- Directed by Riley Cusik
- Written by Riley Cusik
- Stars Lorelei Linklater, Riley Cusick, Justin Meeks
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpvvGj_lJEg
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
A slow-burn drama about two brothers who don’t cope well after an accidental death. It’s well-acted and well made, but awfully slow moving at times. The ending, however, is quite good and worth the watch.
Synopsis
Some kids go through a “haunted house” attraction. Vincent and Charlie are brothers, and their father runs the attraction. Winnie is a girl their age they are good friends with. Charlie stays at the attraction while the other two go trick-or-treating. Winnie is allergic to peanuts, so the old man in the house gives her an expensive pocket watch instead. Winnie goes back to be with Charlie because she likes him best. They kiss in the hearse. She eats some candy and starts gagging; he gave her peanut candy by mistake. He runs out and tells Vincent, who says he’ll take care of it.
The next day their father says Winnie went missing; her parents are worried sick. He gives them a talk about death. Charlie hints that the old man may be involved, but we see that he has the watch now. Credits Roll.
Time has passed. Laura has just been auditioning for a bad horror film. She commiserates with her friend; they decide to write a movie of their own.
Charlie still runs the haunted house every year. We follow a couple through the place, and the boyfriend is terrified while the girl is amused. He pushes Vincent in his mask, and Vincent punches the guy. A girl working in the haunt says Vincent is a psycho; and he kills small animals.
Laura and her girlfriend talk about their movie-writing when the girlfriend is killed by a truck.
She’s in shock and drives a long way back to her hometown; she winds up in the diner where Charlie works. She’s Winnie’s sister. He’s very friendly, and she’s still in shock. Vincent comes in, and he’s creepy. He invites Laura to go see their haunted house.
The two brothers argue; Vincent wants to change things with the Haunt, but Charlie says it’s worked for decades. He wants the whole town to be afraid of them. Charlie says maybe they can change things next year. Vincent goes outside and fires the whole staff.
The next day, Charlie shows Laura around the Haunt and other places he used to go with Winnie. She thinks she’s cursed. Meanwhile, Vincent hides in the back of an annoying guy’s pickup truck after letting the air out of one tire. When the guy goes to look at the flat tire, Vincent hits him with the tire iron. Wearing his creepy owl mask, he beats the guy and runs away.
When Charlie and Laura return to the haunt, Vincent has decided they’ll reopen and are hiring new actors, the same day as his decision to close. One of the auditions gets angry and claims Vincent kills animals. Vincent tells the story of how he killed an owl once that got stuck inside the haunt. Laura tells Vincent that Charlie really wants to leave and have his own life; Vincent says he’ll never let that happen.
Vincent follows the nasty-audition guy back to his house and puts on his owl mask. They go inside, and it’s a surprise party, but Vincent stabs the guy anyway. Awkward!
Charlie tells Laura about his final meeting with Winnie and the pocket watch, and she gets creeped out by him. Why wouldn’t he have told the authorities this ten years ago?
Laura finally goes home to see her mother. It’s been years. The mother has kept Winnie’s room exactly the same just in case she ever comes home.
At the diner, the guy who got beat up by Vincent pulls Charlie outside and curb-stomps him. Vincent later tells Charlie that he took care of that guy. Charlie is now covered in bandages after a rough time in the hospital.
Vincent pretends to be Charlie and calls Laura to invite her over. She comes to see Charlie, but Vincent locks her in the Haunt with his new actors. Charlie goes in after her, but she’s got a head start.
Vincent puts on his owl mask and shows Laura the mummified body of Winnie. He shoves Laura into a coffin and tells Charlie that he’s taken care of everything again. I’m doing it for us. Charlie whispers something in Vincent’s ear, and Vincent slinks off.
Time passes, and Charlie knows Vincent is still out there. Charlie goes back to the haunt, now covered in police crime scene tape, gets in the hearse, pulls out his pocket watch, and looks into the back seat…
Commentary
The story and situations here are interesting, as are the characters. Riley Cusick plays a dual role as the very-different Charlie and Vincent, as well as being the writer and director here. That’s a lotta work. Each scene is well done, but there’s a noticeable lack of action here, and it’s all pretty slow going.
I’d call this more a drama than horror, but it pulls you in. I was expecting more of a twist or surprise at the end, but instead, everything is exactly what it appears.