Terror Tuesday: The Barn (2016)
On Halloween, 1989, the company that I used to work for decided that we could dress up (as a morale booster) and while I'm not really a fan of Halloween, I decided to go with the flow and dressed up as one of the Lost Boys (1987). I had to explain what I was, even though I had blood caked around my mouth.
In a way, this movie reminds me of that time since it first begins on October 30, 1959, where the kids of Wheary Falls gather before going out and receiving the rules for the night from the preacher (Rik Billock).
They're told not to go to Wheary Farms since no one will be there to pass out candy, but tartlet Shirley (Ryan Nogy) does some flirting with George (Hunter Amos) then lures him to the barn. She reminds him of what the preacher said about a lit pumpkin and that someone has to be there to pass out candy.
He's not sure that she should knock on the door and would rather go to the Harvest Hootenanny. But Shirley goes to the door and knocks three times awakening the demons and she's dragged into the barn.
Thirty years to the day, in Helen's Valley, high school pranksters Josh and Sam (Will Stout and Mitchell Musolino) like scaring the local kids with the horror legend of the three demons.
There's the Boogeyman (Justin M. Seaman); Hallowed Jack and The Candy Corn Scarecrow (both played by Jedediah Giacchino) which Sam has become obsessed with over the years, thanks to his grandfather who repeated their legend every October to him.
Once the teens scare a group of kids, they're visited by Ms. Barnhart (Linnea Quigley) and she tells them to stop scaring the kids, or she's going to put an end to Halloween for the town.
After she hastily leaves, Sam's father (James Weldon) comes home and as Sam goes into the house, he's on the phone with Ms. Barnhart, promising her that he'll handle and deal out a fair punishment to him.
Sam's punishment is to go trick or treating and ask every house to contribute something to the local foodbank. And Josh has to help him.
Later that night, the two head over to the Skate N Whirl where their friend Russell (Nickolaus Joshua) works along with Sam's crush, Michelle (Lexi Dripps). They start watching the Dr. Rock (Ari Lehman) horror show and Dr. Rock has a surprise for the viewing audience. The Demon Inferno's are coming to town for a special Halloween concert, and the group wants to go.
But they have one problem- they don't have a car, so they head to the drive-in where their friend Chris (Cortland Woodard) is on a date with Nikki (Nikki Darling). They tell them about the concert, and everything's set for the concert.
On the drive, they take a wrong turn and up at Wheary Farm and with a few hours before the concert, they have a bonfire, and Sam continues telling his personal rules for Halloween. He also tells them the legend of the three demons and like stupid kids, they knock on the door awakening the demons.
As they explore the barn, they think that it was once a slaughterhouse due to the smell and Russell stays behind to figure out what it is, while Chris and Nikki head off to the corn field, where there's a tent and another fire.
Sam, Josh and Michelle head into town to trick or treat and as chaos happens at the barn, a now older George (David Hampton) goes around town smashing pumpkins.
The demons head into town and Sam's bag of candy is taken by one of them, but Michelle suggests that they go to the school where she's heard about the Harvest Hootenanny.
Once again, the preacher welcomes the guests and soon the demons head to the venue and kill everyone. They drag their bodies back to the farm as a treat for the devil.
Remembering what his grandfather told him, Sam and Josh take on the demons, but will they send them back to Hell and live in a demon free world?
This is a fun little movie that does have that 1989 feel and the storyline in solid with the legend and Sam's rules for Halloween. At times you may forget about them, but one of the characters usually brings them up since Sam doesn't complete the lore.
While there are times when the sound isn't that great (it seems like they were doing a lot of voiceovers) the effect used for Hallowed Jack's eyes really make up for the sound issue. I think most of the budget went into this effect.
And while I think of it, I may not be that big of a prankster, okay, I did get up early that Halloween morning and went to work to finish "terrorizing" one of my co-workers by putting webbing all over her desk from the ceiling to the floor (she had no sense of humor) and a few other tricks.
Then after work, I went over to my best friend's house, since I knew he was working midnights and scared him.
It was a productive day.
