By Geno McGahee
I love low budget horror films and I was happy to find an 8 pack for five dollars, one of which was MR. HALLOWEEN, a film that was released in 2007 and one that was influenced by HALLOWEEN, but still had its own vibe and story.
The story surrounds the town of Sauquoit, New York. There is a legend of a “Mr. Halloween,” a killer/kidnapper that has terrorized the area. The same Mr. Halloween runs a haunted house inside of his home that the youngsters really dig. Unfortunately, some of them come in but never leave…victims of this crazy killer.
The killer dresses like Michael Myers and changes dramatically in personality when he puts on a mask which is amazingly similar to Eddie from IRON MAIDEN. He uses a guillotine to kills many of his victims and you can’t help but to love how he screams “execute them” followed by a maniacal laugh. Without the mask, he just makes mean faces and doesn’t say much. The mask, you can’t shut him up…without the mask…he kind of sucks. The only cool thing he said was during an attack. He screamed: “Call me Mr. Halloween.”
Mr. Halloween kills some teens but has elected to keep two alive for the time being. Jill (Shannon Eastman) and Michael (Josh Wolf) are chained in the basement and are living in terror, although the acting is rather bad. The acting, overall, in this film is pretty terrible and unbelievable, but you could tell that everyone’s heart was in the right place. There was a genuine effort here to make a good film and they didn’t make a bad one, which is what most on this level turn out to be.
There was a silly twist at the end with even sillier reasoning, but at least they tried to throw us a curve. It didn’t really add or take away from the story.
In the end, MR. HALLOWEEN was a good micro-budget film with plenty of heart. There were some times that it dragged, but overall, I found it very watchable and fun. I recommend it.
Rating: 5/10
