- Directed by: Ben Sottak
- Written by: Ben Sottack
- Stars: Milly Shapiro, Sannyn Sossamon, Ajani Russell
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEu9qAHbQKE
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A lonely survivor after a plague throws a Halloween party and sends an open invitation over the airwaves. The problem with that is you never know who is going to show up. It’s reminiscent of “The Strangers” set in a post-apocalyptic world, and it’s very good.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on home videos of a little girl, Pumpkin, carving a pumpkin for Halloween. She calls herself a “Hallowarrior.” Credits roll.
Years later, Pumpkin has grown up and lives in a post-plague-apocalyptic wasteland. Even after everyone else died, she still celebrates her favorite holiday, Halloween. She’s very alone, and she thinks she might be the last girl on Earth. There are no trick-or-treaters this year.
Just as she’s about to kill herself from loneliness, Pumpkin hears someone on her radio breathing loudly, but the radio falls apart before she can really talk to them. She starts imagining ghosts in the house.
There’s someone outside on the porch, and Pumpkin chases them into the woods but the person gets away. When she returns to the house, there’s a man and a woman inside taking her food. They are Thalia, Royce, and Wendy. They have more “friends” outside who want in.
Pumpkin talks a lot about Halloween, but the others have been too busy surviving out there to care about that. Pumpkin is really nice to Wendy, but Wendy knows something bad’s going to happen. When they find Pumpkin’s mother’s corpse on the couch, they wonder who’s worse. Then, out of the blue, Wendy stabs Royce in the back of the neck and Pumpkin shoots him.
Thalia shows up with the newcomers. Wendy warns Pumpkin to run and avoid them, and Pumpkin takes Royce’s crossbow. The new people are… weird. Gauze, Wax, Breather, and Worm show up with Thalia in the lead.
Wendy shoots Gaue, and the others outside cut up his body and eat it, while he’s still mostly awake. Wendy and Pumpkin put on their masks, “In here, we’re the monsters.” They go through the house and “Home Alone” it with traps.
Wendy watches as Breather eats a razor-blade-candy bar while Wax torments Pumpkin. Wax burns and Breather stops breathing. Pumpkin shoots Worm, but before dying, he injects her with a drug that really makes Halloween come alive for her.
Thalia comes inside and injects Wendy with an overdose of the drug. She and Pumpkin then fight. Pumpkin tricks Thalia into shooting Royce with her crossbow. Then giving Thalia a faceful of the orange powder drug gives Pumpkin the upper hand.
In the morning, Pumpkin and Wendy have Thalia at crossbow-point and lead her outside. Thalia promises that they’ll regret letting her live and then walks away. “She’ll be back,” says Wendy. But they agree to leave together, and it will be nice to not be alone.
Brian’s Commentary
Why does everything look filthy and rotten if the plague was only four years ago? Buildings and cars don’t decompose that fast. As Kevin mentioned, it’s a bit of a mashup between The Strangers and Home Alone, but it’s a good mix and pretty entertaining.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s a rare post apocalyptic movie where they remember that bicycles exist.
The trouble with sending out an open invitation over the airwaves when you’re a survivor is that you never know who’s going to answer the call.
The amount of decay and grime was a good look for the movie and very atmospheric, but it seemed excessive. The plague seems to have killed all the animals and most of the people and plants don’t grow any more, but that doesn’t explain how rotten everything looks after only four years. Or perhaps the plague just affects everything.
Once it got going, and you could kind of see where it was going, it reminded me very much of “The Strangers,” or similar home invasion movies. And then they went lethally “Home Alone” on the invaders. But I thought Milly Shapiro was great, and there were enough new elements to keep it interesting. It’s a mighty grim movie.
I’d say I liked it a lot.
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