Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Haunt (2019 film)
2019 film by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
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.
Remove ads
Plot
Summarize
Perspective
On Halloween night in Carbondale, Illinois, friends Harper and Bailey get ready for a party. Harper covers up a black eye given to her by her abusive boyfriend, Sam. Harper and Bailey attend the party with their friends Angela and Mallory. The group befriends two college students, Evan and Nathan, the latter of whom flirts with Harper. Throughout the night, Harper suspects she is being stalked by a man in a devil mask.
Later that night, the group spontaneously attends a haunted house attraction. They are met by a man in a clown costume who makes them sign liability waivers and place their phones in a lockbox, to which he gives them the key. Upon entering, they are met with a scene where a witch-masked woman burns a screaming girl's face with a hot poker. Nathan, Mallory, and Harper are separated from Evan, Angela, and Bailey in a maze. Bailey's arm is slashed by a razor while Mallory disappears. The group reunites and panics after seeing Bailey's injury. They are forced to witness Witch impale Mallory with the poker.
Nathan leaves to retrieve their phones and is met by a man in a ghost mask, who appears to be a concerned employee. Bailey, Harper, Evan, and Angela retrace their steps, and Ghost seals Nathan inside a tunnel. Devil suddenly appears and kills Angela. While fleeing, Bailey accidentally activates a trapdoor, dropping Nathan into the house's operation rooms. Evan escapes with Ghost, who removes his mask, revealing a heavily modified face before killing Evan.
Nathan retrieves Harper's phone and texts their location to Sam before escaping the house. Harper enters an escape room that resembles a child's bedroom, triggering a memory of her hiding from her abusive father. Devil attacks Harper but is killed by a shotgun trap. Harper uses Devil's pitchfork to kill a performer in a skull mask, who is revealed to be a gagged Bailey. Sam arrives at the house but is killed by Clown.
Nathan returns to the house to save the others, but is attacked by Ghost. Harper incapacitates Zombie before helping Nathan kill Ghost. They encounter Vampire, who removes his mask, revealing an unmodified face. Vampire explains that the haunt's performers are part of an extreme body modification group that creates annual haunted house attractions to lure and kill people. Vampire offers to help, but is shot to death by Zombie. Nathan and Harper kill both Zombie and Witch before escaping. Clown burns down the attraction. At the hospital, Harper realizes that the group had filled out the liability waivers with their personal information, including their home addresses.
Some time later, Clown arrives at Harper's house. He gets stuck in a trap set by Harper, who emerges with a shotgun and shoots him.
Remove ads
Cast
- Katie Stevens as Harper
- Will Brittain as Nathan
- Lauryn McClain as Bailey
- Andrew Caldwell as Evan
- Shazi Raja as Angela
- Schuyler Helford as Mallory
- Chaney Morrow as Ghost
- Justin Marxen as Clown
- Damian Maffei as Devil
- Terri Partyka as Witch
- Schuyler White as Zombie
- Justin Rose as Vampire
- Samuel Hunt as Sam
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.[2] In October 2017, Katie Stevens, Will Brittain, Lauryn McClain, Andrew Caldwell, and Shazi Raja joined the cast of the film.[3]
Principal photography began in October 2017 in Covington, Kentucky.[4] Production concluded in November 2017.[5]
Release
Haunt had its world premiere at Popcorn Frights Film Festival on August 8, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida[6] and its international premiere at FrightFest in London, England, on August 23, 2019.[7] The Los Angeles premiere for Haunt took place at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on September 7, 2019.[8] The film received a limited release on September 13, 2019, by Momentum Pictures.[9] Haunt later premiered on Shudder, where it was ranked the #1 most watched movie premiere of 2019.[10]
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."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally positive reviews".[12] Albert Nowicki included the film on his list of "best Halloween movies of all time" for Prime Movies.[13]
Remove ads
See also
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads