The Houses October Built (2014)


REVIEWER RATING: 
4/10


Part found footage and part mockumentary, The Houses October Built follows a group of friends as they load up their RV and go across states from one haunted attraction to the other, in search of the ultimate most realistic fear inducing one. The crew is more specifically on the hunt for a rumored underground haunt that's not only hard to find, but also available by invitation only. That pretty much sums up the entire film.

We simply follow these group of unlikable individuals as they travel from one location to the other, with lots of mundane banter along the way. The only interesting aspects are when they actually reach their destinations, as we're shown a fascinating number of diverse attractions from around the country. We're also given a number of interviews with supposed real employees of these places that also prove fairly interesting. If anything, the film succeeds in being one big promotional effort for several of these haunted attractions.

Aside from what's been described, there's not much else to this picture. If you're afraid of clowns there are a couple somewhat creepy scenes where they stalk our leads or pop out of nowhere, but aside from that the flick is pretty void of any tension or scares. In fact, if memory serves me right much of the "horror" seemed to happen off screen and only towards the end. As expected, they eventually reach the place that they've been searching for, but it ends rather abrupt and a little anti-climatic, as if they didn't quite know how to finish things. On the plus side, the clowns in the film looked pretty cool, but I felt they weren't used properly or enough.

If you compile a bunch of YouTube clips of re-occurring people visiting several haunted attractions and splice them together then that's pretty much The Houses October Built--just a bunch of convoluted scenes and a minor narrative of possibly getting the ultimate scare, with a climax that makes you question "is that it?". Do yourself a favor and actually visit one of these locations instead of wasting your time watching this glorified promotional video for haunted attractions.
OVERALL: 
If you compile a bunch of YouTube clips of re-occurring people visiting several haunted attractions and splice them together then that's pretty much The Houses October Built--just a bunch of convoluted scenes and a minor narrative of possibly getting the ultimate scare, with a climax that makes you question "is that it?". Do yourself a favor and actually visit one of these locations instead of wasting your time watching this glorified promotional video for haunted attractions.


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