The American Scream (2012)

 

 

 

We go to the world of documentaries for a film not just about the things that go bump in the night but also about the people that make the things that go bump in the night.  American Scream is about three families in Massachusetts who create their own haunted Halloween attraction in their very own house.  Now I've been to countless large scale haunted attractions in my time.  Haunted houses, haunted hayrides, haunted corn fields, and as a mentioned in a previous post even a church that was also of the haunted variety.  I've been to Six Flags for Fright Fest a few times and I've been to Disney World for Mickey's not so scary Halloween party.  With the exceptions of a few times I have been thoroughly entertained and more than a time or two scared pretty righteously.  What I haven't done is been to many of these home made Halloween haunted houses that the owners decorate and allow you to wander through.       

 

 

 

 When I first moves to the town I live in, about twenty five years ago, I had never seen someone open up their house for Halloween hi jinx as the people do here.  The second Halloween I lived here we discovered a house on the other side of town that did a home made haunted house.  OK, for the record, it was their garage and their backyard but you get the idea.  Sadly a few years later they stopped doing it.  Then, a year or so after they closed down, another house started doing their own just a few blocks away.  This one was not as elaborate or as scary but I appreciated the effort.  They closed down a few years later after someone got hurt and one of the things people like more than getting a scare on Halloween is a free pay day.  So they were sued and that was the end of that.  This documentary tells the story of three families that painstakingly turn their homes into a Halloween haunt for all to see every year for just a few nights.  The sacrificed money, time, and man power that is used to get all the work done is unbelievable.  Nothing short of a labor of love is how I look at it as none of them charge for people to peruse their haunted delights.  Again, some are better presented than others, and you can tell who really wants to be there doing it and who is just partaking because their family members expects it of them.           

 

 

 

 

If I have any fault with this film it's in the directing as I have a soft spot in my heart for all those creating their own creepy castles of carnage.  If you've ever seen the Great American Christmas Light Fight and enjoyed that and decide to give this a shot well be forewarned this isn't like that this is more about the work and the creative parts of decorating.  In fact after everything is set up and decorated, Halloween officially arrives and we spend about ten minutes seeing the haunted attractions in action and that's it.  That's it!  Over an hour spent on the set up and then ten minutes dedicated to the actual "show" put on by each family.  Aside from all of that it does get a little boring in spots but is fairly entertaining as well.  Especially the teeter totter set up scene.  Some hysterical stuff there.  So a documentary about home made haunted houses may not be my favorite genre of film to enjoy at Halloween but it's still not as bad as watching most of the found footage Halloween films out there.  I give this one three Styrofoam headstones out of five.