A babysitter finds an unlabeled VHS tape in a child’s trick or treat bag. The tape has three stories, all involving a murderous clown. Soon, strange things begin to happen as if the clown has escaped the tape and entered the house.
Sarah (Katie Maguire), a Debra Messing lookalike, is babysitting a young brother and sister on Halloween. One of them finds a blank VHS tape in their bag and they beg Sarah to let them watch. After some hesitation, Sarah agrees and they watch in terror as the clown in involved in multiple deaths on screen.
All Hallows’ Eve is a horror anthology featuring four stories of horror, connected by a single clown. The first story involves a woman who is kidnapped from a train station and is involved in some sort of satanic ritual down in the sewers.
The second story is about a young woman who has moved into a new house in the middle of the country. There is a bright light and a loud noise and soon her house is invaded by an alien who wants her.
Story number three is about a woman traveling on the highway and keeps running into the clown, no matter how far or how fast she drives.
Then there is the story of Sarah, herself, who begins to notice that the clown on the tape can not only see her but is trying to escape the TV to get to her. Then she begins to see and hear things, alerting her that someone is in the house.
It is no secret that I have clown fear. This clown is no exception. The first time I saw this was out in the middle of nowhere at a friend’s house. I was under the mistaken assumption that I was seeing the Danielle Harris movie Hallows’ Eve. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I had to drive home alone after, late at night, on a dark road lined with woods. I kept expecting to see that awful clown on the side of the road or for him to pop up in my back seat when I decided to look in my rear view mirror. I honestly think they told me it was Hallows’ Eve to get me out there because they knew I would freak out over the clown. You can be certain I won’t make that mistake again.
All Hallows’ Eve is a fun and scary anthology of horror. The alien story is a little hokey and the alien looks like he is swim walking but the other stories are hard for me to watch without a little company or a pillow close by to hide behind.
If you suffer from clown fear or are just in the spirit from this season of American Horror Story, give All Hallows’ Eve a chance. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.
May (Angela Bettis) has spent her whole life having trouble making friends, despite help from others. Finding herself attracted to only parts of people, May decides it’s time to take making friends into her own hands.
As a young child, May has a lazy eye, making her seem strange to the other children. An eye patch to straighten out the eye doesn’t even help as the other children just call her a pirate. When no one shows up for her birthday party, her mother gives her a doll she had made with the advice “If you can’t find a friend, make one.”
As she grows up, the doll is still the only friend May has. Without any other real human interaction, May is a strange person and people have trouble understanding her enough to be around her. Desperate to connect to someone, May makes short and awkward friendships with people based on physical aspects of them that she finds attractive. When it proves to be too tough on her when things don’t work out, May finds a way to make a friend that can never leave her.
May is easily my favorite horror film behind Halloween. May is the poster child for anyone who has been misunderstood or judged for being too different. Had anyone taken the time to really know her or try to understand why she was the way she was, perhaps things would have turned out differently, but the fact that everyone gave up on her so easily when things got weird, only made things worse for May. The more people gave up on her, the more unstable she got and the more unstable she got, the more people gave up on her.
Being that the doll has been May’s only friend for years, May carries all conversations with her, believing that the doll is answering back. As May’s sanity slips, a crack forms in the glass protective case around the doll. Once glass completely shatters and the doll is destroyed, May is forced to make friend.
The ending makes the whole movie. The confident and dark May is the complete opposite of the soft, shy May in the beginning. The moment she just loses it until the very last second are absolutely brilliant. You find yourself intrigued, disturbed and enthralled all at once. When you finally see what years of bullying and neglect have created, you’re sort of awe struck. It’s amazing the effect others truly have on another person’s psyche.
May is a hidden gem in horror and really should be a much more recognized film. Angela Bettis is perfect as the lead, able to pull off both the strange and unusual as well as the dark and sinister at the flip of a switch. Had anyone else been cast in the role, the film would not have been as amazing as it is.
This Halloween, I cannot recommend this film enough. Prepare yourself to be disturbed and I guarantee you will cover your eyes at least once but, despite it all, you will fall in love with May.
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Ann Hale is the horror editor for Pop-Break.com and a senior contributing writer, reviewing horror movies and television shows. She is also the American Correspondent for Lovehorror.co.uk. Ann attended East Carolina University, majoring in English Literature. She is a collector of Halloween (the film) memorabilia and is a self-admitted opinionated horror nerd. You can follow her, her collection and her cat, Edward Kittyhands on Twitter and Instagram @Scarletjupiter
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