All Hallows Eve

It is still summer here in Sweden, and i love the heat wave. I realize that we have a lot of forest fires, we have people complaining about the heat. I can understand especially older people, but young people ? For those of you young Swedes who complain about the heat, remember the following warnings.

* There is a Dansband show all over Sweden, all summer, giving us torture and misery signed Lasse Stefanz among others, is this not more bad than the summer heat ?

* When autumn comes, we get the Swedish Rain Tsunamis Including Ice Balls, that will destroy cars, apartment buildings and start the Volcanoes around Stockholm, is this better than the summer heat ?

So you see young Swedes, you should not complain about the summer heat. Do what is right, and make sure you tell everyone to say #NoMoreDansband in the Swedish Election on September 9th. If there is one thing that matches Swedish summer, it is watching horror films that takes place on Halloween. Why ? It is very simple. Swedish people love to pretend it is Halloween on Swedish Midsummer, they dress up as the most scary Swedish people we know of, like Gudryn Schyman, or perhaps Gustav Fridolin. So why are they scary ? They are politicians, does that not explain everything ? You might have heard about the new Halloween movie coming out this autumn, and it will be fun to see legendary actor Jamie Lee Curtis back again, playing her legendary character Laurie Strode. The original film from 1976 will of course always be the best, but i still want to see this new chapter in cinemas. Speaking of good Halloween movies, how many of you remember the 2007 film called Trick r´Treat ? A horror film that takes place on Halloween night, telling different stories. The best thing about this film is that it actually works divided into different stories, almost like Creepshow did back in 1982. The director of Trick r´Treat known as Michael Dougherty found a way to make a classic Halloween concept, work better than expected. Perhaps it was because of strong characters, and an effective horror theme during the holidays. If you have not seen Trick r´Treat on DVD or Blu Ray, i suggest you check it out. I mentioned Creepshow earlier, based on stories by legendary author Stephen King. Also a film worth watching, if you love classic horror movies. Since i enjoy horror films that tells different stories, i found a movie on DVD called All Hallows Eve, that tells 3 different stories in one film. Reminds me of Creepshow, but the difference is that All Hallows Eve takes place during Halloween night. Do we have a fun Halloween horror release with All Hallows Eve, or is this another example why it is so difficult to make horror films with different stories ?

Sarah ( Katie Maguire ) is babysitting Tia ( Sydney Freihofer ) and Timmy ( Cole Mathewson ), when Halloween is fully going with kids going trick or treating. As Timmy go through his candy gifts, he finds an unknown VHS tape. Tia and Timmy want to see what is on the tape. At first Sarah is concerned that this might be a tape that have none child friendly material. But she agrees to put it on. Sarah can see that this is no ordinary tape, after a very brutal story. She ordered the kids to go to bed, so she can continue watching the rest. Sarah´s ordinary babysitter night, is to become a true nightmare. 

There are parts of this film that i can appreciate. I appreciate the effort on trying to make this film a throwback to old school horror, and i do like especially one of the stories. However, when you make a horror film with 3 different stories, you have to make sure that they all deliver horror quality. And this is where we found ourselves with a big problem. I am especially thinking about the story with an Alien inside a house. First of all i don´t think the costume works, and not the mask either. It only feels like someone walks around in a costume, and does not even look frightening. So what is the point of this story ? To be honest, i have no clue. I understand that this is supposed to be scary, but the story does not work with such a bad Alien costume. If the Alien design would have been made different, it could have changed the atmosphere of the story in a more positive way. Let´s move on to another story, that is about a woman who is taken prisoner, to be a victim of Demonic creatures. This story works better than the Alien intruder, but have some problems, like the mask of some of the Demonic creatures. Especially the Demonic leader, even if the red lights are supposed to make it feel like we are in hell. His mask looks too simple to make him feel scary. I suggest we get to the best part of All Hallows Eve, when we get to see Art The Clown ( played really good by actor Mike Gianelli  ). This is where Art The Clown hunt down a young woman, a serial killer clown that actually makes this film work for a moment. Actor Mike Gianelli don´t speak at all as Art The Clown, so everything he does is use body language, and facial expressions, and this makes his character unique. The VHS tape that babysitter Sarah ( played by actor Katie Maguire ) watches, throughout the stories, is also something that works in this film. And when the video tape make Art The Clown show up at the house Sarah is in, makes another great attempt of bringing back old school horror. Overall, i like some parts of All Hallows Eve, but i can´t help to feel that 2 of the stories should have been made better, and we could have had something special here. Director Damien Leone do have some good ideas with All Hallows Eve, too bad he could not make the whole film work, since there is potential here. There is no doubt though, Art The Clown is a clown character you will not forget. But don´t expect to be scared from the rest of the film, you might be disappointed.

Rating: DD