students, Nathan and Evan. Nathan and Harper flirt with each other. Throughout the night, Harper suspects she is being stalked by a man in a devil mask.

The group later drives by a haunted house attraction by chance and they decide to attend. They meet a man in a clown mask at the front of the attraction who has them sign liability waivers and place their cell phones in a lockbox, to which he gives them the key.

Upon entering, they are met with a scene in which a person in a witch mask burns a screaming girl's face with a hot poker. The group takes it to be an impressive part of the house and walks on. They soon become separated after entering a maze; Bailey, Nathan, and Angela encounter a series of holes in a wall with a sign above that says "Guess the body part." After both Nathan and Angela correctly identify their fake body parts, Bailey sticks her arm inside a hole and accidentally loses Harper's mom's ring, which she was wearing. While trying to retrieve it, an unseen person on the other side of the wall slashes her arm with a razor. Harper and Evan lose Mallory in a crawl tunnel but assume she simply fell behind. They are guided on by a man in a devil mask. They meet back up with the others, who are starting to panic due to Bailey's injury. The Witch returns with Mallory's unconscious body and impales her through the head with a hot poker.

Now believing they are in danger, the group sends Nathan with the lockbox key to find an exit, retrieve their phones, and call for help. He's startled by a man in a ghost mask and drops the key. However, Ghost appears to be a concerned employee who agrees to help. The group decide to retrace their steps and go back to the tunnel. Evan goes through first, but Ghost blocks the exit for the rest of them, causing Nathan to get trapped in the tunnel. Devil suddenly appears and kills Angela with his pitchfork. Bailey flees into the tunnels and accidentally activates a trap door, dropping Nathan into the house's operation rooms. Evan, not realizing the danger, makes it outside with Ghost. Ghost takes off his mask: he has tattoos and body modifications that make his real face resemble his ghost mask. Ghost kills Evan with a hammer. It is revealed that all the masked haunted house performers have heavily tattooed and scarred faces that are similar to the respective masks they wear.

Nathan finds the group's phones, which the Clown was in the process of destroying, and manages to text their location to Sam before making it out of the house. Harper enters an escape room similar to her childhood bedroom where she witnessed her father abuse her mother. Devil attacks her and she kills him. She encounters another performer in a skull mask and kills them, too, but upon unmasking them is horrified to find a bound and gagged Bailey, who was previously captured by the other performers. Sam arrives at the house and is promptly killed by the Clown, who appears to be the attraction's ringleader.

Nathan goes back inside to save the others but is attacked by Ghost, while Harper is attacked by a man in a zombie mask. She incapacitates Zombie before helping Nathan kill Ghost. They encounter a man in a vampire mask but he removes it before they can kill him, showing a normal face. Vampire explains that he didn't know the performers would kill people, but after getting a job for them found out they are part of a cult that makes extreme modifications to their faces to look like real monsters. He'd been told he would earn his own "mask" after killing his first person. Vampire agrees to help them escape, but is shot to death by Zombie. Harper and Nathan escape the house, killing Witch in the process. Zombie returns and attacks them but Nathan kills him before the two drive away in Sam's truck. Clown burns down the attraction. Harper and Nathan reach a hospital, where the nurse asks Harper to fill out a release form. Harper realizes the performers took down all their personal information on the liability waivers, including their home addresses.

Some time later, Clown arrives at Harper's house with the intent of killing her, but becomes stuck in a trap set by Harper, who emerges with a shotgun and shoots him.

Cast

Production

In July 2017, it was announced Scott Beck and Bryan Woods would write and direct the film. The film would be produced by Eli Roth, Todd Garner, Mark Fasano, Ankur Rungta, Vishal Rungta and executive produced by Nick Meyer, Marc Schaberg, Josie Liang, Jeremy Stein and Tobias Weymar. In October 2017, Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, Lauryn McClain, Andrew Caldwell, and Shazi Raja joined the cast of the film.

Principal photography began in October 2017 in Covington, Kentucky. Production concluded in November 2017.

Release

''Haunt'' had its world premiere at Popcorn Frights Film Festival on August 8, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and its international premiere at FrightFest in London, England, on August 23, 2019. The Los Angeles premiere for ''Haunt'' took place at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on September 7, 2019. The film received a limited release on September 13, 2019, by Momentum Pictures. ''Haunt'' later premiered on Shudder, where it was ranked the #1 most watched movie premiere of 2019.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "''Haunt'' is spooked by the spirits of its obvious influences, but still packs enough thrills and chills to satisfy horror fans up for a haunted house excursion." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". Albert Nowicki included the film on his list of "best Halloween movies of all time" for ''Prime Movies''.

See also

* List of films set around Halloween

References

External links

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{{Portal bar, Film, United States, Horror, 2010s

2010s slasher films
2019 films
2019 horror thriller films
American films about Halloween
American horror thriller films
American slasher films
Films directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods
Films produced by Eli Roth
Films scored by Tomandandy
Films set in Illinois
Films shot in Kentucky
Halloween horror films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language horror thriller films