'Haunt' mini-review — Haunted houses are never fun

In Haunt, a group of college students makes their way to a haunted house in the middle of nowhere seeking thrills — they get more than they bargained for.

90-second review: I came into Haunt with a great deal of anticipation considering directors Scott Beck and Brian Woods just came off writing—and nearly getting nominated for an Oscar—for A Quiet Place. Not to mention the project was produced by horror maestro Eli Roth. And there are some traces of the talent that made their other projects successful. Unfortunately, covering those traces are layers and layers of bad choices.

The conceit of Haunt isn't a new one. Seeking thrills, a group of college students makes their way to the middle of nowhere to go through an extreme haunted house. Of course, as expected, it's more than they bargained for as the dangers—and monsters—in the house are more real than they could ever imagine. Then, the movie turns into a fight for survival and escape reminiscent of 2015's Green Room.

However, one of the biggest problems with Haunt comes before they even get to the haunted house. We meet all our characters but learn nothing about them—save for some of Harper (Katie Stevens), the main protagonist. So, by the time they get picked off one by one, we don't care about their fates. That could slide if the movie made the scares and haunts that they experience tense or exciting. To their credit, Beck and Woods do build suspense in some moments. But that suspense leads to little payoff too often. Overall, the plot, the characters, and the scares are underbaked.

There's so much potential on the screen too. The design of the haunted house is intriguing and disorienting with wood-slat-lined halls leading to cramped tunnels and dark rooms littered with unseen dangers. If only the actual story were as inventive as the set design.

You can maybe derive some genre thrills out of the sticky situations — you'll get that pun if you watch it — the characters get themselves into. There's also some great gore and creature design. Still, Haunt is all bark and no bite.

Haunt is streaming on AMC+ via Prime Video.

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Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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haunt — An image from the horror / thriller HAUNT, a Momentum Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Momentum Pictures.

Karl Delossantos

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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.