Director Brian Cunningham’s haunted house documentary is simultaneously very engrossing and utterly surreal. Cunningham explores the haunted house industry and how one haunted house attraction isn’t just becoming the centerpiece for a town, but for a slew of aspiring actors and performers who rely on this job as a means of celebrating the holiday of Halloween, showcasing their talents, or just imploring the attraction as an outlet for their characters.
One young girl who is mostly quiet around everyone, including her mother, finds getting in to character as an excuse to open up and meet people. There’s also Pete Madden, a humble grandfather who relishes in playing a chainsaw wielding maniac for the attraction a bit too much. Easily the most memorable character in the documentary, he laughs maniacally as he explains his love for the chainsaw and how he enjoys making people urinate on themselves, often refusing to back off when he causes someone to fall in horror. In one of the funnier more unsettling moments, he shows the director how he enjoys scaring his grandson, greeting the boy’s horrified moans with joyful taunting giggles. “Monsters Wanted” is very much the alternative documentary about the haunted house industry that can stand proudly alongside great documentaries like “American Scream,” in which director Cunningham sets the light on a haunted attraction that’s a passion project and the center of the year for many individuals.
Including the main subjects of the documentary Richard Teachout and Janel Nash, both of whom have a love for Halloween, and engineer the haunted attraction with many woes and heart aches. Much of their chemistry is based off of their creativity and willingness to cooperate, and they go to great lengths to build the Asylum Haunted Scream Park. What sets the stage for the film is that the Asylum Haunted Scream Park was once a small haunted house that ballooned in to a large attraction that spanned in to the woods behind the house and along the fields. Teachout and Nash construct a band of special effects technicians and actors to work on the Park before the deadline, and hopefully find a way to spend as little as possible in case they make no money on the project. There’s often a lot of puzzling and somewhat unusual moments in the film that add immediate entertainment value, including the performer with a penchant for self-mutilation, and the performers’ devotion to the roles that involve shaving their heads.
The documentary doesn’t have much conflict, which is sadly where it falters, but there is the inevitable pit fall that leaves Teachout and Nash at wits end. Eventually Teachout runs out of money for supplies, and Janel takes much of the obstacles to heart sinking in a depression at her partner Richard’s frustrations. In one interesting turn, Teachout has a near violent fist fight with a park co-owner who attempts to take over for Teachout. Teachout has such a love for his performers, he threatens to fight the owner if he even dares to try and boss around the cast. In spite of the small caveat, “Monsters Wanted” is a unique and wildly amusing documentary that captures artists in their element, and sets the mood perfectly for Halloween buffs.