It’s not often I see a horror movie with such a paper thin script that it blatantly pads the run time. And even when it pads the run time with filler, it still only amounts to a seventy two minute film. And it’s barely seventy two minutes when you don’t factor in the closing credits, and long opening credits. Filmed on a $150,000 budget, what I imagine happened was director/writer Steven M. Smith wanted to film a movie in the vein of “Saw.” He got a hold of a primo haunted house and decided to build his script around the house. That’s likely why the movie’s entire narrative begins and ends in this haunted house, and nothing ever feels organic.
Reality TV stars Peter and Susie attends a Halloween scare attraction arranged by their manager. When they arrive, Pete and Susie are disappointed to discover the event is run by a group of terrible amateur dramatic actors. After touring the scare attraction they are led into an escape room, where they are locked in. Suddenly, the escape room turns deadly as gas leaks in leaving them unconscious. When they awake, the reality TV stars find themselves bound and trapped in individual chairs. A voice tells them they must tell a truth or die. Who will survive the real scare attraction?
Through the seventy two minute run time, the padding includes a sub-plot about an escape room that’s like “Fight Club,” a sub-plot where players can pretend to be in a mafia movie, and footage of the actors (in character) going through various dark rooms and reacting in horror. The latter is featured constantly never amounting to anything else but vain efforts to inject some of series of fake out scares. There’s also a ton of unnecessary slow mo. Some where in this muddled mess, there’s a paper thin plot about various characters stuck in a room where a mysterious voice is forcing them to admit to “hidden truths.” As the weight of their situation becomes apparent, they begin fighting among one another cue painful torture.
It’s basically on par with what we usually see in a “Saw” movie. And there might be actual zombies, and an axe murderer running around…? I’m not too sure, to be honest. “Scare Attraction” only has a plot but nothing really substantial or entertaining. Smith does everything to feature the inside of the haunted house, without ever smoothly working in the central narrative. Everything else is basically running out the clock while we go through various boring detours that feel more like comedy than horror. “Scare Attraction” is a lemon. While it has a lot of potential, but it’s hindered by a thin script, paper thin characters, and a clear lack of focus.