Before Anthony C. Ferrante stormed his way to the spotlight with Sharknado, there was Boo. This movie was actually the first horror film I ever watched. I remember being 9 years old and watching this on Sci-Fi. Being the easily horrified 9 year old I was at the time, the movie of course scared the ever loving day lights out of me. 10 years later, at the age of 18 soon to be 19 I decided to have a look back on it upon seeing so many negative reviews of it on this site. So how does it hold up in my mind after 10 years? It's still pretty good actually. Not Oculus or The Babadook good, but Ferrante managed to do pretty well with an obviously low budget.
The plot is pretty standard horror movie stuff, a bunch of dumb **** college kids go to an abandoned and possibly haunted place on Halloween Night thinking that nothing bad will happen, but once one of their friends emerges and decomposes in front of their eyes as well as other paranormal things occurring, they start to realize the ghost of the hotel's true nature.
For a low budget movie I have to be honest the special effects were surprisingly very good. I don't know what the budget was, but it seems that the company clearly spent more of it on effects, and it shows very well. The gore effects look very gruesome and creepy, though most of the sounds used are obvious sound effects that one could find by typing in "generic *insert soundbyte* noise", it still manages to invoke a creepy feeling, even if it is generic.
The acting ranged from good to decent. Trish Coren does a good job as Jessie and her appearance kind of reminded me of Rachel McAdams. The rest of main character actors do a good job too, though I'd say the worst of the bunch is probably Jilon VanOver as Jessie's boyfriend Kevin, who only seems to have his acting setting stuck on douchey, and it does work for the scenes where his character is meant to be a total ***wipe, but during the scenes where he's trying to be frightened or sad, his deep voice just makes his character comes off as laughable, but the stand out performance, at least in my opinion, is M. Steve Felty as the main antagonist Jacob. Whenever his character is on screen you know **** is about to go down, the best way I could describe his character is it's as if someone took Robert Englund and gave him Lance Henriksen's deep gravelly voice, definitely the best performance in the whole movie.
Overall I thought this was a pretty solid horror movie, it still holds up well despite being low budget and it does manage to invoke some unsettling feelings, even with it's few flaws. Did I jump out of my seat as much as I did when I watched it at the age of 9? Not so much, but I still had a blast with it. I know Ferrante seems to have found his niche in making the Sharknado movies, but honestly, if he ever gets the time, I'd love to see him reboot this movie with a much larger budget and even attempt a theatrical release. This idea has potential, and it's certainly better then the crappy mainstream horror films we got last year like Annabelle and Oujia. If you're curious enough and if 2015 doesn't have any good horror films to offer in the later months, I strongly suggest checking this out. You won't be sorry.
The plot is pretty standard horror movie stuff, a bunch of dumb **** college kids go to an abandoned and possibly haunted place on Halloween Night thinking that nothing bad will happen, but once one of their friends emerges and decomposes in front of their eyes as well as other paranormal things occurring, they start to realize the ghost of the hotel's true nature.
For a low budget movie I have to be honest the special effects were surprisingly very good. I don't know what the budget was, but it seems that the company clearly spent more of it on effects, and it shows very well. The gore effects look very gruesome and creepy, though most of the sounds used are obvious sound effects that one could find by typing in "generic *insert soundbyte* noise", it still manages to invoke a creepy feeling, even if it is generic.
The acting ranged from good to decent. Trish Coren does a good job as Jessie and her appearance kind of reminded me of Rachel McAdams. The rest of main character actors do a good job too, though I'd say the worst of the bunch is probably Jilon VanOver as Jessie's boyfriend Kevin, who only seems to have his acting setting stuck on douchey, and it does work for the scenes where his character is meant to be a total ***wipe, but during the scenes where he's trying to be frightened or sad, his deep voice just makes his character comes off as laughable, but the stand out performance, at least in my opinion, is M. Steve Felty as the main antagonist Jacob. Whenever his character is on screen you know **** is about to go down, the best way I could describe his character is it's as if someone took Robert Englund and gave him Lance Henriksen's deep gravelly voice, definitely the best performance in the whole movie.
Overall I thought this was a pretty solid horror movie, it still holds up well despite being low budget and it does manage to invoke some unsettling feelings, even with it's few flaws. Did I jump out of my seat as much as I did when I watched it at the age of 9? Not so much, but I still had a blast with it. I know Ferrante seems to have found his niche in making the Sharknado movies, but honestly, if he ever gets the time, I'd love to see him reboot this movie with a much larger budget and even attempt a theatrical release. This idea has potential, and it's certainly better then the crappy mainstream horror films we got last year like Annabelle and Oujia. If you're curious enough and if 2015 doesn't have any good horror films to offer in the later months, I strongly suggest checking this out. You won't be sorry.
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