Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019
Images from the Internet
Watching Eye Productions / Terror Films / MVD Entertainment
75 minutes, 2016 / 2018
www.mvdvisual.com
The House
also knows your deepest, darkest secrets; says that right on the entrance.
However, we know little about this band of fodder for evil purposes, so while
we learn their secrets eventually, fortunately we are given a miniscule portion of what their life
is/was like, and what brought them to that moment at that point. What bothered
me, though, is that in two cases, their “secret” is/was not a choice, but
something that is/was put on them. No spoilers promise.
Images from the Internet
House of Purgatory
Written and directed Tyler ChristensenWatching Eye Productions / Terror Films / MVD Entertainment
75 minutes, 2016 / 2018
www.mvdvisual.com
As I’ve
oft said, tangle up enough well-worn tropes and you may find yourself with
something unusual. This one has a blast of ‘em, from structures that appear out
of nowhere and are (of course) evil, to malevolent forces that know your
secrets and fears, all based around a couple of couples of overaged actors
playing high school teens on a road trip. This I get from the trailer, alone.
Halloween
“haunted house” attractions are becoming increasingly popular. A truly haunted
one is almost too good an opportunity to miss. Location? Unknown. That’s where
the road trip comes in, of course. It sounds like a supernatural Talon Falls, but we shall see.
After a
nice jump start, we are introduced to a group of high school (have to stop here to giggle) students who are partying
on Halloween. Four of them decide to find the urban legend Halloween house that
pays you back if you make it all the way through.
Brad Fry, Laura Coover, Anne Leighton, Aaron Galvin |
The first
couple is Amber (Laura Coover) and Ryan (Brad Fry). He’s the instigator and a
bit of a macho dick who pressures everyone to keep on a-goin’. Amber comes from
a religious family and we actually don’t learn too much about her, but more on
that later.
The second
couple is “nice guy” Nate (Aaron Galvin) and the unofficial star of this short
feature, Anne Leighton. I guess she could be considered the level-headed one,
but she’s in the same sitch as the rest of the kids [giggle].
When they
do find the House of Purgatory, whether it’s the place of the urban legend or
not is unclear, which is a wise choice on the part of the filmmakers, we learn
that it is being run by a guy with a skull loosely painted on his face (Brian
Krause, who in an extended cameo, is the biggest name in the cast, having been
a “Whitelighter” on the television show “Charmed” for years) a la Captain Spaulding of Night of a 1000 Corpses (2003).
Brian Krause |
Which
makes me wonder about the backers of this film. One could actually see it as a
“Christian” fear theme sub-genre, with punishments that go beyond the deeds. In
some cases, it seems like the parents are the ones who should be there, rather
than these teens [giggle].
I’m also a
bit annoyed at the throwing around of words like “gay (as in “that’s so gay”)
and “retarded.” In the right context I don’t have a problem with the use of the
words or not, but in this case it took me out of the moment, which is what you
don’t want to do when watching a film, especially a genre one. For example,
wondering if a particular character is gay because he’s nice is, well,
whatever. But the “that’s so gay” is tiresome and passé.
Okay, so I’ve whined a bit upfront, but that’s not to say there aren’t
some really fine touches throughout. For example, when our foursome finally do
get into the Shed of Purgatory (you’ll see what I mean when you watch the film),
there are different floors leading downward. Wisely, it starts slow and then
continues to build tension as different floors are reached, escalating to a couple
of perfectly pitched lulls in the bam!
excitement level, letting the tension build again. No constant clobbering over
the head, this is more like riding the waves. And yet, the angst remains in
both the confusion of the characters and for us as everyone tries to figure out
the characters’ next step (both figuratively and literally).
Note that there is practically no blood, but the sets look great and the cast is attractive.
A fun game when watching films like this is to “guess the references” to
other genre films whose tropes are present. For example, there is one key
element here from I Know What You Did
Last Summer (1997), and a bit from the Sarah Hyland horror (read that as
you wish), Satanic (2016).
The film is short at 75 minutes, and it could have been beefed up just a little with some expository info
about the background of the characters, rather than just at the point of the
secret revelation. That being said, there are also other parts that could have
been cut down a bit, such as much of the pumpkin carving scene.
The extras are sound choices, chapters, captions (for which I am always
grateful), and three trailers (one non-genre, and one for this film).
This is what I call a serviceable story. What I mean by that is that it’s
not rocket science, but it does its job of being entertaining. Sometimes that
just what a viewer needs when dealing with characters that are teens [giggle].
No comments:
Post a Comment