Haunt is a Slasher Movie written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (A Quiet Place) and produced by Eli Roth.
On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an "extreme" haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realization that some nightmares are real.
Haunt contains examples of:
- All Part of the Show: The group of friends witnesses an actual murder early on in the house but they assume it's staged.
- Asshole Victim: Sam gets what might be the most brutal death in the movie. Quite deserved for an abusive boyfriend. Then, of course, there's the bad guys themselves.
- Becoming the Costume: Done deliberately with body modification.
- Big Bad: The Clown is the leader of the masked killers.
- Big Red Devil: The Devil's modus operandi is obviously based off this.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Mitch at first seems to be willing to help the heroes and is just as shocked as they are when they realize it's not all just for show. Then he nails a board to the vent shaft, preventing Nate from getting out, and rips off Evan's face with a claw hammer.
- Bittersweet Ending: While most of the group don't make it, neither do most of the bad guys either.
- Deadly Game: Various aspects of the haunted house involve maneuvering around death traps.
- Domestic Abuse: Harper has it rough, she is first introduced to applying makeup to cover her black eye. Her boyfriend apparently did this. If that wasn't enough, her father frequently abused her mother, though he never seemed to lay a hand on Harper herself.
- Eye Scream: Harper sticks her thumb into the Devil's eye.
- Facial Horror: The villains have all disfigured their faces with body modification art to match the masks they wear.
- For the Evulz: The villains are given no motivation for killing people. During The Last Drive In showing of the movie (On Shudder), it's revealed they do have a motivation because in an interview Eli Roth said he asked what the backstory is. When both writers/directors explained it was scarier that there wasn't one, Roth told them to write one anyways but don't put it in. Host Joe Bob Briggs himself surmises that the killers are part of a mutilation cult.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Devil is killed via a rigged shotgun trap in the house.
- The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: At the end, the Clown returns to finish off the Final Girl at her house only to discover that she has been waiting for him with a trap of her own.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The villains all wear Halloween masks.
- Malevolent Mutilation: The villains' true faces are a result of this.
- Monster Clown: The Clown who is in effect the leader of the operation.
- Pet the Dog: Supposedly, donations to the haunted house go to the Red Cross. YMMV here, since it's likely a lie.
- Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: Elaborate death traps are used by the villains in addition to more conventional methods.
- The Smurfette Principle: The Witch is the only female member of the killers team.
- Softer and Slower Cover: Lissie's cover of Rob Zombie's 'Dragula' plays over the end credits.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The killers due to their heavy self-mutilation, need an outsider to get them groceries and other mundane stuff that otherwise would be difficult and suspicious.
- The Unreveal: We never find out the villains' motivations for murder, nor do we ever find out anything about them.
- Wham Line: After Harper sees a man in the Devil costume stalking her at the party, she sees several clues that it's her abusive ex, Sam. When she calls him out on it in the Haunt, he removes his mask. "Who's Sam?" is his reply. Doubles as The Reveal of the villains.
