20131027: Horror Review--Halloween Night

Halloween Night

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2006, UR, 85 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 4.2/10.0 from 657 audience ratings.  Aspect: 1.78.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Score yet...' and 33% liked it from 902 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 57,692 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Mark Atkins.
6. Starring: Derek Osebach as David Baxter, Rebeka Kochan as Shannon, Scot Nery as Chris Vale, Sean Durrie as Larry, Sean Durrie as Larry.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Chris Vale witnesses a rape-murder as a child.  He is disfigured at the time, and he's a bit unbalanced mentally as well.


2. Fast forward to the present.  There's a Halloween party being setup...at the house where the rape-murder occurred.  There are intricate costumes, and authentic looking weapons. A young man and woman drive there.  When they stop for petrol, the man goes to the rest room.  Chris Vale (now a man, escaped from an insane asylum) overpowers him, kills him, puts on a leather mask, then goes to the car.  The young woman does not figure it out, but his bad driving tells her there is something wrong.  The killer hacks her up.


3. Chris Vale gets to the party alone with a backseat full of steel weapons.


4. What could possibly go wrong?


5. Quite a lot.  The film is high on slasher deaths, splatter, screams, and psychotic behavior.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Deranged, disfigured, psychotic killer joins Halloween party.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Excellent for daylight exteriors.  A bit jerky on some of the darker interiors.


2. Sound: 6/10 Did not expect the lag of lips versus voice, which makes it look like a bad Eastern European production made by/for the SyFy network.


3. Acting: 4/10 Lots of non-actors in this one.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 The dialog is terrible.  I would have preferred a English subtitles and the spoken word in the first language of the screenwriter.  As it is, the lines are stilted, and just not what one would expect from English speakers.