SCARE ZONE is a splattery good time! LOL!

SCARE ZONE is about a group of young people taking up jobs to help run a haunted house attraction.  They each have their own troubles getting adjusted to their new jobs but eventually they all manage.  Oopsy for them though, someone has taken it upon themselves to make these young people permanent fixtures of Scare Zone.  One by one a killer stalks the new hires killing them throughout the three day event and hiding the bodies in plain sight as part of the gruesome displays.  You just know that one day this is going to happen in real life.

Most of the characters are a little over the top and don't feel like real people but it fits the light-hearted tone of the film.  I did like Oliver the high spirited owner of Scare Zone.  He brings the much needed energy to the screen gleefully assigning people to their duties and comically dealing with the Hispanic workers (Who really are the funniest part of the film.) that help build the sets.  A big surprise comes from the developing relationship between main character Daryl and a goth chick named Claire.  It starts off weird with Claire talking about cutting herself and setting her up as a red herring (Possibly!) for the audience to suspect as the killer.  As the movie moves along we understand her more as a young woman dealing with issues from her past that Daryl wants to help her with.  Their relationship keeps the movie glued together making you actually care for somebody on screen.

You can see if you pay attention that there is a little more thought put into most aspects of this film.  It is a funny movie when it wants to be.  Sometimes it isn't when it wants to be too but the hits out weigh the misses in my opinion.  There are a few weird musical montages set to modern vanilla pop rock featuring young people goofing around being "hip" and "funny" and "young."  I don't know how I feel about those.  For the most part this is a well filmed entertaining piece of work.  SCARE ZONE was shot in one of the Universal Studios Halloween attractions but the film isn't locked into one location.   Visually the film opens up to more locations so you do not become bored by the rubbery dummies, fake blood and dimly lit set pieces of the haunted house attraction.  The camera work has some creative angles and movements to draw the audience in without being too noticeable.  Toward the end the movie really picks up when the killer goes on a killing spree murdering the haunted house workers in front of the patrons to their jeers proclaiming that everything looks fake or lame.  Now that is funny in a dark sort of way.

If you are looking for a fun bloody slasher movie that doesn't take itself too seriously then give SCARE ZONE a try.  It maybe a little overlooked but it is a good one.  I bought it because I was going to Universal Horror Nights and I wanted to see if I could recognize the attraction they used.  I didn't recognize it.  By the way if you haven't been to Universal Horror Nights and you are a huge horror fan then I suggest you do yourself a favor and go!  It was one of the best nights of my life.  Their attractions are so real that you feel like you are walking through a horror movie.  I went through the CABIN IN THE WOODS house and it was exactly like the movie.  Surreal!  There was so much to see.  I want to go again and again and again.  If you do go you may want to go more than one night because you will be waiting in line a long time!


Jason