Happy Halloween

I like to think the Carpenteresque theme that opens Happy Halloween is a polite tribute to him.

This is small town America that is preparing for the annual Halloween trick or treat around the houses, and a school dance which has an added spooky cornfield.

It also sees the return of Hadley (Emma Reinagel) return to school after an unpleasant incident that nearly saw her nearly killed by her ex-boyfriend.

With best friend Payton (Aline O’Neill) she sets about getting her life back together which means putting up the boorish characters that make up her group as well as putting up with taunts. What they are also receiving are texts with a murder recorded on social media.

This serves to bring back bad memories for Hadley as well begin to traumatise the town and school. With almost everyone in the town seemingly related or have parents is positions of responsibility there’s soon confusion, paranoia, and murder.

From a very simple set up which writer and director Brittney Greer gets in place quickly, the film then trundles on a mostly familiar path of red herrings, false accusations, some romance and mayhem.

Apart from the score, Happy Halloween isn’t overly reverential to the 1978 ground breaker. It is, however, very familiar stuff which could have been trying, even boring, had the cast not been generally engaging if a little cliched character wise.

It’s also livened up with some nasty scenes. The use of social media to spread the terror around town, while no longer a novel idea in films, does go to show how it’s so deeply embedded it is almost a negligible part of everyday life.

Happy Halloween received its European premiere at London Pigeon Shrine FrightFest August 2024.