It took me a bit of noodlin’, but I figured that Hallowe’en’s edition of Nightmare Fuel would be best served if something more directly Hallowe’en-related were spotlighted, so we’re headin’ off to a bevvy of haunted houses in The Houses October Built.
The basic premise here is that we’re following five friends as they tour a number of haunted houses in the days leading up to Hallowe’en, filming a documentary along the way. We get some insight into the lives of the workers at the various haunts, as well as plenty of insider stories, including some substantiation of the urban legends alleging the presence of real bodies in some of the haunts. The group begins to yearn for finding the most extreme haunt out there, following the breadcrumb trail of a mysterious group called The Blue Skeleton. As they wade deeper into things, though, it becomes less clear as to what’s a real threat and what’s just part of an elaborate haunt situation.
For the most part, the film succeeds in its goal. The five folks we follow about are mostly cool and charismatic enough to actually care if things go sideways for them, and I never once felt they were growing obnoxious (quite a feat for a modern horror flick, lemme tell ya). Mikey, in particular, was the easiest to get behind, which should come as no real surprise, given that he’d had the most experience in front of a camera – hosting Feed the Beast and Foodiculous on The Food Network. The mockumentary style they employed seemed mostly genuine, and the found footage innards mostly flowed smoothly therefrom, though the usual bending of believability that come part and parcel with found footage films does creep in at times (you know, the whole “why the hell are they filming right now?” sort of thing), though they thankfully keep this to a relative minimum.
There are parts, though, that just didn’t quite work for me, mostly involving the character of Porcelain, whom I never found the least bit unnerving or anything. There was also the whole involvement of “creepy” clowns that turned me off, as clowns aren’t scary (unless they’re from Outer Space…), guys. Seriously, aside from those understandably scarred as children, who’s afraid of clowns? This sorta deadened the finale’s impact for me, but that’s me. I also felt a good amount of padding present, particularly in some of the haunts, weighing down the action as they took too long in one place or another. There wasn’t much of this, but it was palpable.
There was also a slight twinge of mild, casual sexism in the film that crept up on me as things went on. Brandy, the lone lady of the group, is constantly coddled and “protected” by the guys, always brushed out of the way to safety when things threaten to go sideways. It was like she was six years old or something. Then the finale amps up the focus on her, making sure to highlight her fright and despair over all the others. I will admit this has some point, namely to set up the sequel, but it gets worse there. (Gimme a sec, we’ll get there.) I think it was during the zombie strip club scene where I noticed the bemusement on her face, the focus the camera gives to it, and the lack of fucks her so-called friends give to it. Then she’s needlessly assaulted in a bar bathroom, a pointless bit of misogyny that goes nowhere save the usual “Get back, Brandy!” from the fellas as they come to her aid. Then the climax and finale. It’s nothing extreme or anything, but it was certainly noticeable.
That much aside, The Houses October Built is still a fairly entertaining trip through the country’s haunted house community, a welcome treat for people like me who wouldn’t mind visiting but deplore crowds. It uses its format and limited resources rather well, and you’re definitely eager to see where things are headed.
The same, sadly, can’t be said of the sequel.
We pick up immediately where we left off last time, where (*NECESSARY SPOILERS*) the police help free the group from their live tombs. Understandably shaken by the experience, Brandy quits the group, while the others continue to tour, capitalizing off of their prior notoriety. It seems, though, that the haunts they’re visiting would pay them even more if Brandy were with them – again, capitalizing on the infamous videos posted on online of her being buried alive, earning her the colorful sobriquet “Coffin Girl”. With quite a bit of cajoling (more on this in a moment), she agrees to rejoin the group, with the caveat that they not take her into any haunted houses (hay rides and zombie 5Ks and the like are cool, though). But things once again begin to spiral out of their control when they pursue the apparently notorious Hellbent.
Okay, remember the praise I gave the first film? Yeah, toss a bunch of it right out. Sorry, guys, but you’re not gonna win any likability points if you blatantly ignore your so-called friend’s trauma in the name of making an easy buck or two. Throughout much of the first two acts, they beg and plead Brandy to rejoin them, even though they know full well how affected she was by their earlier exploits. Fuck her feelings, though, ’cause we wants us the cash! It’s honestly disgusting, not cute, not funny. I think they try to play it off as a sort of immersion therapy, having her confront her trauma so as to overcome it, but it just doesn’t work, and the ultimate reveal just comes across as mean-spirited and dickish rather than therapeutic or helpful, and it extends the sexist motif from the last film to new heights here.
Moreover, said reveal doesn’t quite make sense, at least with the information provided. We’re given the Kansas City Shuffle (any remaining Lucky Number Slevin fans out there?), shown how it came about, and in the process are made even more confused because of who is ancillarily involved. All of my issues here may be explained away with a purported third entry (I think they wanna make four), but I’m currently not left wanting, only annoyedly foggy.
Similarly, the found footage/mockumentary angle also frays a bit more here. More expansive shots are explained away with the addition of a drone to the crew’s arsenal, but many of the shots taken with it aren’t properly combined with the rest of the footage, and the new vantage points look too polished for what’s come before them. The insidious folks operating in the background are back, but their footage is no longer just tinted blue, it now has a non-diegetic soundtrack to further distance it from the crew’s footage and further take away from the immersion. There’s also more stylism to the haunt scenes, which I suppose one could chalk up to improvements in the crew’s techniques since last time, but it just doesn’t feel as close and raw as before. Thankfully, though, they spend less time at each attraction (aside from the brain-eating competition, complete with Kobayashi cameo) reducing the amount of narrative drag from those scenes – even if they add it back on with the interminable arguments with Brandy.
Bottom line: Even though I was only a bit warmer than luke on the first film, this sequel was a massive letdown. The plot was more nonsensical, the characters less likable, and the general feel just more dour and negative, clearly far from where they were aiming. I would only recommend this one if you really wanna see where the first film’s story goes, and even then you could just stop after maybe five minutes. I’m morbidly curious as to where they’ll go with a third entry, but I won’t be in any hurry to see it.
Allusions of Grandeur 