Review #71: The Houses October Built (2014)

This review was originally written in October 2019.

October Horror Movie Review #19: The Houses October Built

What to say about yet another found-footage movie?

I'll say that of the found-footage I've seen so far this one had a better format than most: The footage looks believable, there's a good explanation for why they started recording it in the first place (as opposed to just happening to be filming everything that happens, like Cloverfield or Chronicle or whatever) and the first half of the film was fun and relatable.

The second half of the movie (like basically all found-footage) is where it really falls into being just yet another found-footage movie. I don't know if it's generalized fatigue or just found-footage fatigue but I mentally checked out during most of the latter part of this film.

I guess I didn't say what this is about? A group of friends decide to start a video project where they travel to haunted house attractions across the country (?) and film it, for... reasons (?) but somewhere along the way some people start stalking them and eventually kidnap and kill them. But is this all part of the haunt...?

Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween and I love haunted house attractions. That's some of my favorite stuff, and the parts of the movie where they were just interviewing haunt workers was genuinely the best part of the film (which is kind of a knock against the film, as this is meant to be a horror movie, so when it takes ~40 minutes before anything horrific happens it wears a little thin). But- and I know I'm sounding like a broken record here- it falls into all of the same traps as every other low-effort found-footage movie. Most of the movie could be cut out and nothing would be lost, because the director is just filling space until the point where the horror can start. And during many scenes there's no reason why they would be filming most of this.

At one point a character goes off to pee, and for some reason he felt the need to keep filming. Obviously the director needed him to be filming because a guy in a costume was going to come out of the dark to scare him while he's peeing, but why was he filming at the time to begin with? Some movies act like "We record every second of every day" as if that's a realistic thing, but in this case, it clearly isn't a priority because they turn the camera off a minute later once he's back with the rest of the group. They're supposed to be filming haunts, yet he was peeing outside before they even went in. There is no justification whatsoever for why he was filming.

Speaking of which, let me just make one big blanket statement: I would be okay if no movie ever had a scene that took place while a character was peeing. Even if it means I'll miss out on one or two movies over the course of my life where it was plot-relevant, I'll bite that bullet if it means I don't have to sit through a single pointless peeing scene again. It's not edgy. It's not funny. Just stop doing it.

I don't even know what else to say about this movie. There were a ton of really stupid jump scares. I don't know whether the killers were supposed to be supernatural or not, and I don't think the movie knew either. There were a couple good scares (like when they turn on the car's headlights and suddenly they're surrounded by people in masks just standing there, then a moment later the people all vanish) and I liked how right up until the end one or more of the characters weren't 100% sure that they were in danger because maybe it was part of the haunt. But listen here, writers and directors- would it kill you to maybe make the audience wonder that same thing? Did you really have to show that scene earlier with one of the protagonists getting killed? Imagine if, right up until the last minute of the film, nobody in the audience was certain whether it was all a trick or not. In a world where everything is always given away in the trailer I think a little bit of uncertainty would be a breath of fresh air in this stale genre. (Found-footage, not horror in general.)

All in all this was a forgettable movie just like many others.

Overall rating: 4/10

One Good Thing That Came Of This Movie: Now I know zombie paintball is a thing, and I want to do it