Review: THE HOUSES THAT OCTOBER BUILT

Title: THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT

Year: 2014

Director: Bobby Roe

Writer: Bobby Roe, Zack Andrews, Jason Zada

Starring: Zack Andrews, Bobby Roe, Brandy Schaefer

Love them or hate them, found footage films are here to stay. This year alone I've seen nearly a dozen. I've spent times in both the love and hate camps but now I do the right thing and judge every film on it's own merits rather than quickly basing judgement off the style in which the film is made. Certain films just work better as found footage and THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT is one of those films. 

Five friends load up and RV and head out across the country to find the scariest haunted house in America. They're looking for something genuinely frightening. Something that will give them that feeling they had when they want to haunted houses as little kids. As their journey begins they're not sure what they'll find. 

The first few haunts they visit are pretty typical as far as modern day haunted houses go. There's lots of strobe lights, jump scares and decent use of makeup and masks. It's nothing spectacular but it gets the job done. This isn't what the friends are looking for, however. They want genuine dread.

They do talk to a few people and hear interesting stories about the various houses they visit. One recurring story involves people hanging themselves in the haunted house and visitors thinking it's part of the fun. Because this story is told in regards to multiple haunts, it's problem more of an urban legend than actual truth.

During the travels the group keeps hearing of an "underground" haunt. They're convinced that this is the place they've been looking for. The friends dedicate their time to trying to find this secret haunted house. Along the way they continue to encounter a group of less than friendly folks determined to stop them in their tracks.

THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT uses the found footage element nicely. I think the shaky camera works really well for going through the various haunted houses. It is a little dark and you miss a few things but the flashes of scares are effective.

The downside to this film is we spend too much time with the friends in the RV having mostly mindless conversation. None of this moves the story and we don't really connect with any of the characters. There's also a fairly lengthy scene in a strip club that seems unnecessary. It does take place on zombie night but really takes the focus off the haunted houses to throw in some T&A.

The ending is a bit of a disappointment. The film had an opportunity to deliver on something very scary and missed the mark in my opinion. This is mostly a bummer because the trailer is really fantastic. I wish the film would have lived up to that.

Overall THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT is an ok movie. It does make solid use of found footage but misses opportunities. There's some creepy images for sure, but nothing more than that. It'll make for good background noise at Halloween parties.

Rating: 2.5/5