October builds houses, mine catches on fire.

NOTE: HEYYYYY So this is going to seem out of place showing up in November butttt, it was actually written in late September. Right at the beginning of my favorite season, my favorite month, like literally the first of October; my house caught. on. fire. YEAH, MY HOUSE WAS ON FIRE. Long story short, we're fine, everyone is fine. I salvaged most of my stuff, though our kitchen was a loss,(cry for me) and spent a month homeless with my boyfriend and dog. I got an apartment now, were home again and finally I can get back to writing. So bear with me, as these first two seem out of place, but I liked their phrasing and wanted to jump right back into cranking out new stuff. So to get back up on that horse here's...

"THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT"
2014
Director: Bobby Roe
Language: English
Is it on NETFLIX?:Yeah, totes is.

 I watched this Netflix find a short bit ago when I was kick-starting my Halloween horror movie marathon. I start early, or maybe I just never stop marathoning horror movies. Like those people who really love Christmas and start in August, I'm that way with Halloween. It lives and breathes within me. That being said I threw myself full force into the horroring season with "The Houses October Built". This movie was well.. was a bit like seeing someone super attractive and being all, "Holy shit, I want to know that person", then you get to know them, and their personality is like a damp piece of wonder bread. At least you got your looks, friend.

The Basics: A found footage style film with the standard group of horror movie young adults, complete with token woman, set off in a truly massive Winnebago to find the best "haunts" or haunted house attractions in the country. They spend some time looking for a really exclusive, hold-no-bars haunt, but get more than they bargained for...woOooOOoOooOo spooky scary.

"The Houses October Built" did have it's looks, the stills for this movie had enough to make me wonder what movie they were from when I came across them online. Look at these creepy motherfuckers:

Like seriously, what the hell?

That doll girl was creepy. Howeverrrrrr...that's about it. Creepy kinda ended there. There was a heavy reliance on how afraid of clowns viewers usually are. I know they are scary, but come on, ya gotta' work a little harder than that. That doll girl, I was interested in her, but I don't feel she got enough action on screen. "The Houses" had plenty of really promising lead ins that I kept sincerely getting my hopes up would turn into a real scare. I was left feeling a little let down. 

The group of friends would often be surrounded or cornered by the employees of the haunt they were visiting, mostly in worrisome or threatening ways, and you'd feel like "YEAH, something creepy's going down" they would panic, get freaked out then, pttttfffft. Nothing. The next morning it was "doo doo do on to the next place!" Perhaps this was an attempt to get me to watch everything? I waited through the movie hoping for an ending that was really gonna get me, but nothing really...got me?

YOU WIN THIS ROUND, VAGUELY MEDIOCRE MOVIE. In costuming and cinematography, considering it was a found footage, the whole feel of the movie was dark and jolting in just the way that makes a good FF horror flick. Not being able to see everything in the shot, but instead, only what the camera person sees, helps to place you in the persons place. "The Houses" is worth watching if you are are easily creeped out. It takes a heavy hand on the 'ol scare o' meter for me, and this one just didn't follow through. There were good moments, a few high-tension freak-outs in dark haunted house hallways. For that reason I would say this is worth the addition a Halloween watch list if you're working off Nexflix streaming. 

I give it 2 out of 5 spooky scary skeletons. Kinda a weak show, "Houses". Not the worst I've seen, just kinda, mehhhhh. Yah know?

I would recommend this movie it if you are a fan of:

Found footage films which gain most of their scares through confusion, being in the dark, and the occasional jump scare.  

Similar too:

"Blair Witch Project" and "Creep" both have the same elements of relying primarily on what happens of camera  or out of the cameras direct line of vision to be scary. When done right that's fine, both these movie actually do a better job of being unsettling than "The Houses October Built", in my humble opinion.