Written and directed by Phil Claydon, during 2016’s “killer clown” craze, Dr. Marks and journalist Parker trace the source to jailed serial killer Cane recruiting followers for an anarchist movement. When Cane escapes, they race to stop his murderous Halloween scheme. Starring: Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott, Michael Paré, Ronan Summers, Caroline Wilde, Megan Marszal and Samantha Loxley.
One of the bad habits of film fans is to too easily dismiss films like Helloween, when the concept from the outset maybe seems a bit gimmicky or simply based off of the fact that it’s an indie, low budget flick. That’s exactly how you end up missing out on entertaining cinema. Helloween may not be perfect or flashy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. One of the main reasons that you should definitely check it out is the performance from Ronan Summers, whose killer villain is the glue that brings all of the film together.
A lot of the time with low-budget horror, the villain is the element which ends up toppling the project because they’re either poorly constructed or poorly executed. Here Phil Claydon gives us a convincing serial killer with a nice niche, and then Summers fleshes him out excellently. The tenor and confidence to his voice is a lot of what sells it, it’s such a key element of a dark, devilish performance, to speak with eloquence and sinister wit. He doesn’t overplay the insanity card or try to be crude or brash, it’s purposefully constructed. Sadly, the ensemble doesn’t always live up to the quality of that performance and there are some weak links but they’re not so distracting as to take away from Helloween as a whole, and that’s par for the course.
The other key reason contributing to the success of Helloween is the tone. It’s dark yet playful, it doesn’t try to go all in on the darkness, or take itself too seriously. Phil Claydon has a good awareness of the genre and what he’s trying to create, to not extend the film beyond its limits or put it on a pedestal that it will only fall from. There are the occasional scenes where the aesthetic falls short and it’s not the strongest overall, but it definitely has its moments. Topping that off with paying attention to the pacing and runtime is what brings together more strongly.
Helloween creates a surprisingly decent story which has a solid nod to the impact of poor care on young people. It moves at a good pace, and keeps itself to an 80-minute runtime, to not draw things out too much. It’s got a great self-awareness, Phil Claydon puts emphasis on the key elements, the visual might be flawed but the story is there and so is the entertainment value. Something that’s in no small part thanks to the excellent performance from Ronan Summers who plays his cards perfectly here.
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