Haunt--My take on the movie with spoilers!
Plot Summary: Six friends enter an extreme Haunted House only to realize that they are in grave danger.
As a millennial, I have to admit: I have my phone with me at all times.
Not that I'm glued to the screen, but I find immense security in having it in my pocket or purse.
Why? Because over the years, smartphones have become a gateway not only to connect with people but pretty much making sure that you are reachable and never get lost.
It's not even about calls anymore, but because of the numerous apps that never make you feel lonely or bored.
So if anyone asks me to give up my phone to enter any place or partake in any activity, I'm going to lie, keep my phone on silent and hide it in my pockets. Or socks.
HAUNT Movie Plot
Haunt begins with a scene where someone is tying a taut red wire across a door. Someone is setting up a trap.
In the next scene, we meet Harper, a woman trying to avoid calls from her boyfriend as she applies make-up to her bruises.
It's Halloween and her best friend Bailey, uses Harper's phone to text a breakup message to the abusive boyfriend.
Then she convinces her to go to a Halloween party to which Harper agrees readily. Once there, she meets up with her other friends and runs into a guy with whom she hits it off.
All the while, Harper keeps looking over her shoulder and when she receives a text asking her to guess the costume, she's convinced her boyfriend is stalking her.
Outside, the other friends and Nathan, the guy she met a few minutes ago, decide to visit a haunted house.
If there are reviews for haunted houses, I would suggest always checking them.
But this group of six friends, decide to go to a place they've never heard of, and situated in a remote place, because hey, it's fun to put yourself in dangerous situations.
Harper, still haunted about her childhood trauma where she witnessed her father beating up his wife, is paranoid that the car behind them is following her.
Soon, they arrive at the Haunted house and see a few people already queued up there.
They are given the key based on the condition that they must give up their phones.
All of them give it up immediately. No second thoughts. No lying about leaving it in the car. Nope.
They are entering a place they've never visited before and trusting strangers in clown masks. That's the way to go. It's not like the clown had a detector or was checking their pockets. They too are confident that the phones would be handed over to him. They are right.
The friends enter and are made to witness a cloaked and masked stranger near a cauldron. He turns, then drags a body bag into view. He opens it and reveals a woman screaming for help.
The masked man uses a hot poker against the face. In the next instant, she vanishes. The friends think it is a prank.
As they venture further, they encounter webs and spiders, and the usual skeleton popping out.
So far, the friends have no nagging fear that they are in danger.
They come at a crossroads and divide into two groups. One picks "safe", the other "Not safe".
Of course, there is no safe path in a horror movie.
The trio who took the unsafe path in the maze find a trap door through a coffin.
The other group find themselves in a room where they must place their hands inside holes to guess the body parts in a room filled with X-rays.
Nathan places his hand in and finds a grape.
Thinking that it is all innocent fun, Bailey puts her arm in only to lose her ring and be scratched by something unknown. Bleeding profusely, the others prepare a tourniquet.
Meanwhile, the other group is threatened by projection spiders and one of them is separated from them.
While searching for her, they meet the others, and when Harper meets Bailey and sees her state, is scared that the haunted house isn't as innocent as it appears.
The curtains are drawn and the friends witness the witch at the cauldron again. They all cry for help for their friend, but the witch continues with the tradition of dragging a body bag into view.
Only this time, the woman inside is their missing friend.
She is poked by a pitchfork and killed.
The friends now understand that they are in danger. And without their phones.
While making plans to get out of their predicament, they encounter a masked and cloaked man, ready to assist them. He hands over the keys when Harper asks for them, then helps the friends by telling them to go through the trap door again.
They go one by one because according to the stranger, it is devised to collapse if more than one goes through it. They all did come the same way and it didn't collapse then.
Anyway, the brilliant idea is for one of them to go ahead, then the stranger, then the rest. Now the first one has to go out and look for help, leaving behind the stranger.
They didn't think for two friends to go first and then the stranger so someone can keep an eye on him. Nope.
Of course, as soon as the first friend goes through and travels through the maze, the stranger doesn't immediately announce his exit to the others. Instead, he boards up the exit.
The door below opens and the other friends decide to make a break for it while Harper tries to close the door as an attacker approaches.
HAUNT Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Bailey just about makes it out, but the other friend is killed by a pitchfork. Harper runs with the keys and soon finds herself in a room with the words Escape Room scribbled on it. Inside is a bedroom with dolls and floral wallpaper.
She finds clues written backwards and she must use a compact mirror to read. Even though it's pretty readable and obvious.
Anyway, it's all a trap. The exit door is hiding a shotgun that is triggered when the door is opened.
Harper is shot in the shoulder. She crawls toward the gun while being chased by an attacker. She reaches the gun and manages to fend off the chainsaw attack and shoot her attacker with it.
She also takes the pitchfork and is ready to attack when another person in mask and cloak enters. Harper stabs the person but soon realizes she has murdered her best friend Bailey who was gagged and tied up.
Meanwhile, Nathan finds himself outside and uses a sledgehammer to get Harper outside.
The other friend is already murdered by the stranger who had offered help.
Harper's boyfriend makes it to the haunted house when one of the clowns pretends to be Harper and calls him over. He trips over the wire set up in the first scene and has his head bashed in.
Nathan and Harper climb over a fence, but soon encounter the so-called friend who is brandishing a gun.
Nathan climbs down with his baseball bat and goes after him. He's shot in the stomach but he still slams his bat against the masked stranger and kills him.
They then escape in Harper's boyfriend's car.
At the hospital, Harper awakens after another nightmare where she finds herself in her childhood home.
She is informed Nathan is doing well, then is released.
The next scene cuts to her home where a clown has found her.
He enters the house but there are traps set everywhere.
Harper emerges with a shotgun and kills him.
The end.
Haunt is gritty, gory and terrifying. The pace will keep you hooked until the very last scene.
Except for a few holes regarding the cellphones, the movie is a thrilling watch.
Scare scale: 4/5
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