I'm not coming here to tell you that Hallowarrior is a great movie. It's not an effective horror, nor is it an entertaining enough dark thriller with some gore thrown around. It is, however, a decent little bit of atmosphere that should pass the time pleasantly enough as we reach the end of the official spooky season.
It's Halloween night, which feels a bit different for a kid living in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Pumpkin (Milly Shapiro) really longs for some company, but she also knows how dangerous that could be. Which doesn't stop her eventually letting Thalia (Shannyn Sossamon), Royce (AJ Bowen), and Wendy (Ajani Russell) spend some time in her home. They seem friendly enough, once proper introductions have been made, but things might change when the visitors learn that nobody else is around to protect Pumpkin. Mind you, Pumpkin may be very capable of protecting herself.
The feature debut of writer-director Ben Sottak, this has enough to make it a decent calling card. It's economical (in terms of the scale and the 78-minute runtime), it looks decent throughout, making use of a colour palette that reflects the . . . Halloween-iness of it all, and there are a handful of very good moments between Pumpkin and the other female characters that she ends up interacting with.
Shapiro in the main role is, sadly, not the best fit. She never seems quite as capable or strong as she needs to be, although that's also due to the writing. Thankfully, she's surrounded by people who do well enough to make up for her mis-casting. Sossamon is allowed to present herself as gentle and caring for a lot of the runtime, playing nice until she decides that it's time not to be nice (to paraphrase Patrick Swayze in Road House), Bowen has more of an air of menace about him, and Russell does a good job of being the youngest visitor, and the one who might be likely to really befriend Pumpkin. There are some others who get screentime, but the heart of the movie is this central quartet.
What's missing here is a film more in line with the title. I was hoping for something a bit more inventive. There should have been more blurring of the lines between reality and a childish fantasy. The bursts of violence should have been just a bit more shocking. And I'm surprised that I didn't ever get the feeling that our young central character was ever close to being in real danger.
I'm sure that Sottak is happy that he got his film made, and happy that it turned out so well. That's a huge achievement. It's just a shame that things couldn't have been improved before the final cut was put out to audiences. I would be tentatively hopeful if he announced a Hallowarrior 2 though, which shows that he at least did enough right to gain some goodwill from horror fans.
6/10
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