SXSW Film Reviews

Haunter

Midnighters, World Premiere
D: Vincenzo Natali; with Abigail Breslin, Stephen McHattie, Peter Outerbridge

Some people are jerks in life, and they’re jerks in death. Meet “the Pale Man” (McHattie), a serial killer who haunts his previous house, possessing its living inhabitants to continue his murder streak postmortem. Lisa (Breslin) and her entire family fall victim, and it’s up to her (as a ghost) and one of the house’s newest inhabitants, the still-alive Olivia (Eleanor Zichy), to stop him before Olivia’s family is next. The film contains some truly suspenseful moments, but it fails to maintain that atmosphere, which makes it easy to start questioning what could be excusable plot issues for a horror film. Still, the house has all the makings of a classic haunting – complete with a furnace full of teenage remains that apparently went unnoticed during renovation.

Wednesday, March 13, 11:45pm, Alamo Ritz

This article appears in March 15 • 2013.

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