Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

johnbkaramazov Five hard drinking friends go on a booze-fuelled roadtrip looking for the most extreme haunted house experience America's backcountry has to offer. It's actually a fantastic premise as the film-makers are able to play with loads of creepy imagery, ratcheting up the tension without shooting their bolt too soon. The assumption is that none of it is real, but underlying these visits is the tension that... what if they aren't? For a low-budget film the acting and the script is really good. Found footage always benefits from believable characters exchanging natural dialogue, which is what you get here without a doubt. Some of the back and forth is actually pretty funny and at times I found myself chuckling along; which I think is a good thing in a horror film as it builds a rapport between the viewer and characters, which draws you into their world. It's a pretty slow film all told and the last act spoiled the build up for me, leaving me rather unsatisfied. Was I sad I watched it though? Hell no! This film is all about the tension and the imagery. The uncertainty, the questioning of what's real and what isn't. It isn't perfect, but with a few simple tweaks and a better ending, it could have been. If you like horror and you like found footage, this film will totally entertain you. If you liked the trailer and you're sitting on the fence, get off that fence and stick it on. It gets more right than wrong, some of the scenes are so downright creepy they'll be knocking around in my psyche for some time to come.

Seth_Rogue_One I like a good found footage movie, when it's done right it can be creepier than most 'regular' horror movies.This movie however... was, not done right.The acting isn't terrible but the plot can't sustain the duration of a movie by a long-shot, it would probably have worked as a 30 minute TALES FROM THE CRYPT episode but not as a 90 minute movie.The first hour you wait for something to happen and when it finally does you don't have the patience or energy to care how it's all gonna end, it all feels so tediously dull and in the end completely pointless.I originally wrote that they should have just made it a documentary on Haunted House attractions instead BUT then I found out that the makers of this movie actually made a documentary about just that in 2011 called the exact same thing as this is.Now I haven't seen that documentary but I think you're better off watching that than this.

chaos-rampant Nevermind the actual film, the idea is one of the most potent I've seen in some time.A group of friends set out in a van in search of horror, haunted house attractions scattered around rural America. It's the days leading up to Halloween so we can have a pervasive atmosphere of masks and monsters roaming the streets. I like that it's a glimpse outside the usual and tied to a larger fabric of make-believe.The idea is that we'll venture into these houses where horror is supposed to be controlled around us, the work of fiction, only to discover more slippery boundaries of truth. This would touch at the very essence of horror, exploiting the same perturbations that move viewers in both the actual houses and film; see, we know it's not real, but what to do when your body tells you otherwise?So nevermind that it's actors we see and scripted reactions. Some of the most potent footage here are from within these houses where we go in with a camera and a swirl of monsters lunges at us, staged but it comes alive. I'm guessing these are actual places that partnered with the filmmakers and this is what tantalized me going in; it would be at least in part an actual tour of that America that goes to pilgrimage in actual places.They manage to bungle this for my taste, the part where fiction blurs and we go to something that comes alive in the moment of watching.For one, they chose the "found footage" mode (silly name, largely the baggage of Blairwitch - it really means "someone is filming this now"). It's the most apt choice I've seen since Last Exorcism, but no one ever films a sense of place and passing time, a physical sense of journey; they waste it on lots of blathering around a camera so that it ends up feeling like an episode of cable TV. Indicative of the actual makers holding the camera I guess.And then there's the ending. This is where the staged scenarios in these attractions don't cut it any more as the characters push for more and more "real" stuff. Lo, there's rumor of a secret place that you can only reach by invitation. But once there, it's the most obviously staged part of the film, the complete opposite of where we were meant to be viewing-wise.So this is a miss, filmmakers with maybe the strongest idea of any of their peers this year but none of the tools of insight to cultivate it. They outline enough for me to imagine it in more intuitive hands so all in all I would have this over the next paranormal film.Someone has gone out with the urge for horror in mind (and it's our very urge to inhabit illusion that made us build these houses), thinking he knows illusion from real, but it begins to spill outside, perturbing reality. From a certain point on, the apparitions become aware of someone watching, aware inside the fiction, so conspire to stage the real thing as a cosmic prank that shatters lives.Watch The Funhouse, Hooper's film driven by the same instinct, a funhouse that extends from the actual place to haunt the whole film.

whinger1979 As soon as I realised that this was yet another 'found footage' style horror, my expectations were immediately lowered. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of this particular attempt. The story managed to keep my interest until the very end, the cast done a great job and some of the characters really creeped me out, especially some of the clowns. It also had me guessing right up until the very end whether the characters lives were actually really in danger or whether the whole thing was some kind of elaborate Halloween prank. If you're a big horror fan like myself then I'd definitely recommend seeing this, however once would probably be enough for most people....