Getting together for a Halloween party, a group of friends decides to visit an abandoned store at the urging of a friend, but when they start mysteriously disappearing realize they've been led into a trap with a savage masked killer and must uncover a deadly secret to get away.
This one was a decent enough if flawed effort. Among the best aspects here is the rather chilling location used for the setting as the abandoned building gets worked over for great effect. The darkness, complete sense of disuse and disorienting outlay that allows them to get lost inside adds to the suspense alongside the various off-screen noises in the distance that alerts them to their being someone else with them. That leads into the shorter if no less thrilling stalking scenes taking out the group around the building which offers up the kind of shocking outbursts in the quick kills, featuring some great gore effects along the way. Along with the somewhat imposing outfit for the killer that's unique and original, there are some enjoyable aspects at play here. There are some big flaws here. The main problem here is the utter and outright stupidity present that causes the entire film to occur as it does. That has several problems as there's little reason to have this group be friends at all since there's little connection made between them as the decisions to keep staying there at the building are inherently lame. The continuous insults and put-downs aren't appealing or funny, the behavior of the horndog friend is aggravating to the point of being unrealistic that he would be around their prissy nature and the general stupidity of the group not to realize that the noises they hear around then would be someone else with them so the ignorance of staying there shows through. All told, these elements showcase the utterly lame and frustrating nature of the characters. The other issue here is the low-budget production that shines through here. The fact that the continuous close-ups on the characters' faces keep happening to hide where they are grows increasingly aggravating as it happens during the stalking scenes at several points in the film gives away the idea of the budget quite well, much like the shaking camera that keeps popping up. That makes for a disorienting time as the inability to see what's going on during these scenes is incredibly distracting and takes you out of the film easily. The brevity is also important to that factor, running out of steam easily and just ending without much fanfare. Lastly, the tacked-on finale helps this by running forever just to get a twist that doesn't work and is there only to spread the length out in the film. On the whole, these are what hold the film back the most.
Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.
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