The Houses October Built (2014)

Five friends are stalked by a group of mysterious and disturbed individuals while on a road trip looking for the ultimate haunted house attraction.

Director:

Bobby Roe

Writers:

Zack Andrews, Bobby Roe

Stars:

Brandy Schaefer, Zack Andrews, Bobby Roe

4 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Brandy Schaefer	...	Brandy
Zack Andrews	...	Zack
Bobby Roe	...	Bobby
Mikey Roe	...	Mikey
Jeff Larson	...	Jeff
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tansy Alexander	...	Trannyotomy
Bob Ballou	...	News Anchor
Robert Benjamin	...	Off Duty Clown
Kahl Brice	...	Head Clown
Laura Buono	...	Skeleton Crew
Bart Butler	...	Haunt House Clown in Alley
Amber Campisi	...	Amber
Chloë Crampton	...	Porcelain
Donald Dantzler	...	Campfire Man
Josephine Duran	...	Child in Haunt

Storyline

Beneath the fake blood and cheap masks of countless haunted house attractions across the country, there are whispers of truly terrifying alternatives. Looking to find an authentic, blood-curdling good fright for Halloween, five friends set off on a road trip in an RV to track down these underground Haunts. Just when their search seems to reach a dead end, strange and disturbing things start happening and it becomes clear that the Haunt has come to them...

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Plot Keywords:

haunt | road trip | haunted house | halloween | low budget film | 

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Taglines:

In the search for the most extreme haunt, the haunt found them.

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Facebook Instagram

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 October 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Halloween House

Filming Locations:

Texas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Room 101, Foreboding Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The "XXX" sign seen off the highway is for Dreamers at 2705 Interstate 35 Frontage Rd, Hillsboro, TX.

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Goofs

The characters state that in no point in film history has a zombie fired a gun. In George Romero's Land of the Dead, a zombie does indeed fire a gun. If the characters were the horror fans they claim to be, they would have known that.

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Quotes

Zack: As many haunts as we can, all across America.

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

User Reviews

The houses illusion built

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.