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THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT

A GROUP OF FRIENDS FILM THEIR SEARCH FOR THE ULTIMATE HAUNTED HOUSE



★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)

Director: Bobby Roe

2014



Sitting in the theater for the release of The Blair Witch Project, I was so bored I looked around, wondered how anyone could be scared. Isn’t it obvious one of the filmmakers is tapping on the outside of that tent? My thoughts at the time were It looks fake! It looks like home videos I make with my friends!  While I’m aware I’m in the minority, I’m pretty sure my distaste for found footage horror started from there. This means I avoid the gimmick at all costs. I don’t watch it, I don’t review it. Scratch that. I reviewed Lake Mungo and admired it, but I’m not sure I would put it in that category. My guess is that my suspension of disbelief just doesn’t work with these films.


So, I was cruelly tricked into watching The Houses October Built, not knowing it was found footage. Eventually I did give in to the story—five friends travel in an RV to find the most obscure and scariest haunted house—and found myself buying into the realness. The Houses October Built is successful because of the gimmick I hate. You feel like you’re in the RV with the actors, experiencing what they’re experiencing. The filming of some creative haunted houses put me in the mood for Halloween more than any of the horror films I’ve seen this month. You’re along for the ride.


The week before Halloween, five friends document their trip through the rural areas of the gulf states. Though they’re checking off their list of great haunted houses (which we get to enjoy), they’re keeping the feelers out for a mythical haunted experience called Blue Skeleton. The Houses October Built intersperses interviews with horror fanatics, employees of haunted house establishments, and news stories meant to whet our appetite for this Blue Skeleton, an event or house that constantly moves locations to maintain a reputation for uniqueness. The few people who have encountered it say it’s the most extreeeeme scare of their lives, so this piques the interest of our heroes, some more than others.



Out of the five characters in the film, the only one that endeared himself was big and beautiful Mikey (Mikey Roe), a bearded lothario who serves as the comic relief. He’s the only character with personality; I couldn’t tell you anything about anyone else except that one was silver fox Bobby (director Bobby Roe) and another was Brandy the Girl (Brandy Schaefer). The advantage of this being a found footage film comes from the fact that I didn’t just feel like I was on the RV with these people, I also felt out of place with this group. It’s a tight circle of friends with their own inside jokes and ways of making each other laugh. If I was a newbie on the trip with them, I might feel as disconnected as I did watching this. That doesn’t mean we wish them harm—at least not for the first 2/3rds of the film. Toward the end, they turn into bland stock horror characters determined to ride off the cliff to their doom. Their fates are the result of a series of bad decisions they make. A long series of bad decisions.


For one, an angry clown from a haunted house starts to follow them hundreds of miles through the rural south. How he shows up at night after they’ve parked, no one knows. This is mistake number one. Why are our characters parking their RV in the woods when you can do so in a Walmart parking lot and the odds of getting killed drops 50%? At least someone will notice you’re getting attacked. But no. Our heroes insist on remaining easy targets in the shadowy forest, even after the stalking becomes more intense and a larger group of costumed strangers break into the RV and film them while they’re sleeping. This is when the characters lose me, but at this point, I have to know how the movie ends. We’re teased with Blue Skeleton and The Houses October Built doesn’t disappoint.


The editing, sound, and direction are impressive for a found footage film. I had whiplash a few times but the narration is smooth and it’s easy to keep up with the storyline. A countdown to Halloween fills us with dread as we suspect something terrible is about to happen. Treated with some impressive haunted houses in obscure towns, The Houses October Built can get even the most jaded viewer in the Halloween spirit. There are genuine frights for every type of horror fan, even the ones who hate found footage.





GENRES: Atmospheric, Feminist-Friendly, Funny

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