Average at best…
Jean Louise O’Sullivan stars in this low-budget slasher movie, alongside a mostly unknown cast, but this talented actor can act alongside the best, as well as the, eh — not best. O’Sullivan pretty much outshines all her coworkers, but in all honesty, it wasn’t exactly difficult. She’s building up an enviable list of credits in this heavily saturated genre, but I’d like to see her broaden her horizon a bit.
The slasher genre has been done, quite literally to death, and the last thing we need is another unoriginal, low-budget attempt. The only other genre that’s in the same position is zombie horror, or zombie love story, or zombies becoming intelligent. I can’t wait till the two merge and we get zombie serial killers, slowly staggering the night, in search of even slower victims.
- The Bates Haunting
- Director
Byron Turk - Cast
Jean Louise O’Sullivan, Zachary Fletcher, Ryan Dunn - Release Date
August, 2013 - Influx Grade: C
Agness and Lily are at a theme park called Bates Motel and Haunted Hayride, when Lily decides to go on one of the rides. Lily ends up being burned to death when the giant dragon head loses control and sets her on fire. 1 year later Agnes’ father, a cop, persuades her to face her fear by working at the haunted hayride, and soon after starting she begins to notice some very strange things.
Part of the ride involves driving past horrific murders being acted out, but she soon realises that the killer is murdering the victims in plain site. She also sees a couple fooling around in a field being butchered by a large thresher, so she begins to investigate, in an attempt to find out what really happened to Lily.
*****
This is a movie that you can get into as long as you aren’t seeking anything original because this film contains no such thing. It’s low budget status is very apparent but it shouldn’t be a reason not to watch it, because it might be lacking in many things but it does give a certain amount of entertainment, and if you’re in the mood for a slasher flick, you could do a lot worse than director Byron Turk’s debut.
Review by Ed Blackadder, Lead Entertainment Writer
