In 2011, Bobby Roe and his friends Zack Andrews, Jeff Larson, Mikey Roe and Brandy Schaefer decided to tour America in search of “horror houses built in October” to haunt visitors. They interviewed directors, actors and the public, trying to understand where all this fascination with fear came from and the whole process of developing the attractions, raising a curious fact about the impressive mark of 2,500 houses produced in the period. During the documentary, they learned of accidents and deaths in the houses and came to the conclusion that dealing with man can be scarier than dealing with the supernatural. So, in 2014, they made a new film, with the same title, The Houses October Built, this time under the formula of a typical found footage.
These five friends set out to find the scariest house in the United States. Making a video record, the group crosses the country and experiences what each attraction has to offer. A cursed house in the countryside and even a night paintballing with zombies, the tour begins to lose its fun when they realize that some people in costume seem to be following them. A living doll and a terrible clown are among the recurring characters, bringing high doses of chills, while the search persists in the desire for an environment dominated by the “blue skeleton”, considered the most terrifying. They follow clues, encounter more monsters such as a rabbit with an axe and the Laughing Clown, until they approach the desired place, without imagining that fear can come from a real experience.
Unlike Hell House LLC, there are no hauntings here. The intention is to show that, among those people who dress up as clowns and zombies, there can be real monsters, disturbed souls, serial killers. As Halloween approaches, the terror intensifies until the claustrophobic final sequence. Despite the curious proposal and the filming of real places, The Houses October Built is weakened by the need to keep the camera on all the time in some exaggerated actions that are not justified, such as the persistence in looking for the perfect house even when they are clearly in a hostile environment.
It’s worth checking out for the scenarios presented, which should leave the viewer eager for similar experiences. Some are even well done, involving possession and even the image of a demonic birth, showing that special care is taken by the builders of these cursed houses. If the rest is confused by the shaky camera and the darkness, at least there is a breath of creativity in the proposal.
