There's a good film buried somewhere deep inside The Barn, a film that could easily be a Halloween favourite for horror fans, but writer-director Justin M. Seaman spends a lot of time ensuring that nobody will ever see that film. Instead of working to the strengths of the central premise (the three main killers, the Halloween atmosphere, the gleeful fun of some of the kills), he pads everything out with lacklustre conversations before delivering a finale that is so poor that it undoes any of the good work that preceded it.
Mitchell Musolino and Will Stout play Sam and Josh, respectively. They're out and about on Halloween night with Michelle (Lexi Dripps), as well as Chris (Cortland Woodard), who happens to own his own vehicle, and his partner, Nikki (Nikki Howell), and it's not long until they end up near the titular barn, a cursed place that houses three monsters. There's the boogeyman, Hollow Jack, and the candy corn scarecrow, and they soon set out to cause panic and death in town, much to the dismay of Sam and Josh.
Written and directed by Justin M. Seaman, The Barn is a typical debut feature, complete with pacing issues, an unsatisfying script, and good ideas threatened by poor execution. It's not Seaman's debut feature though. While there's an obvious love for the horror genre, the Halloween atmosphere, and spooky iconography, Seaman doesn't seem to know how to put everything together into a wholly satisfying package. He has an excellent vision for his central killer creations, but doesn't manage to write a plot that can sustain interest for even 3/4 of the runtime.
Musolino and Stout aren't great, but they're okay, and okay is better than we see in quite a lot of horror movies. Dripps is disappointingly underused (correct me if I'm wrong, she just seems to disappear before the third act gets going), while Woodard and Howell may as well come onscreen with badges that say "most likely to die in order to underline the deadly threat to our leads". There are cameos from both Linnea Quigley and Ari Lehman, with the former much more fun than the latter, and everyone else just wanders in and out of the screen, killing time until the time for killing begins.
Although numerous issues made it seem as if this film wouldn't ever be completed, Seaman managed to get there in the end, and deserves some praise for persevering. There's even a sequel released by now, and I know I'll get to it one day. I also know that a few horror fans will enjoy this more than I did, but I suspect many will share my view. Seaman tries hard to get some good stuff onscreen, up until a finale that seems as if he stopped trying altogether. Maybe the sequel greatly improves on things, but there's not enough here to make people rush to see it.
4/10
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