Movie Trailer For 'The Houses October Built' Theaters Oct 10th

[emazers]

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/365309-houses-october-built-gets-trailer-one-sheet/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=houses-october-built-gets-trailer-one-sheet

[Monsters For Sale]

Is the whole movie done with a handheld camera?

It is a technique that can be quite effective when used sparingly.  But I hate whole films that use shaky handheld to assume a fake "reality".  Professional documentaries that use handheld cameras use them in a way that they are almost undetectable most of the time.

[Creepy]

Is the whole movie done with a handheld camera?

It is a technique that can be quite effective when used sparingly.  But I hate whole films that use shaky handheld to assume a fake "reality".  Professional documentaries that use handheld cameras use them in a way that they are almost undetectable most of the time.

The movie looks fun, definitely a newish angle. That said, can the era of the "found footage" movie please come to an end? Horror films have always worked on meager budgets, but this trend of everything being filmed that way really has worn out it's welcome, in my opinion.

[zombiehorror]

Moving this riveting discussion here from the Last Monster/Horror/Sci-Fi Movie/Show You Watched thread.

  I don't see how any of this is so implausible. Reckless college age film students try to make a doc about those extreme haunted houses that make the news every Halloween. They actually go to real attractions and talk to real participants. Their drunken, asinine stunts piss off a crew of creepy haunted house performers. They go after them for a sick payback of sorts. No supernatural ghost crap, just people with a lot of anger and a twisted point of view. How is this implausible? Do you ever watch what is going on in this crazy, violent world? All of this is within the realm of reality (unlike those Paranormal nonsense films or that thoroughly boring Blair Witch). Of course, it doesn't have the hardcore horror street cred that Cathy Najiminy or Bette Midler would bring to the plate. Maybe next time they could get Rosie O'Donnell for the sake of authenticity.

No in reality a crazed haunted house worker would probably just use a gun for payback.  They certainly wouldn't traipse from Texas to Louisiana to get their revenge.  They also wouldn't be able to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye.  At one point the porcelain doll chick is standing on the side of the rode, doofus (don't recall the character's name) lets her in the Winnebago.  Stereotypical girl (don't recall her name either) says something to the effect of, "Isn't that the same girl from the last haunt?", one of the other nimrods (or several of them) say, "No, we are a 100 miles away from that haunt.".  So there all plausibility is out the window since it was clearly the same porcelain girl, secondly didn't they film all that haunt?  Including the part with the porcelain girl.  Check the tape, dipcraps.

Why were there cameras mounted to the outside of the RV?  And more importantly why didn't they use said cameras to view what was going on outside?  Or leave them on for the night.

Were they not curious how the invite got inside of the pumpkin?  I know I was.  They never ask or turn it over to see if there was a hole cut out, which there would have had to have been.

Just how many haunt actor bars do you think are out there in the real world?

How did Blue Skeleton keep finding the group night after night?  At one point one of the Blue Skeleton crew wears the exact same outfit as one of the group.  Did they see what he was wearing and make a run to Wal-mart just hoping they would have the same blue hoodie?  Did the insane haunt worker just happen to have the same blue hoodie?

Their drunken, asinine stunts piss off a crew of creepy haunted house performers.

Climbing up on a building and yelling into a mega-phone, "I am the king of Halloween." (or something to that effect) surely couldn't be the worst thing that happens to haunt actors on a given night and definitely not worth a couple hundred mile road trip to get your revenge.  I also never got the feeling that that was why they were targeted but only because they were seeking out the Blue Skeleton haunt, which they weren't supposed to be the only ones seeking them out.  So why bother with this particular group in the first place?

If they were haunt actors from the first haunt then how did they get everything set up in Louisiana?  How did they know where some abandoned property would be?  Did it just so happen they coincidentally had friends in Louisiana?

I'm not even sure if this is all the implausible/ridiculous stuff that happened in the film but I think that is more than enough.  If this had been filmed like a movie, even as a low budget film it would have probably worked but as found footage it just doesn't.  The best found footage (and even the bad ones...except Houses October Built) work because what's happening on screen, even though it couldn't happen in real life, appears to be grounded in reality.

(unlike those Paranormal nonsense films or that thoroughly boring Blair Witch)

I didn't care for any of the PA series or Blair Witch but all of those still shine as better overall examples of the found footage genre.

Not to mention that cool '70s Wolfman mask in that vintage commercial in the beginning.

That was awesome and in my opinion the best part of the whole movie.

[BigShadow]

Looks like it might be okay.

[Mord]

Looks like it might be okay.

It's better than that. It is out on DVD/Blu-Ray. The film is all hand held camera, it's one of the few that actually works. There is no ghost in the house caught by camera crap that infests this kind of film. I highly recommend it as does another member (I forget who). Zombie Horror seems to prefer crap like "Hocus Pocus"(with horror goddess, Bette Midler) to this type of film. He also seems to think that all horror killers are better off using guns (he made the same comments about the cool crossbows in "You're Next"). I guess it would also be more practical/realistic for Leatherface to not use the Chainsaw since it's not practical. Freddy better get rid of his blade glove & replace it with...a gun. Come on, man, do you even like horror? Trust me on this, this is one cool, creepy, motherf***er of a movie. Though I would stay away if you have a problem with hand held cameras. This is a lot more plausible & believable than most of the crap on those "VHS" movies. There's also an early haunt house ad in the beginning with a vintage Wolfman mask

[zombiehorror]

(he made the same comments about the cool crossbows in "You're Next"). I guess it would also be more practical/realistic for Leatherface to not use the Chainsaw since it's not practical. Freddy better get rid of his blade glove & replace it with...a gun.  There's also an early haunt house ad in the beginning with a vintage Wolfman mask

Wow, you get really bitter when someone doesn't like the same crappy movie you do (When did I even comment on You're Next?).  You're next didn't deal with serial killers (be they real ones or cinematic incarnations), it dealt with hired hit men (Oops, spoiler alert....although you'll figure this out fairly early on anyway.); so yes, why would they use such impractical weapons?  Because it looks "cool" in a movie, that is the simple answer.  Films like that and Houses October Built are made by lazy screenwriters/filmmakers that just figure, "Oh, it's just a horror movie.  Who needs logic as long as it looks bad ass.  As long as we get a few creepy moments onscreen.  As long as or killer out does other killers.".  I thought the same thing of Laid to Rest, a film that makes little to no sense but gets some kudos because the killer is so "awesome".  I hear lots of positive reviews on Rob Zombie's Halloween(s) and it basically boils down to Myers was a bad ass in those films and points out a few of the kill scenes.  Well that is great and all but that doesn't make them good movies by any means.  It irks me that the filmmakers behind Texas Chainsaw 3D didn't put a little thought into the timeline of their movie compared to the original, it was just lazy and to me just again points to people thinking that horror movies are a lesser medium.

Come on, man, do you even like horror?

Not particularly, it is the lowest form of entertainment out there and people that watch it are all depraved lunatics.

This is a lot more plausible & believable than most of the crap on those "VHS" movies.

V/H/S/ films may be filled with demons, ghosts, zombies and other supernatural happenings but the footage and events are still more believable than what transpires during Houses October Built; see my previous post as to why that is.

Trust me on this, this is one cool, creepy, motherf***er of a movie. Though I would stay away if you have a problem with hand held cameras.

Personally I would just stay away, whether you like found footage films or not.

Zombie Horror seems to prefer crap like "Hocus Pocus" (with horror goddess, Bette Midler) to this type of film.

Why are you so focused on Hocus Pocus, I mentioned several other Halloween themed films as well as stated that there are much better examples of found footage films.  I do enjoy the film but really only threw it in there to get your goat (which it obviously did); I was also going to mention It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and The Halloween Tree as better Halloween films than Houses October Built but I didn't want to give you an aneurysm.

[Mord]

 You are absolutely wrong in any way possible. Hocus Pocus, Charlie Brown? I get it...you're a family man and have to plan things out with the children in mind. Not my problem. Cool weapons are always going to replace practicality in horror. It's a visual medium. I also love how your criteria changes to accommodate your narrative. At first, plausibility was your main concern with this "found footage" stuff. Then I bring up a totally ridiculous & improbable example YOU like (VHS I & II) and then you find zombies & demons as reasonably believable. Also, you put down You're Next, Laid to Rest (great film), & ...October for cool looking but impractical weapons but didn't comment on other classics with even more outrageous weapons. Do you consider the '74 Texas Chainsaw Massacre a great horror film? If so, how do you explain Leatherface using a chainsaw as a weapon of surprise? It just LOOKS cool and that's enough. These aren't historical documentaries, pal. Any way, I'm done with this (unless you make another ridiculously lame-ass comment, which, you will).

[zombiehorror]

You are absolutely wrong in any way possible.

Again, just opinions.  No real right or wrong, although some genre's do have "rules".

Hocus Pocus, Charlie Brown? I get it...you're a family man and have to plan things out with the children in mind. Not my problem.

Has nothing to do with children, for one thing my kids (ages 7 and 8 now) have watched Halloween(s), Friday the 13th(s), Evil Dead(s), Ginger Snaps, Child's Play(s), etc., etc.  I have no doubt that they could watch Houses October Built and see it as a movie, where as other found footage films may blur their judgement a little.  And for another I was watching all of those great Halloween related family films/shows long before I had kids and have enjoyed introducing those to them, as well as introducing them to great horror movies.

Cool weapons are always going to replace practicality in horror. It's a visual medium.

It can work given a particular storyline/genre but when it makes no sense to the storyline, e.i.; hired hitmen bring crossbows, it is just dumb.  It is obvious that it was just a ploy by the filmmakers (a red herring if you will) to make you think the intrusion was by some random psychos, but as I said earlier you figure out pretty quick what is actually going on. In the case of Houses October Built, they skip logic to further the story's momentum, negating the "realism" of it all.

I also love how your criteria changes to accommodate your narrative. At first, plausibility was your main concern with this "found footage" stuff. Then I bring up a totally ridiculous & improbable example YOU like (VHS I & II) and then you find zombies & demons as reasonably believable.

No, criteria doesn't change.  You just aren't understanding context.  I'll go over it again, one of the goals of found footage is to make you believe that the events you are seeing can actually happen, or did actually happen.  It doesn't matter if it is aliens, ghosts, demons, zombies, witches, werewolves, etc., etc. but in those supernatural events there has to be an air of realism.  Take for instance Houses October Built, if they had shown some hint that these haunt workers were using supernatural powers then the events that transpire might make sense but they just don't given the parameters of the film.  Again, found footage=believability no matter what is happening; think about "real" ufo videos, or Patterson's Bigfoot footage or other such videos that have popped up over the years.  Most people know these things don't exist but even skeptics can look at some of these and say, "Hmm...is this real?".

Here try to read some of these interview clips from the guys that made The Houses October Built:

How did you come up with idea for The Houses October Built?

Bobby Roe: A lot of these found footage movies are so watered down. They have stiff acting, they have stories you have seen over and over again and they don’t feel real. That’s the point of the genre, right? So for us I think we wanted to immerse ourselves in a real environment, use real people and kind of tackle it that way. A lot of it is very real. There’s a lot of that stuff that’s very organic, and that’s how we tried to separate ourselves from the rest of the pack.

What do you feel sets this film apart from others in the genre?

BR: If you are going to use “found footage” or “pov” you better have a real reason. And we feel we do because of the realism. Most of these movies can’t say that.

The “found footage” or POV-style of filmmaking is so overdone these days, with SO many films going that route. One thing that really stood out to me about your film, is how it never feels like that typical kind of film, it feels very real and authentic the entire time, making the scares feel very real. Was that important to you, to create realistic-feeling scares, instead of it just being another “well, somebody found some footage”?

Bobby: We’re with you on that, we feel that the genre itself is pretty watered down, and it now has a stigma to it, we all know that. To tell the story we wanted to, we really needed the viewer to go through the haunt with us as well. Another thing that was very important to us, was to be as organic as possible. Those scare actors were all real scare actors, in all real places. We never tried to press the issue of “Oh, you found our tapes” at the end of the movie, that was never our intention. Our intention was on realism, and if a 15-year old kid is sitting in the theater and wanting to go to these places and see those scare actors, or even just fact check us, you can search and find those same exact places and do the same exact things that we did. If the type o f film has been done over and over again, hopefully that gives a fresh look at it and a reason why we took that approach.

Zack: One thing for us too, Bobby and I, he’s a lot more conspiracy theory-like than I am, so we like to talk about all of these kinds of movies and what could be real or what couldn’t be real. We just think it’s cool that if the 17-year old versions of us would see this movie, one would come out and say, “Oh my God, I can’t believe that was real!”, and the other would say, “Dude, you’re such an idiot, this is a movie!”, so the conspiracy-led one would google search the places and ask, “Well then how do you explain this then?!”

Zack: By using real places and real people too that was an opportunity to suspend disbelief that this could be real and in fact a lot of the movie is real, but if we did the normal narrative then you’ve kind of blown that opportunity, considering that we were at real places and using real people.

Notice that "real" was a big key to this movie but in the end their narrative, the choices they made actually make it feel like more of a typical Hollywood movie.  Things that aren't capable in real life are capable in a movie but not found footage and certainly not if you are going for realism.  It's like Jason appearing out of nowhere in Friday the 13th, you just can't have that nonsense in a found footage film, it totally negates any "realism" you were going for.  And again, for I don't know the 6th or 7th time, it doesn't matter what the subject matter is; zombies, witches, ghosts, vampires, chupacabras, etc.

Also, you put down You're Next, Laid to Rest (great film), & ...October for cool looking but impractical weapons but didn't comment on other classics with even more outrageous weapons. Do you consider the '74 Texas Chainsaw Massacre a great horror film? If so, how do you explain Leatherface using a chainsaw as a weapon of surprise? It just LOOKS cool and that's enough.

Movie serial killer vs. real serial killer.  I never said anything about Chromeskull's choice of weaponry, only that the film gets praised simply because the killer is so "awesome" and not for being a good film.  Houses October, yes, if this were real world (as found footage would have you believe) a disgruntled haunt worker is more apt to use a gun or hell even his fists than to take a huge group of other haunt workers, travel hundreds of miles to follow and then terrorize a group of people.  If they had set this in a smaller setting it may have worked but as a film that takes place over hundreds of miles, it just doesn't (I think I made this point before but I'm just not sure anymore?).

These aren't historical documentaries, pal.

Really?  Evil Dead never happened?  And yet, again a point of found footage is to make one believe that these are somehow "historical documentaries", that at some place and time the events you are seeing did happen whether they be supernatural or reality based.

Any way, I'm done with this (unless you make another ridiculously lame-ass comment, which, you will).

I can go on all day.

[Radioactive Rod Whitenack]

Here's my review written for the Louisville Halloween website if anyone is interested,

http://www.louisvillehalloween.com/the-houses-october-built-2014/

[Mord]

 Excellent, balanced review. Ignore me, ignore Zombie Hunter (we cancel each other out). Read Rod's well-written review and you get the big picture. BTW, ZH, if you think "Evil Dead" feels like a documentary, you have a problem. It's a goofy, over-the-top horror/com with badly dated FX. I've never been a huge fan, but I can appreciate it in a Pee Wee's Playhouse sort of way.

[zombiehorror]

Here's my review written for the Louisville Halloween website if anyone is interested,

Well since you put it out there.

"The Houses October Built~7.3/10"

"...pays off in believable characters and situations."

"Soon enough they're being followed hundreds of miles by some of the creepiest haunt actors they've met at other haunts and are subject to attacks on their RV in the middle of the night."

These two statements are oxymorons.  Watch the film again and you'll find that believability is out the window.  The situation, haunt actors taking revenge, may be somewhat believable but as it is filmed here?  Hardly.  I think people are getting more caught up in the concept and that it is one of the few films based solely on haunts and not really because it is a good found footage film.  It probably would have been a good movie had it been filmed traditionally or they could have tweaked it to make it a better found footage film.

I like your review of You're Next better but you still give this black comedy/crime thriller higher marks than I would give it.

"You're Next~5.3/10"

"I also found myself questioning the logic of some of the characters, particularly the mask wearing killer with the crossbow who insisted on wearing a mask he could probably barely see through into a dark basement after our heroine long past the point of actually needing to wear the mask. I suppose he prefers looking creepy over actually being able to hit anything!"

But for the most part your review of Frankenweenie is spot on!

"Frankenweenie~7.9/10"

[Mord]

 Dude, you don't like it...we get it. You don't have to duke it out with anyone who disagrees. You seem to be entertained by more special FX dominated, fantasy stuff. That's ok.

[zombiehorror]

Dude, you don't like it...we get it. You don't have to duke it out with anyone who disagrees.

I'm not duking it out and it isn't about him liking the movie, only the assertion that Houses October Built involved realistic situations or that it is a good found footage film (given the genre's parameters).

You seem to be entertained by more special FX dominated, fantasy stuff. That's ok.

And you sir, seem to know a lot about what I like or at the very least you assume you do.

[Mord]

 I think we all know what each other likes, it's a public forum. I'm not hacking your account. I do know you love Star Wars.