Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street Puts the ‘Micro’ in Micro-Budget
Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street pulls off an interesting story, passable gore, a nice whodunit and a cool parallel to Scooby Doo.
Written by The Horror Czar
April 27, 2009
Release: October 31, 2008 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: P.J. Starks
Written by: P.J. Starks and Rodney Newton
Starring:
John Page as Frank
Katie Green as Stephanie
Megan Fuller as Alma
Robert Denton as Chevy
Kevin Mundy as Doobie
Robert Zambrano as Mr. Jenkins
Todd Reynolds as Buck Masters
Bryan Reynolds as Damien Masters
Buck (Todd Reynolds) runs a haunted attraction, but things are not going well. Rumors of a “haunting” of the building where the attraction is held, and I mean real haunting… and not just animatronics and latex… have marred the reputation of the establishment. Of course, the fact that there were several youths violently killed and cut apart with a chainsaw doesn’t help this reputation at all. Welcome to Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street.
Buck’s brother, Damien (Bryan Reynolds… note the last name) owns the building where the haunt resides, and informed Buck that the haunted attraction will be shut down. Hmmm… how will Buck find a way to generate revenue without an attraction to draw an audience? Eureka! Let’s have a crew of ghost hunters come to the building and verify (or disprove) the existence of ghosts! I’m not sure how that was going to generate revenue, but let’s accept some things on faith…
Enter the ghost hunters, Frank (John Page), Stephanie (Katie Green), Alma (Megan Fuller), Chevy (Robert Denton) and Doobie (Kevin Mundy); Striking similarity to Fred, Daphne, Thelma, Shaggy and Scooby. Does anyone remember those “meddling kids” or am I dating myself? Anyway, the kids are vying for a research grant so finding ghosts is an important goal here. Stephanie, the “sensitive” feels evil intent all over the place, Chevy and Doobie are responsible for setting up the equipment (which they never seem to do, by the way… in fact, I don’t remember even seeing any equipment at all, but anyway…), Alma doesn’t really do anything but sit around and pontificate on things and Frank struts around being a heart-throb and barking orders. The perfect crew.
The creepy caretaker, Mr. Jenkins, warns the crew of impending doom and then proceeds to lock everyone inside for the night… for whatever reason. What follows is a series of strange decisions resulting in bloody mayhem, melodramatic lines resulting in screams and split heads and martyr-like stands that bring death to more than be necessary. Very fun indeed.
Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street is low budget. I mean LOW budget… like Microscopic… and in the first few minutes I thought that the fact would turn me off and cause untold annoyance. Miraculously, it did not. Even though the lines were stupid, I enjoyed them. Though the banter between Chevy and Doobie was obviously an overstated attempt at comedic release, I liked those two and their stupid lines. Alma was pointless and annoying, but just as I was over her she got a highly satisfying axe in the head – perfect!
The musical background is simple and a bit repetitive, but perfectly placed and added ideally to the experience. The parallel to Scooby Doo was subtle yet not at all subtle as the movie came to a close. Scooby with graphic and violent gore? Outstanding.
Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street will not appeal to those that require a slick Hollywood production but should appeal to those who don’t mind traveling off the beaten path to get their horror. The gore, the campiness and the Scooby Doo references alone are enough to make this one worth the 20 bucks. Questions and comments about Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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