Written and directed by Owen Egerton. Starring Robbie Kay, Jacob Batalon, Seychelle Gabriel, Barbara Dunkelman, Chris Doubek, Rebecca Wagner, Nick Rutherford, Owen Egerton, Zachary Levi and Tate Donovan.
Plot: horror fans come to a festival on Halloween expecting a celebration, but when the terror becomes all too real, attendees must band together to try and survive the night.
Dax (Kay) is a teen obsessed with horror even though he watched his mother being murdered when he was young. The killer was a masked intruder and troubled patient of his psychologist father, Dr. Vaughn Conway (Donovan). Years later, Dax wants to go to a horror film festival, but his father won’t let him. He defies his father however, and attends the festival with friends, Krill (Batalon), Sam (Gabriel) and Ashley (Dunkelman).
The festival begins with an introduction by the showrunner, Anthony Walsh (Egerton), who claims that because real horror is dead, he wants to make the ultimate horror movie. Then, he introduces Red, a mysterious figure in a mask, and a larger-than-necessary group of people with chainsaws, who begin actually killing the festival attendees. Realizing they can’t get to the front gate, Dax and his friends venture further into the festival, hoping to get to the end alive.
Now, not everyone makes it out alive but the fact that me and DJ actually cared about the people being killed was awesome. The cast was excellent and the characters were likable. We didn’t love every storyline, but the script was rather outstanding. There were so many magnificent horror movie homages present throughout. I especially loved the line, “George Romero, if you’re out there, save us.” We also loved the speech Dax gives about horror being a safe space, an escape full of controlled violence, rubber knives and fake blood.
Some of the kills were exceptional, the effects were exceptional, it followed the rules it laid out and it was very, very funny. There was even a decent Freddy Claws, as most of them worked pretty well together. And we’d watch it again just to see the marvelous zombie vs. clown battle. It was insane and quite scary. In case you haven’t noticed already, we really enjoyed this movie and suggest you watch it, too. *Extra note – Although we watch horror movies all the time, we’d never attend such a festival. We’re wimps when it comes to that sort of thing. LOL.
My score: 77. DJ’s score: 81.
“Now my vape’s dead. Perfect night.”
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