Opening the Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on day one is crucial. When that opening night also starts the 25th anniversary, however, it becomes an even more difficult task. The first night is of great significance as it prepares the audience for the rest of the night and what the visiting days have to offer. In contrast to the past, this year’s team has taken advantage of the Thursday night opening position to introduce some ideas that will feature in the main horror festival, with slasher elements coming from Brittney Greer’s Happy Halloween.
Hadley (Emma Reinagel) finds herself coming home after a long time away from her hometown, on the same day that her life dramatically changed for the first time a year ago, Halloween. As if returning to society isn’t hard enough, her mother also takes it upon herself to be as resourceful as possible. Luckily, her best friend, Peyton (Aline O’Neill), is there for her, and potential boyfriend Kagan (Graham Weldin) is also around, so it’s not all bad. What neither knew, however, was how Hadley was concealing a big part of her life that may have brought them into grave danger.
In her film, Happy Halloween, an obnoxious teenage murderer stalks and slaughters high school girls in the small town. The young man goes out to an abandoned cornfield using a cloak as a ruse and is almost instantaneously drawn into murderous chaos.
As far as the opening kill goes, this is not as graphic but is definitely stronger. The signature trait of the killer in Brittney Greer’s movie is that he or she loves to make his or her targets into some sick Halloween props, and so this primary victim, as well as a quite few after this one, get a Halloween greeting tattooed on him, this time around though, it’s cut through the skin. The assaults in Happy Halloween get worse as the film goes on, so by the time the movie finishes, fans of the slasher genre will have plenty of fascinating deaths to relish.
Greer is no doubt a fan of Scream and Halloween franchises as glimpses of both can be clearly seen in Happy Halloween. From Scream comes the snooping adolescent girls, the bitchy ones who pour out some sympathy for Hadley as well as the recently slain people. They are a bit of supporting cut-out characters, but their appearance is a great tribute to Wes Craven’s iconic film. The feelings of angst and grief that Hadley goes through can be directed towards Sidney as well. From Halloween, Greer uses the time frame in which the film takes place as well as bits and pieces from its famous soundtrack. Included in the original composition is a rather always about the same frequency note that is not over a tacky measure enough to be considered a rip-off of John Carpenter’s movie.
Though Happy Halloween draws inspiration from the great horror titles, it does not quite achieve the same level of excellence as its inspirations. While the effort and dedication are there, the concepts of Happy Halloween are unfortunately limited by its budget.
Despite being a partially crowd-funded film that never quite competes with the bigger films it is aspiring for, a lot of interesting elements have been incorporated in Happy Halloween which still keeps the audience engaged. The reveal of Hadley’s secret is crucial and once exposed, it allows for an explosive climax where hunter and hunted face off. As is the case with every great slasher, the killer is the mystery and though the audience will not find the person in the mask a total surprise, there is a reason for that within the context of the story. In addition, there is a nice little twist during the end credits which suggests an interesting sequel.
Previously mainly working in short films and television, she is moving into her first feature-length film Happy Halloween, for which she is the director. The film’s production could have definitely improved with more budget but there’s a lot in Happy Halloween which demonstrates Greer has a strong sense of creativity and control in the horror genre.
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