Four great Halloween movies that are not Halloween

Pretty much every horror movie fan knows (and loves) Halloween, and watches it annually at this time of year, right? Not really digging the sequels, I have found several other Halloween movies that I love, and I would like to share some of them with you.

The Halloween not Halloween List

Trick r Treat

We’ll start with my favorite glittering Halloween gem, Trick r’ Treat.  Trick ‘r Treat had a lot of advance buzz, but for whatever reason, did not get a theatrical release.  It was well received at a few public screenings and festivals beginning in 2007, and was finally released straight to DVD / Blu-Ray in early October of 2009.  Speculation has it that the studio was nervous about releasing the movie into theaters due to the fact that many of its victims were children, but it is a shame it never had the chance to be seen by the masses earlier on.

Whatever the reason for this travesty, this is a quality film, darkly funny, scary, and a beautiful treat for the eyes.  Trick ‘r Treat is an anthology film set in fictional Warren Valley, which holds a big Halloween festival / party every year.  The individual stories and characters overlap throughout, and all of them include “Sam”, who appears to be a small child wearing orange pajamas and a burlap mask.  One of the stories involves a couple returning from the Halloween festival, and the wife wants to just take down their own Halloween decorations and blow out the candle in the jack o’ lantern as soon as they get home.

Her husband objects, saying it’s bad luck, but it’s clear who wears the cranky pants in this family, and hubby goes inside while his bride proceeds to tear down the decorations.  Sam is observing from across the street, and let’s just say she should have listened to her husband.

Other stories involve a shy young woman attending a party in the woods with her older, more worldly sister and friends, a school principal who is more than meets the eye, a cantankerous old man and his dog, a group of kids who decide to play a prank on weird, Halloween loving Rhonda, and the legend of the Halloween School Bus Massacre.

Trick r Treat – Courtesy of Legendary

As I said, this movie is visually gorgeous, and Rhonda’s multiple Halloween Jack o’ Lanterns are part of that beauty.  I would love to see it on a real movie screen some day.

Trick ‘r Treat’s strong cast includes Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker and Brian Cox.  If you haven’t seen it yourself, drop everything and check it out immediately!

Hell House LLC

Hell House LLC – Courtesy of Cognetti Films

Hell House LLC is a found footage movie, which I know a lot of people hate…but, I am not one of those people, and I liked it a lot.  Like all found footage flicks, the premise is that you are watching a true story / documentary.

The storyline of Hell House LLC  focuses on a group of friends who put up a very popular haunted house in NYC each Halloween.  In 2009, so the story goes, Hell House took place for the first time outside of the city, in an abandoned hotel in a small town called Abaddon.  We are told that after opening night, 15 tour goers and staff members are dead, killed due to what local law enforcement refers to as an “unknown malfunction.”

Five years later, a documentary crew picks up the story, and interviews several people familiar with the story, including people who were there to tour the house.  Best of all, they interview the only surviving member of the staff, Sara.  Sara provides the crew with both an interview and footage shot by the original staff, taking us down the road to the fateful (and fatal) opening night of Hell House LLC.

Things start out ok, with our group setting up the hotel with props, lights and sound effects, joking around and bickering occasionally.  Their props include several life- size figures, such as a super-creepy clown whose head, we are told, does not move.  Except, that during one of the first horrifying incidents our friends experience, the clown turns its head to look directly at them.  These incidents continue to escalate, and friendships deteriorate in the days leading up to the grand opening.

I won’t give any spoilers regarding the activity happening in this hotel, but there are some great scary moments.  We are also treated to videos taken by tour-goers, including some footage shot during the one and only tour of Hell House.  It’s a pretty clever way to tell the story.

The actors in Hell House LLC are unknowns, but they do a fine job appearing to be just normal people going about their unusual business.  The best found footage movies are those in which the acting is steady and low-key (think the original Blair Witch Project), and doesn’t feel scripted.

The sequel, Hell House LLC II,  was just released on Shudder, and I found the story to be good, while the acting was mostly not.  Very disappointing.

Hell House LLC is available to stream on both Amazon Prime and Shudder, the sequel can only be seen on Shudder.

The Houses October Built

The Houses October Built – Courtesy of Room 101 and Foreboding Films

As long as we are talking about found footage style movies, let’s talk about The Houses October Built.  The story also centers around Halloween haunts and a group of five friends (it’s always a group of five…always).  In this story, our friends are Halloween haunt fans who are visiting the scariest, most extreme haunts south of Ohio.  The setup for the found footage is that they plan to record their experiences inside the haunts, and to interview actors as well.  Of course, they also record their interactions with one another.

Our friends have heard rumors of the most extreme haunt of them all, Blue Skeleton, a pop-up haunt of sorts that changes its top-secret location frequently.  Along their way to finding Blue Skeleton, they visit the other haunts, often irritating the actors by filming and generally being annoying.

Eventually, things begin to get really scary, as a couple of the haunted house actors start stalking the group.  They show up outside the RV, they even get inside and film the friends sleeping.  Instructions are finally left for the gang, explaining how to get to the Blue Skeleton haunt, and it’s all downhill from there, folks.  There are some good, intense scares in the final thirty minutes.

Although the ending seems pretty grim and final, there was a sequel made to this flick, and it was pretty good too.   Again, the “acting” in both films is very natural and doesn’t feel scripted.

Haunters- – The Art of the Scare

Haunters- The Art of the Scare – Courtesy of Jason Cohn – Jason Cohn Productions

Let’s stay on the theme of Halloween Haunted Attractions, shall we?  Haunters – The Art of the Scare is an actual documentary released last year,  focusing on a handful of people who are involved in Halloween Haunted Attractions.  Primarily, we meet “Scareactor” Shar Mayer, Donald Julson, who operates a Halloween haunt at his own home annually, and Russ McKamey, who is responsible for  the infamous McKamey Manor.

I love Halloween attractions, and I found this movie to be fascinating.  Mayer and Julson both come across as genuinely good people, who love what they do.  Mayer’s story is amazing, as she has worked in the haunt industry for 40 years.  She has suffered numerous injuries over the years, including three crushed vertebrae when a drunk patron jumped on her back, and says she is in pain every single day.  Yet, she continues, because she is devoted to scaring people.

Julson constructs a haunted maze in his parents’ driveway each Halloween, and his new wife is not that into it.  Given how much Julson loves it, you can’t help but feel sympathy for him.  He is a former props maker for Universal Pictures, and you feel like his haunt is a creative outlet for him.

Then, there is Russ McKamey.  McKamey Manor started as a home haunt as well, but it is about as extreme as a “haunt” can be.  He is fascinating, no doubt, but not nearly as sympathetic as Mayer or Julson.  He does not charge money for his attraction, he only asks that attendees bring dog food, which he donates to a rescue.  But, this is no thirty minute tour, a trip to McKamey Manor can last hours and hours, depending on how long you can take the rigorous in-your-face actors and events.

People are often subjected to having duct tape wrapped around their eyes and face, force-fed disgusting unknown substances, being bound and gagged, drenched in water and fake blood…you get the idea.  It’s basically torture for fun.  And there is no “safe word”, the torture goes on until Russ (who is in your face with a camera, filming everything) says it stops.  I have read that McKamey Manor does now honor a safe word, but not when this documentary was filmed.  The most disconcerting fact about all of this is that his actors are often not background checked or well-trained.  His glee at terrifying people to the point of hysteria made me feel uncomfortable.

Overall, Haunters – The Art of the Scare is a great documentary, it gave me a lot to think about, and I plan a repeat viewing this year.

So, there you go, four Halloween-related films to watch this year.  I hope you give at least one of them a shot, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  I also recommend the following Halloween themed treats:  Monster House, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Guest (the final part of this awesome movie is set in a school haunted house setup), and May.

Did any of your favorite non-Halloween movies make the list? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.