When thinking about what season works best for a horror movie, Autumn is always going to seem like the exact right time. From classics like Halloween (1978) to more contemporary films set around the October holiday, there's something about chilly weather and leaves and the excitement of candy and costumes that works for a scary story.
There's another horror movie set on Halloween that is definitely underrated: the 2019 film Haunt. Starring The Bold Type's Katie Stevens as the main character Harper, who visits a haunted house with her friends and realizes that they are being hunted by a group of killers. This already seems like a cool idea and the movie delivers.The movie has a lot that fans of the genre will enjoy: a unique idea, a protagonist who is running from her past, and real scares. There are many reasons why Haunt is a new way of looking at the typical Halloween haunted house story, and it also has something new to say about the role that clowns play in scaring people.
From the timelines of the Halloween franchise to Laurie Strode's role as a final girl, there are so many reasons why horror fans can never stop saying how much they love this franchise. Haunt offers up a new scary tale set on Halloween night and deserves to be talked about more than it is. If there's one thing that the movie lacks, it's that Harper is a well-developed character but her group of friends aren't given a lot of personality. But once Harper and her pals find a haunted house and think that this will be a great way to spend the evening, the story kicks into high gear and the premise and Harper's character are enough to carry the movie. A Quiet Place writers Bryan Woods and Scott Beck wrote Haunt, bringing the same talent for creating atmosphere and a vibe that can't be replicated.
The title Haunt has a double meaning that makes audiences think. As Harper is haunted by this creepy house and the masked killers who are killing her friends, Harper is also in an abusive relationship with Sam (Samuel Hunt). As Harper watched her dad hurt her mom when she was younger, she has been carrying around the pain of domestic violence for a long time, and she is traumatized by this while figuring out how to save herself in this strange haunted house. While it makes sense that Harper fights for her survival as anyone would in the same situation, Harper has the extra incentive of being told that she's not good enough and being afraid of the men in her life.
Haunt also turns the "creepy clown" trope on its head. While the two IT movies feature the scary clown Pennywise, and that Stephen King character is definitely a horrifying villain, Haunt features killers who wear strange, disgusting-looking masks. One man has a mask that makes him look like the devil and another has a clown mask. While clowns are a common part of the horror genre as many people are scared of them, there's something especially awful about a killer with a clown mask who is going after a group of college students on Halloween night. It turns out that these people have created this extra horrible haunted house because they have disfigured faces and feel badly about that.
Ultimately, Haunt tells the haunted house horror movie story in a new way by putting Harper, a fighter, in a situation where she has to save herself and work through the heartbreaking memories that she has of her broken family.
Haunt also does something really compelling: the haunted house features a room that looks like the bedroom that Harper grew up in. In the Pretty Little Liars episode "Welcome To The Dollhouse," the main characters found themselves in rooms that looked like their rooms at home as well. In both cases, this made the characters stop and wonder why they were in such a terrifying situation. In Harper's case, she saw her dad hurt her mom in this very bedroom, which allows the masked killers to scare her even more and try to trip her up. Harper knows that she's being manipulated and she keeps her eye on her goal of surviving this awful evening and saving her own life.
While some horror movie endings leave fans guessing, Haunt is straightforward. Harper thinks for a moment and realizes that she wrote down her home address when entering the house. She goes there, finds the killer with a clown mask, and murders him. By this point, audiences are so excited to see Harper fighting back, and it feels like the best possible ending.