HAUNTERS: THE ART OF THE SCARE (2017)

Studio:       Cinedigm
Director:    Jon Schnitzer
Writer:       Jon Schnitzer
Producer:  Jon Schnitzer, Jinsha Moore
Stars:     John Murdy, Russ McKamey, Shar Mayer, Donald Julson, Josh Randall, Eric Lowther, Lora Ivanova, Jason Blum, Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

Review Score:

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Summary:

Creators, scare actors, and enthusiasts chronicle the Halloween haunt’s history from neighborhood backyards to extreme experiences.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Interviewees including ‘Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights’ creative director John Murdy, haunt historian Ted Dougherty, and Knott’s Berry Farm historian Eric Lynxwiler chronicle the history of Halloween haunts. Unable to afford roller coasters in the early 1900s, amusement parks built haunted funhouses as a cheap alternative for attractions. The Jaycees rejuvenated the haunt concept as a fundraiser in the 1970s. Trying to get more people involved in the church, Campus Life further popularized haunted houses by creating many of the common standards still used today. In 1973, Knott’s Berry Farm started the first seasonal theme park haunt.

Creator Donald Julson discusses his backyard haunt ‘Nightmare on Loganberry,’ which is only open for four hours each year on Halloween. Although Donald works on the haunt with his brother and parents, the annual effort takes a toll on his marriage to wife Jaimie, who is unenthusiastic about the holiday.

Veteran scare actor Shar Mayer talks about her longtime passion for performing. Shar worries about her future as a scare actor because of ongoing pain from years of unexpected violence suffered at the hands of drunken or surprised patrons, which is identified as a common risk in the profession.

Co-creator Josh Randall talks about ‘Blackout,’ which is identified as birthing contemporary extreme haunts in 2009. ‘Delusion’ interactive play creator John Brave as well as actors Dasha Kittredge and Abra S. Moore touch on the theatricality of their production as an art form.

Russ McKamey and his wife Carol Schultz introduce their home haunt ‘McKamey Manor,’ which is notorious for pushing participants through torturous situations and being the only extreme haunt without a safe word. Russ’ neighbor Grace opens up about her terrifying personal experiences with the haunt.

Neighborhood teenagers Dallas, Mercedes, Darshawn, and Freddie talk about working as McKamey scare actors, for which they are not paid. Russ ultimately phases out teenagers for military veterans and ex-cons after discovering one of his underage actors engaged in illegal activity on the job.

Russ’ brief biography and day job as a wedding singer are covered. Hazy Meadow Ranch owner Linda Haze allows Russ to transfer his increasingly popular haunt to her spacious property. However, a county inspection forces the haunt to be torn down before opening and moved back to Russ’ home.

Another segment discusses the stress placed on personal relationships of those devoted to Halloween haunts. Additional interviewees include ‘17th Door’ scare actor Cierra Skelton, ‘Scare L.A.’ creator Lora Ivanova, Shar Mayer’s husband Jerry, ‘Reign of Terror’ creator Bruce Stanton, ‘Haunted Overload’ creator Eric Lowther, ‘Haunted Overload’ scare actor Wallace Valley, ‘The Scarehouse’ creative director Scott Simmons, sociologist Margee Kerr, actress/director Jessica Cameron, producer Jason Blum, filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska, and co-owner of Bone Yard Effects Larry Bones.

Shar Mayer becomes a performer with ‘The 17th Door’ so that her body is not put through as much punishment. Donald Julson gets a job building a booth at NAB that brings him closer to his wife. Russ McKamey turns ‘McKamey Manor’ into a year-round haunt and moves it out of California amid continued controversy.

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Review:

Halloween haunts have a long, storied history dating back to cheapo amusement park attractions in the early 1900s through, of all things, a Christian recruitment revival in the 1970s.  Knott’s Berry Farm commercialized the traditional concept by becoming the first theme park dedicated to seasonal mazes and masked actors.  ‘Blackout’ later built out the extreme experience idea beginning in 2009.  Enterprising creators have been innovating new ways to take haunts to the next level using controversial immersion tactics ever since.

That’s the basic extent of the informative lesson learned in “Haunters: The Art of the Scare.”  Even though the movie markets itself as “a heart-warming and heart-stopping documentary” outlining Halloween haunt culture as a whole, producer/director Jon Schnitzer is evidently interested almost exclusively in covering extreme haunts.  In particular, the film is so specifically focused on hauntrepreneur Russ McKamey and his infamous ‘McKamey Manor’ that Schnitzer may as well have made the entire movie about McKamey and nothing else.

The problem isn’t with McKamey himself.  Well, there may be a real-life problem with McKamey, but that’s a different discussion topic.  The many McKamey Manor segments are entertainingly engaging, sometimes shocking, but they dominate the overall narrative in an unfair, even unpleasant way.

Following what feels like 75% of the film’s first hour, “Haunters” seemingly finishes with McKamey and at last moves on to other subjects including how haunt dedication negatively impacts personal relationships or takes a toll on an actor’s body when an overzealous patron reacts unexpectedly.  Then McKamey comes back into the picture, eliciting a “this again?” reaction as the spotlight swings in his direction once more.

“Haunters: The Art of the Scare” essentially has three main “characters” guiding the movie through its core content.  Donald Julson, whose backyard project is only open to his neighborhood for four hours every Halloween, represents the passionate Everyman behind homemade haunts.  Veteran scare actor Shar Mayer, often tearful when discussing her devotion as well as the literal pain it has caused her, illustrates the unseen sacrifices that go into making fright fantasies a reality.

Schnitzer deftly puts these people into some semblance of a loose storyline.  Russ McKamey is thus manufactured into a de facto documentary villain in the same manner Billy Mitchell was in “King of Kong.”  It actually works wonderfully.

McKamey, who will certainly be played by Noah Emmerich in the eventual docudrama when McKamey Manor finally goes far enough to accidentally kill someone, is presented as a maverick madman exploiting free child labor, psychologically scarring strangers for personal pleasure, and seemingly having no problem with a participant’s face dunked in a trash can full of dog sh*t.

Then Schnitzer masterfully manipulates sympathy by casually adding that McKamey Manor’s admission price is four cans of dog food donated to a greyhound rescue organization.  “Awful!” momentarily becomes “aww!” before boomeranging back again as the pulled curtain really reveals how much McKamey makes his victims, albeit willing participants, suffer.

A fundamental issue with the emphasis on McKamey is how it heavily influences the documentary’s tone.  An uplifting epilogue for Donald Julson’s story involves how the haunt helped mend animosity between brothers and led to an opportunity that increased his wife’s understanding of his hobby.  Energetic music swells as local kids enjoy the basic “boos!” of ‘Nightmare on Loganberry’ while Donald oversees with a pleasant smile.

Cut to McKamey Manor, where genuinely horrified faces futilely scream to be freed from an experience that refuses to allow a safe word, vomit all over themselves, have that vomit shoved back in their mouths, and fall into unconsciousness from being waterboarded, spit on, or covered in cockroaches.  This would work in another context.  Watching it under an umbrella of trick-or-treat traditions however, isn’t fun at all.  “Haunters” ends up with enough unrated extremes caught on camera to be unsuitable for certain audiences, which narrows its appeal when it could be so much broader.

It’s disappointing to see an entire entertainment lifestyle disproportionately represented by one possibly maniac man.  “Haunters” has Universal Studios Hollywood ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ creative director John Murdy on hand, yet only uses him for two or three sentences.  Film personalities such as producer Jason Blum and the Soska sisters seem thrown in for name value.  They don’t have anything substantial to contribute, although I understand such inclusions make more sense in excised footage banished to the iTunes extras.  B-roll otherwise fills itself with random footage of people screaming in night vision.

As an all-encompassing documentary about Halloween haunts, one star would be generous for “Haunters: The Art of the Scare” because of wasted and missed opportunities.  24 featured haunts are identified in the credits, though I don’t know where they all were and you’d be lucky to remember the names of more than four of them.

On the other hand, this same material would rate a much higher score if Schnitzer just eschewed what feels like obligatory bits that go by cursorily to concentrate on what he really wants to, which is McKamey Manor and extreme haunts.  Quality content clearly exists here and the filmmakers have a knack for cutting together a slick package.  It’s the presentation of being a true tour of haunt culture that makes the movie misleading.

Review Score:  60

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