
Vogue and thrills are first in the 25th annual Pigeon Shrine FrightFest and so is the first impression. Because not only is it difficult to kick off a celebration, but it is even more complex when a celebration’s 25th anniversary is in the works. Night one is critical in setting the stage for the audience giving them a glimpse of what’s to come as the rest of the festive days. However, Slasher elements from Brittney Greers’ Happy Halloween were included by this year’s team on the Thursday night of the opening instead of last time. In past years, they kept and revealed such features till the opening of the main horror festival.
It’s a similar case for Hadley (Emma Reinagel) who after a lapse of a year visits her homeland on Harrowing Eve, Halloween, and is forced to deal with her mother and society after her drastic changes in life the previous year. Luckily for her, her best friend Peyton and Kagan ‘her potential boyfriend’ are present to support her but she still has to deal with how society is to her, in other words, bully her. But little did she and her friends know is that Hadley has been hiding a huge secret and that could have had dire consequences for them.
In her movie titled “Happy Halloween,” a psychotic teenage serial killer is on the loose and targets teenage girls in a small town. The teenage boy attempts to go to a deserted cornfield under the pretense of wearing a cape, only to be instantly engulfed in murderous commotion.
The first kill might not sound as graphic but in my opinion, it is more powerful. The more defining aspect of the killer actor in the movie by Brittney Greer is that he or she adores transforming their targets into grotesque Halloween decorations, and hence this main character along with several others with him are also forcefully adorned with a Halloween kiss. The tattoos completely mutilate the skin. The amalgamation of slashers will appreciate the rashes afterward because it improves as Happy Birthday progresses, it climbs to better heights as the year moves forward.
There’s no doubt Greer is a fan of the Scream and Halloween franchises, for both Scream and Halloween can be seen in Happy Halloween. The snooping teenage girls from Scream now include the sassy girls that swoon over Hadley, who recently watched slaughtered people. They are minor cutout supporting characters, but it is a great tribute to Wes Craven’s great film that makes a cameo in it. Hadley’s angst and sadness can be directed to Sidney too when she experiences the same as Harlene does.
Starting with Halloween, Greer incorporates the time period of the film’s setting as well as elements of its widely known background music into his original work. There is an original composition that includes an A note that stays true to the tone of the piece, so much that it is not a blatant steal of John Carpenter’s film.
Even though Happy Halloween attempts to mimic great horror titles, it’s impressive at its best but doesn’t quite excel like its goals. The concept is good and hard work has been put in but sadly there are some limitations revolving around the budget of the movie.
So many interesting elements have been incorporated in Happy Halloween which keeps the audience in a partially crowd-funded movie engaged folks. The climax is the real deal but it is crucial to unravel Hadley’s secret deep down so hunter and hunted can clash. The mystery is who the killer is among all other slasher movies, the masked person won’t baffle the audience but still, it makes sense within the story. Finally and quite fetchingly, the twist at the end credit suggests an interesting sequel.
Shifting gears from making short films and making television, she is the Happy Halloween director which is her first feature-length film.
There is some evidence in Happy Halloween which proves that Greer knows how to direct and showcase a horror film but the production values of the movie tell a very different story as it is clear that the film could have benefited with a bigger budget.
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