Movie Review: Haunt (2019)

This is basically a smaller-scale version of the movie Hell Fest, with a bunch of attractive college students going to an extreme haunted house, only to find that it’s more than meets the eye, with them actually being stalked and killed. There’s no real singular villain the way Hell Fest had it, but this almost seems more effective this way.

The movie doesn’t give us a whole lot in terms of character. I actually disliked the little backstory we do get of the protagonist, Harper (Katie Stevens). She says she grew up in a haunted house, but I don’t think the movie ever really clarifies that. Was the house actually haunted, or was it a haunted attraction? And why should it matter to the character years later?

Despite that, we definitely get some effectively scary moments. It’s not really a movie that’s big on jump scares, which separates it from Hell Fest. It is a movie that’s really quite brutal, though, in its violence. The movie has a few twists and turns, too, which help make it feel fresh, despite having similarities to plenty of movies I’ve seen.

It is certainly worth a watch. I can see this being annual Halloween viewing for plenty of people out there. I didn’t love it, but there were more things that worked than didn’t.

Rating: 6/10