I've never been a big haunted house/haunted hayride guy. I was too scared as a kid, and now I really just don't care enough to get off my ass in October and go make it happen. I've got movies to watch! But seriously, I always had the impression that a lot of these are just a little too jump scare-y for my tastes. When you add crowds of people (truly the most frightening thing of all) to the mix, I always just end up taking a pass.
And the team starring in the okayish mocumentary/found footage The Houses October Built seem to think that most haunted attractions ("haunts") are pretty lame too. So they are going to go on a road trip to find the scariest, craziest, most extreme haunt out there. But of course, since it's a horror movie, they find one that is maybe a little too extreme, and things don't go as planned.
Our five person team is rather unremarkable. You've go bearded party animal, woman, and three interchangeable white guys. (Honestly, when one of them goes missing I couldn't remember which one he was or what he looked like a moment after it happened. Not sure if it's my shitty attention span or bad characterization. Maybe both.) They present a more practical argument for more diversity in movies - just to give us a way to tell them apart! Anyways, the five of them drive around the southern U.S., hitting up one haunted attraction after another. In between we get spliced-in interviews from haunt-workers bemoaning the fact that they can't physically attack people to scare them, and telling stories (urban legends?) about times when crazy shit has in fact gone down at a haunt. So while nothing much goes down at first, it's pretty well established that *something* eventually will.
And while it isn't totally boring getting there, it's not super-exciting either. There are some unsettling moments here and there, but it mostly feels like a bunch of camcorder footage from a group rolling through (admittedly decent) haunted attractions. Our group just sort of talks to people at each spot, eventually figuring out how to find the elusive Blue Skeleton - this crew that puts on a totally nutso underground haunt that will supposedly scare the shit out of you. It takes tenacity, cash, a password, and a little luck. So they find it, and yes - they do get really, really scared.
The Houses That October Built does all right once you get to the main course. The big scares at the end are pretty effective, and the sets/crazy environments that our group ends up in are well-constructed and look cool. I think the idea is that for most of the film you feel like you are accompanying people through these various haunts - whereas in the final act you're in the haunt via the magic of the first-person camera. And to that end, it mostly works.
There are a few moments scattered throughout the film that are genuinely unnerving - there's some good creepy costumes at the various haunts, and the mockumentary style lets the filmmakers milk some awkward silences and let them morph into something more sinister. Fireside guy and porcelain girl are probably the two best examples of this... not too shocking or earth shattering or anything, but nice beats in an otherwise kind of uneventful first half of the film.
Things kind of fall apart for me when you stop to think about the characters motivations - or at least those of the Blue Skeleton/Extreme Haunt group. Are they magic? Or have they just been tracking our heroes for a long, long time? And this seems to come up with me with mockumentaries from time to time - why was this released? A disclaimer says the footage was edited together from both our heroes and the Blue Skeleton cameras... but why? Given the events of the film it makes little sense to put it out in the public eye. I guess I've always been able to swallow "found footage" proper - it's just "found," you know? The mockumentary style always reminds me "oh yeah, someone took all of this footage and edited it together," which is why I think the best ones at least try to validate their existence (The Tunnel, The Conspiracy). And yeah, it's just a movie. But it didn't sit well with me here.
But still, Houses mostly succeeds in what it sets out to do, and is a well-enough-made found footager/mockumentary. Other than some logic issues, I didn't catch any significant cheats or anything like that. There wasn't much "why are they still filming" credibility stretching, but the "why don't they just bail or call the cops" credibility was definitely tested. Even if these were my good friends, I would have bailed on so many occasions. Maybe I actually am scared of haunted houses after all.
I would kind of recommend this film.
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