Horror Movie Review: 10/31 (2017)

It doesn’t get more Halloween-y than this. 10/31 is an anthology horror movie consisting of five tales from different creators. Bookended by an intro and outro via the Elvira-type host Malvolia (Jennifer Nangle), 10/31 has no interweaved stories, aside from all the stories taking place on Halloween, it’s simply five horror shorts to send shivers down some spines.

The first of the stories is ‘The Old Hag’ and it comes from writer and director, Justin M. Seaman. Easily one of the most atmospheric and creepy shorts of the five, it sees two filmmakers, Tyler (Nick Edwards) and Kevin (Mitchell Musolino) called to an old guesthouse to film a commercial for the owner, Kathy (Cindy Maples) on Halloween night.

There’s someone else staying at the house though, and she has a bad habit of lurking around the place.

The visuals of this segment give it a dream like feel, but the colour contrast is what really stands out. The segment has a really strong creepy vibe and pays off the time investment nicely.

Up next is ‘Trespassers’, written and directed by Zane Hershberger and here, a young couple make the mistake of messing with a local legend surrounding a cursed scarecrow.

Chad Bruns as Jeff and Sable Griedel as Stephanie have good chemistry and do the best they can with this one, but it’s slow and uneven. Aside from a gory finish, there’s not much to remember here.

‘Killing the Dance‘ is next and it’s another strong segment. Coming from writer Jason Turner and director John William Holt, it’s a retro-blast that takes inspiration from slasher films, makes great use of its roller rink location, and has a fun twist.

Bailey Ingersoll plays Ashley, a teenage girl forced to take her little brother, Mikey (Noah Howland) to a Halloween party at the roller rink. He’s an odd kid, repeating phrases he hears and refusing to take his mask off, and he annoys the hell out of his sister. However, they are going to have to work together to survive when a roller-skating villain decides to slash his way across the dance floor.

Brett DeJager’s ‘The Halloween Blizzard of ’91′ would take first place for being the most forgettable of the segments if it wasn’t followed by the equally dull, ‘The Samhain Slasher‘, which comes from Rocky Gray. The former sees a family stuck at home at Halloween when a blizzard hits their town. However, that doesn’t stop them being visited by some trick or treaters. Whereas the latter is about a father and daughter being targeted by an axe-wielding manic.

10/31 follows the anthology rule of ‘hit and miss’ segments to a tee but doesn’t really land any big hits overall. The segments that are good are just… good and it’s hard to see any of them living long in the memory once Halloween is over. There are clear differences in quality between all of them, and some rise above the independent low budget tag well. It would be nice to have a more substantial framing device then the host intro and outro, but as a collection of different ideas, 10/31 isn’t too bad.