The Barn



A group of high school friends are headed out of town on Halloween for a concert, as one last Hoo-Ra before they graduate. On the way there they make a pit-stop near a barn in the small town of Wheary Falls. Deciding to have a little Halloween fun, the group follows through on a local legend centering around knocking on a barn door three times to summon the spirits of three evil monsters known as The Boogeyman, Hollow Jack, and the Candy Corn Scarecrow. But unbeknownst to them, the barn door they’re knocking on just so happens to be the source of that particular legend. Meaning that the group has now unintentionally released a curse with wider ranging implications than they ever expected.


Oopsie…

And for my final movie for this glorious month we have the thematically appropriate The Barn, an American horror/monster movie from 2016. The Barn was specifically conceived of and intended as sort of a love letter to the cheesy 1980s monster movies of yore. To do this the filmmakers used practical effects, added some minimal (and intentionally crappy looking) early CGI (quick glowing bits, mostly), and even studied older filming techniques so that they could more closely replicate that old 80s look. The result is a fairly enjoyable movie for fans of that specific genre, though it does mean it has a few quirks that more casual horror fans may roll their eyes at.



For starters, the acting in particular is pretty cheesy. I want to emphasize that none of it is bad. But there’s a lot of intentional overacting going on. Not a lot, and not to the point where any one of them feels unbearable at any point. But it crops up just enough to be noticeable. It’s a great emulation of cheap horror from the time period (they even put Linnea Quigley in it!), but it’s probably going to irk the type of people who are looking for…eh, let’s say something that’s a lot more ‘serious’ in their horror outings.



If you’re NOT one of those people, however, and have an appreciation for the 80s and their horror films, then you’ll likely walk away from this film pretty pleased. Because while the acting may not be Oscar worthy, everything else is pretty great. I mean, sure, most of the plot is pretty ridiculous, considering it all gets started because an older teen had the absolute audacity to play a scary, yet harmless prank on some younger kids a couple days before Halloween by telling them a plot-related spooky story (the horror!). But since most horror movie plots are just an excuse to show a lot of blood and boob, a few weird story beats shouldn’t even faze most viewers.



And speaking of blood and boobs, you get both here! As well as three different monster designs! Bonus! Are they highly detailed, unique designs? Eh, not really. You’ve got a scarecrow, a pumpkin-headed freak, and a dead miner. So probably nothing you haven’t seen before. But all the costumes and almost all the effects are practical, so you don’t have to put up with a lot of fake BS like crappy CGI blood splatter. They used REAL buckets of blood and gore for this film. The only exceptions are a couple of supernatural elements they added in, like this sparking effect that appears when they kill one of the monsters, or the lit fire seen inside the pumpkin costume. The former intentionally looks like one of those older effects where they would draw on the old film cellulose, so that fits in with their theme. But the latter of which they actually tried to make look like a legitimate fire lit inside the pumpkin. But other than those two instances, nothing else really stood out in the CGI department.







And to top it all off, the rest of the film looks great too. The lighting is so nice that you can always tell what’s going on, even in the dark (Of all the things NOT to emulate from the 80s they chose that one. Yay!). The framing looks good, and oftentimes even stellar, what with a few nice, arty shots they threw in there. And the choreography is… Well, kinda silly and cheesy, for the most part. But in a goofy way that’s meant to be fun. So it all works out.



I gotta admit, I was surprised by how enjoyable The Barn turned out to be. The first 5-10 minutes of the movie were so corny and trope-filled that I was initially a little concerned. But in the end it ended up being a very fun, though slightly silly love-letter to both the 80s and Halloween in general. Which pretty much makes it the perfect movie for the holiday and a great movie for me to end the month on. So if you like 80s horror, Halloween themed films, or cheesy monster movies with a bit of bite, then you should definitely check this one out. And since there’s already two sequels out (Two? Yes, two!), that means there’s also more for ME to check out later, too. That’s a potential win for everyone.

The Barn is available on a variety of streaming services.

The Barn is also available on DVD and Bluray.

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