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[#Horror #Podcast] 31 Days of Halloween — Day 27: Haunter (2013) — by Wolfman Josh
31 Days of Halloween — Day 27: Haunter (2013) — by Wolfman Josh read more.
Haunter is a 2013 film directed by Vincenzo Natali that stars Abigail Breslin, Peter Outerbridge and Stephen McHattie. The film premiered at SXSW in 2013 and was distributed by IFC Midnight later that year for the Halloween season.
The movie opens in the ’80s with Abigail Breslin playing a suburban teen I’d have loved to hang out with, what with her Bowie, Joy Division and Cure posters on the wall and draped in a kind of haunting Siouxsie and the Banshees t-shirt. We soon realize that Breslin’s character, Lisa Johnson, is stuck in some sort of time loop that only she seems to be aware of. As she goes through her daily routine (on the eve of her sweet sixteen) of practicing her clarinet to Peter and the Wolf (I had this exact same recording as a kid), eating her mom’s homemade mac & cheese for lunch and watching Murder She Wrote each evening with her family (this is my kind of family), I started feeling like this was a world in which I wouldn’t mind being trapped. But Lisa Johnson is, of course, less enthused as there is clearly something eerie going on here.
And “eerie” is the right word. This entire film has the feel of an extended Twilight Zone, Outer Limits or Amazing Stories segment, but with a slightly darker edge. Due to our current coverage of the Nightmare on Elm Street films on the audio podcast, I couldn’t help but compare those to this. In fact, the sinister character, who is eventually revealed to be at the heart of Haunter, is unlike Freddy Krueger. There are the themes of kidnapping, child murder and molestation and a creepy creeper who likes to toy with his victims.
The basic description of this film on Netflix gives away far more than I have here and maybe that is necessary to grab an audiences interest in what looks like a pretty generic film on the surface, but I just think it gives away what would have otherwise been one of the most interesting twists in the plot.
Where I’ll leave it is to simply say that Lisa’s Groundhog Day-esque routine reflects on what we know of reported paranormal events and many iconic paranormal movie moments—and that was cool to see. When Lisa finally “wakes up” from her cyclical parade of events (that had me thinking fondly on the repetitive Crave-Inn scene from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) she attempts to wake her family as well. This is where things turn bad for Lisa as facade of this phony world starts to show its cracks and eventually bursts at the seams.
I hope this review isn’t too infuriating to read. This is just a difficult film to review without spoiling. The writing and directing are also good here. It is well shot, though I can feel the budget at times. The performances are solid. I still think Little Miss Sunshine was the high watermark for Abigail Breslin’s career, but she’s fin. Stephen McHattie was as good as he always is and I was really impressed by Peter Outerbridge as Lisa’s father and I’ll now be seeking out his other work.
This is a horror film, though mostly horror-lite, and I think audiences who go in expecting something more along the lines of the above-mentioned Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories and The Outer Limits will be the most pleased with their experience. It is not all that dissimilar to the last film I reviewed for our 31 Days of Halloween, The Awakening, and again I’d compare this to The Sixth Sense or The Others, but tossed in a blender with Groundhog Day. If that sounds interesting to you, then the twists and turns that I avoided—and the more grounded approach to a Fred Kruegar-like backstory—should keep your interest and give you a few good scares.
—Wolfman Josh
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