Haunt – Film Review

On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an extreme haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realisation that some nightmares are real.

Haunted house-style movies can be some of the most fun the horror genre has to offer. There’s just something so incredibly entertaining and strangely comforting about watching a group of people try their best to escape from a unique location, and we have great films like this already such as Escape Room.

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ Haunt is a fantastic new addition to that genre of horror. Although it can seriously suffer from a lack of entertainment value in its first act, the film thankfully picks up the pace considerably for its second act, leading into a third that’s wonderfully exciting and surprisingly violent and brutal due to how tame the rest of the film mostly is.

The duo struggle with creating legitimate tension in the first act and have their characters do some genuinely stupid things that no logical person would actually do. These people have the chance to turn around and go back home instead of walking into this terrifying haunted house but decide not to.

Some of the dialogue that’s spoken by them is also, quite bad, at least in the first act. It’s so weird to even think about the first act of Haunt because it really does feel like a different movie compared to the other two acts that eventually follow. The other two acts are a legitimate blast to watch, and it’s where Beck and Woods seem to have the most fun.

It’s where we actually get to see some bloody horror goodness erupt onto the screen, and it’s surely the time when the actors had the most fun on set, too. Speaking of the actors, they’re quite great in their roles. There’s no hugely obvious standout here, but that’s not a problem.

Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, Lauryn McClain, and Andrew Caldwell are also terrific in their respective roles. Sometimes, even in a great haunted house-style movie, you’ll get some performances that just feel phoney, but not here. Everyone involved with Haunt understood the assignment.

This definitely isn’t one of the best horror movies in recent years, but that’s honestly not a huge deal. What this is, however, is a ridiculously fun time that’ll keep you entertained for an hour and a half. And since Halloween season is approaching us, what better time to watch this? Throw on a cozy blanket, get the lighting right, and have some fun.