The Houses October Built (2014)
Directed by Bobby Roe
Found footage horror movies aren’t really my cup of tea. Very few are even worth the watch, most are just shit. For every Paranormal Activity there are a handful of Blair Witch remakes. The Houses October Built has showed up in streaming services so many damn times, that I got tired of seeing it, so fine you win I watched it.
The movie is about a group of people wanting to find the scariest haunted house attraction. Soon the group is being harassed by a group of strange beings. Are these haunted house actors chasing them or is it something different? The premise is kind of lame, but I guess original enough that it stands out from the rest of the found footage bullshit that flooded the market in the 2010s.
The shaky cam is crap, like it always is. The scares aren’t plentiful enough like a movie such as As Above So Below or VHS. It is mostly just a bunch of clips thrown together with a very loose narrative. None of the characters are that likeable, except for Brandy, the token girl of the group. The rest of the guys are just kind of college style douchebags. How found footage works, is what you are watching has to feel authentic and real. How it fails is when there are obvious set ups and bad acting. This movie has much of the later. While some of the masks are creepy, such as the doll head girl, many are just random masks bought from Walmart that aren’t special.
There isn’t much in the way of special effects. If you have ever been to a cheap haunted house attraction then you’ve seen all of this movie. I guess that is the point, they are visiting a bunch of those haunted attractions. I have seen people rave about this movie and it has been featured in lists of the best found footage horror movies, but it has been on the lists of the worst as well.
Again I’m not a big found footage fan. The shaky cam annoys me and the whole idea is just kind of dumb. Nothing in this movie really makes me anxious or does anything near fear. I can’t connect with any of the characters because they are paper thin and just not likeable enough for me to care about them. I never once felt like they were in danger, so I didn’t get pulled into the movie. I can’t give this movie anything higher than a C-. It isn’t the worst found footage movie I’ve seen, but it leaves a lot to be desired.
