All Hallows Eve (2013)

“See? It’s just a scary movie. Let’s watch it.” – Timmy

Famous last words from little Timmy there. But before we seal his fate, let’s flash back to last year’s Shocktober for a bit of background and perspective. Last year’s Shocktober was tightly themed (I do that on rare occasions) and I was covering the thirteen Halloween movies as the 13 Screams. But in the run-up to Halloween, both online and in person, I kept hearing about a film called Terrifier 2, and how horrific it was. I was told that this was hardcore horror.

I went looking for the movie out of curiosity because the word of mouth was so strong, but I couldn’t find it streaming on any of the usual sources, Netflix, Prime or Shudder and the DVD was sold out everywhere. I couldn’t even lay my hands on Terrifier 1 – and let’s face it, my rampant OCD wouldn’t allow me to watch a sequel without having seen the first. So, they were put on the “maybe next year” list.

Then, while browsing in a shop earlier this year, I found a disc of All Hallows Eve. It looked like something decent to fill an October evening. Steve took a look and told me that it was the movie that preceded the Terrifier films that I’d just stumbled on. A prequel of sorts. All righty then.

All Hallows Eve is definitely a low budget independent horror movie, the kind that supermarkets price at around £5 on release. But cheaply made doesn’t always mean worthless. (Though often, that’s exactly what it means.) There’s a nostalgic feel of eighties video nasty in this movie, in the camera work, the absurd amount of gore, and the film’s musical score. It took me back to those glorious days when an overprotective, authoritarian government were doing their damn best to save us from the mind warping effects of horror films on VHS and Beta (I was a VHS devotee myself) and I was amassing as many titles as I possibly could, before they disappeared – possibly forever. Happy days.

Though it has the feel of an early eighties’ movie, the film is set firmly in the present day, though one plot element is a little jarring. More on that soon.

One of the ingenious things about this film that immediately gave it an appeal is that it’s a Halloween anthology film. Separate stories with a common thread, joined together. Like Trick R Treat, or Tales of Halloween (but lacking the polish).

So, it’s Halloween and two kids have been trick or treating and while Night of the Living Dead plays on TV, they’re checking their haul of candy. Timmy (Cole Mathewson, who appears much older than his character’s stated age of 10) finds that someone has given him a VHS tape, which he and his (equally older than she’s portraying) sister Tia (Sydney Freihofer) want to watch. (Both kids are easily in their mid-teens) Reluctantly, their ineffectual babysitter Sarah (Katie Maguire) agrees. And here’s my problem, the jarring plot element. Who still has a VHS player still hooked up to their TV? Yes, the tape has a nice feeling of nostalgia, which compliments the feel of the film, but still…

Anyhow, as the film on the tape plays, we see there are three separate stories, but the kids are sent to bed after the first.

In order, the first shows a woman kidnapped by Art, an evil homicidal clown and taken to an underground chamber where she’s chained. She witnesses the murder of a fellow prisoner and a foetus being cut out of a pregnant woman before finally being raped by (I think) Satan. All this sounds, and actually IS gore just for the sake of gore – which is what those eighties imported movies truly were all about.

Second segment has the wife of an artist alone in the house at night, being terrified by aliens. Art shows up as a portrait her husband is working on. This one is pretty eerie and effective.

The third has a lone woman, driving at night terrified by Art, in pursuit with brutality and homicide on his mind. Finally catching her, she awakens to find that Art has amputated all her limbs, both breasts and has carved obscenities into her skin.

With all three segments, there is no motivation, no backstory. It’s as though it’s a compilation tape of the goriest elements of three movies. Art’s Greatest Hits, in a way. But we don’t even know what HIS story is. He just… is.

Sarah finally switches the film off but the TV switches itself back on, and Art approaches the screen, furiously pounding his fist on the other side of the glass. Then she sees herself on the screen with Art behind her.

Somehow, he has entered our world, and has decapitated the children upstairs in their beds, with “Art” written in blood on the wall. Now he has disappeared again.

And that’s where the film ends, leaving the audience feeling numb.

Art was never intended to return – but return he did.

He’ll be back.