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Haunt is a 2019 American slasher film written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writing duo behind A Quiet Place.
It’s set in one of those haunted house Halloween attractions. And surprisingly, this is one of the better films set on Halloween, along with John Carpenter’s Halloween, House of 1,000 Corpses, Sinister, and Murder Party, which we podcasted not long ago.
The premise: a bunch of college co-eds are out and about in small town Illinois, a bit like the Michael Myers classic. They’re bar-hopping, and after growing weary of it, hop in their vehicle in search of one of those spooky haunted houses.
They drive up to what is not so much a house, but more of a haunted warehouse. And the doorman is a creepy clown, holding out two hands to choose their own adventure inside, in a way.
Haunt is creepy as hell. There are two extraordinarily intense scenes, and it’s quiet, eschewing cheap jump scares.
The performances are dynamite too, and there’s some nice backstory for the lead.
In the podcast, contextualizing the Halloween haunted house experience, Tobe Hooper’s Funhouse, Hell Fest, and Toronto’s Casa Loma Halloween experience.