Written and directed by Ben Sottak, desperate for companionship on a post-apocalyptic Halloween night, the last girl on earth gets more than she bargained for, when something far more sinister arrives on her doorstep. Starring: Milly Shapiro, Shannyn Sossamon, Ajani Russell, AJ Bowen, Victor Plajas, Taylor Valentine Lupini, Logan Beveridge and Bobby McFarlane.
A young woman all alone, seeking a friend at the end of the world, with a pocketful of optimism and candy, finding herself facing a bloodthirsty gang of marauders led by a silver-tongued matriarch: one house, one night, and a classic fight for survival, is a great setup for a horror flick. It’s familiar in exactly the right way for the genre, but where typically that would usually cause the lead to break out of their shell, truly discover their dark side and perhaps some potential for inflicting pain, Pumpkin (Milly Shapiro) never moves beyond that perky, positive exterior, despite things turning rather bloody, and it gets old fast.
It fills the atmosphere with this naivety which hinders the impact of the rest of the film, and its ability to intensify or darken. There is unquestionably a dark side to Pumpkin but it’s underexplored and creates a sadness more than something macabre. Another part of why that is such a problem is because there’s very little happening in Hallowarrior. It almost feels like an extended one-act, which potentially could have made a better short film.
There is some fun gore and violence, but it feels too intentionally used to try and inject something which Hallowarrior is otherwise lacking. It doesn’t have the necessary tension or intensity, the fear isn’t really there, and so ultimately the violence feels entirely used for shock value and rather empty. Another issue is that the characters feel mostly two-dimensional, it’s hard to truly invest in and root for these characters when they don’t have much to offer. It’s a shame as there was a lot of potential for a memorable friendship between Milly Shapiro and Ajani Russell, they make for a solid pairing, but they never get beyond that initial connection. Shannyn Sossamon also makes for a decent villain.
Hallowarrior is a good concept, shot in a great location with solid direction and cinematography, but it’s missing the atmosphere and chaos to really pull it off. There’s not enough happening, the violence may get messier, but the intensity never ramps up. It’s lacklustre in a similar way as The Strangers franchise, relying too much on the idea of the threat and masks, while developing the story very little. There was the potential for something interesting, there’s solid performances all around, and a nice bit of gore but sadly, it fell quite short. Although where Pumpkin was continuing to find vibrant orange hair dye after living in a post-apocalyptic hellscape for several years is curious.
