As a part of maintaining the House of Horrors, I keep a keen eye on horror
festivals, especially on those films that are picking up awards as they tour the circuit.
Recently I saw that The Scarehouse scored the coveted Best Feature award
at the NYC Horror Film Festival. I knew I needed to check it out and after a
quick and pleasant chat with the thoroughly lovely people behind this smash
hit, I found myself well and truly accommodated. Is there room in Hickey’s
House for The Scarehouse? Read on...
The Scarehouse (2014)
Dir: Gavin Michael Booth
Starring: Sarah
Booth, Kimberly-Sue Murray, Katherine Barrell, Jennifer Miller, Teagan Vincze,
Emily Alatalo, Dani Barker, Ivana Stojanovic, Brad Everett, Jack Ettlinger
SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I’ll try not
to spoil too much here, but read on at your own risk.
The film opens with two young women, Corey (Booth) and Elaina (Murray),
setting up a seasonal scarehouse for Devil’s Night. One door is for paying
members of the public, the other acts as a private entrance to which a slow-but-steady
stream of sorority sisters arrives for access to a special, invitation only
party.
However, as soon becomes clear, the sorority girls have been tricked
into attending a deadly reunion, one that Corey and Elaina have painstakingly
planned with one clear motive: REVENGE.
As the girls, including the acidic Katrina (Alatalo), wholesome
Jaqueline (Barrell) and tough-as-nails Lisa (Miller) find themselves the
victims of some Saw-like personalised
torments, we are shown a series of flashbacks to a fateful night two years ago,
one in which a hazing prank goes terribly awry and sets each of these young
women on a very bloody path…
BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning):
Part graphic revenge thriller, part torture p0rn, but with a vein of the
very blackest humour running throughout, one of The Scarehouse’s greatest strengths is the way in which the story
zigs and zags, eschewing familiarity to keep the viewer permanently off-balance
as to where it will go next. It combines quick (but not erratic or jarring) changes
in tone with some clever plot twists and reveals throughout. Gavin Michael
Booth has managed that rare but wonderful thing: a clever and twisting plot
that never becomes convoluted.
This intelligent and witty writing carries over
into the dialogue, the catty, cutting putdowns, one-liners and hilariously
barbed quips practically whistle through the air like mortar shells. In fact,
if it was not for the terrific, wince-inducing graphic gore scenes, I might
even go so far as to call this film Meaner
Girls.
And what gore scenes they are! Showing a fantastically twisted
imagination and a flair for Argento-esque cruelty, The Scarehouse offers more than enough blood and guts to keep fans
of spilled viscera happy. What’s more, it seemed to me that all the effects
were practical, which is always a winner here at The House!
If that weren’t enough, I feel that special credit should be given to
the fantastic sets and the lighting throughout. The Scarehouse itself was
brilliant — I wanted to buy a ticket! A lot of this undoubtedly came from the
assured and artistic cinematography, so my compliments go to Booth and
cinematographer Ian Macmillan. Well done, guys!
Of course, gore and style can only go so far if the performances are
sub-par — and thankfully, in The Scarehouse
they most definitely are not. I honestly cannot think of another genre film in
which EVERY role is played so well. The cast is superb across the board —
although if I were to have to single out anybody from the cast for special
praise I’d pick our deranged leads, Booth and Murray. Each took their part as a
sympathetic monster and completely made it their own.
It was this characterisation that really lifts The Scarehouse above most similar efforts in the genre. Much like Shannon
Lark’s role in I Am Monster, this
film gives us new types of role for women in horror. Not just in the sadly
sympathetic and terrifyingly flawed leads, but in the sorority sisters they
were once so keen to join. Yes, the film has a couple of squealing victims, but
others fight back with everything they have: whether it be devastating words
or, in one case, a flurry of punches, kicks and elbows that would put Jean
Claude Van Damme to shame!
Finally, The Scarehouse has an
absolutely awesome soundtrack. Really! Ranging from hip modern tracks to
brilliant 80s throwbacks, this is the coolest soundtrack I’ve heard since Drive. If there is a CD coming, I’ll be
buying!
WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning):
There’s really very little here. I suppose from a plot standpoint I couldn’t see what purpose having half the Scarehouse open to the general
public served. It didn’t contribute to the main plot in anyway, instead serving
as a built-in flaw to the girls’ plan. They were both smart girls, yet at a couple of
times this really quite dunderheaded decision nearly cost them dearly. Perhaps
it was to add authenticity to the setting to draw their victims in? I’ll go
with that and let it slide.
Speaking of the Scarehouse, I would have liked to see more of it. That’s
just me being greedy though, I just liked the Scarehouse sets we got so much
I’d have loved a couple more!
As much as I thought the modern day Scarehouse scenes were great (as well
as the majority of the flashback scenes) I did think that the slow reveal of
what happened to spark this all off lasted a little too long. Once the tragedy
that sparked this situation is revealed we get a couple more flashbacks that
don’t give us much more than we already knew. However, I’m all for fleshing out
a story, so any attempts at giving us some more backstory to go with the
buckets of blood should be heralded as a good thing, I suppose.
While we are on the subject of the gore scenes, the placement of them
seems a little off. We get some of the finest and most splattery moments early on in
the film, before some of the later kills become less imaginative and a little
more haphazard. I get that this was to reflect the plan spinning out of the
girls’ control, but after the first couple of scenes I expected a little more —
although thankfully one particularly hideous one that was teased did not come
to fruition. That one could have been a bit much, even for me!
Finally as well written and rounded as the girls are, the men in this
film are universally stupid, boorish oafs. Okay, they’re college boys, so
there’s a few more of that sort neanderthal there, plus they mainly work in the film to
show us exactly how strong and in control our tough, brilliant female leads
are, but even so, we aren’t all like that guys!
It’s just most of us
that are J.
VERDICT: The
Scarehouse is an award-winner for a reason. Smart, cool, clever, disturbing and
generally brilliant all-round, you need to check this out ASAP. Great filmmaking
+ great performances + great direction = one great horror movie! It’s doing the
rounds of festivals right now (and doing fantastically!) but there are release
dates lined up both sides of the Atlantic early next year. If you miss it, you
are a fool!
While you wait, why
not head over to the film’s official Facebook page and hit it with a Like. It really does
deserve your support, so show these supremely talented people some love.
If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House
of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice
quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around
the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors
Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.
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