For a terrific horror anthology in which several directors contribute stories themed around All Hallows’ Eve … stick with 2015’s Tales of Halloween. Sorry to say, but 10/31 is an embarassment for the parties involved, most of all the viewer. Heck, let’s throw the actual date of Oct. 31 in there, too, and encourage it to sue for defamation; the movie is that bad.
The poster pegs the project as “from the creators of The Barn, Bonejangles, The Dooms Chapel Horror and Volumes of Blood.” If those titles resonate with you, perhaps you’ll get more out of the Indiegogo-funded 10/31 than the average bear. Expect very little; even the Elvira-“inspired” wraparound — bookends, really — is so barely there, it hardly merits mention.
The five stories contained within fall prey to the severe limitations of so many microbudgeted projects of the horror genre: They appear to have been made by men who are fans first, and filmmakers a distant second. What this means is that in each of their shorts, the directors (Justin M. Seaman, Zane Hershberger, John William Holt, Brett DeJager and Rocky Gray) seem concerned only with gore and makeup and John Carpenter-esque synths, to the detriment of acting, pacing and storytelling.
I’m certainly not against scarecrows and slashers and spooky hags who haunt quaint-but-unprofitable B&Bs. I am, however, opposed to padding a 15- or 20-minute segment with 14 to 19 minutes of filler. Among the worst offenders — in a flick so full of them, it’s practically a police lineup — are Hershberger’s “Trespassers” and Holt’s “Killing the Dance.” While the former offers first-date conversation so interminable, your mind will swipe left, it’s the latter that truly tries one’s patience; with its roller-rink setting, prepare for skating, skating and skating — and more skating! — before getting around to the inevitable stabbing.
I doubt neither the validity nor intensity of the guys’ love of horror — likely, it extends to being sacrosanct. But their infatuation clouded and doomed 10/31’s execution. —Rod Lott