The Hoot Owl

Director(s) - Jason Rader and Jason von Godi

Starring - Augustine Frizzell (Euphoria, I Was a Teenage Girl), Carl Bailey (Final Summer, The Stalker Part II), and J.D. Brown (Cross Bearer, The Cemetery)

Release Date - 2022

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Home is where he lays your head"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I started planning for my October horror binge several months ago to make sure I had at least one new movie to watch each day in October. While I was looking through hashtags on Instagram I came across several posts for the indie slasher The Hoot Owl. The artwork and title really pulled me in but I couldn’t find a place to snag a copy. After some digging I was able to track down the filmmaker and I reached out to him. After some talking he offered to send over a copy for review. I’ve had it for a month or so but held off on watching it until this month so it would be apart of my month long binge. I want to thank Jason Von Godi for sending this one over because I had a lot of fun with it. 

      The film follows a young couple who bought an old fixer upper online without seeing it. The pair is looking for a new start after a miscarriage and invite over some friends to help clean and repair the home. What his wife doesn’t know is that the house was once the site of a grisly murder and a pair of children went missing just a few weeks prior. Now, as the group attempts to party and fix the place off they are unknowingly being picked off one by one by something, or someone, that has been living in the back of one of the barns on the property. 

      I went into this one really excited after seeing the trailer and staring at the artwork for a few weeks. I had high hopes for the film and it thoroughly enjoyed it. I posted about it on social media and had some discussions with other genre friends about the film, the baby scene, and the state of modern indie horror. Honestly, I was under the impression that those that had seen it did enjoy it after my Facebook posts. Sadly, that was not the case. While preparing for this review I discovered that the film was available on Tubi and many have went to sites like imdb and review bombed it. While I’m sure not all of the negative reviews were done by trolls, I can only assume that a majority of them were done by people with a lot of time on their hands because the film was very enjoyable. The acting in this one is great. I absolutely loved the characters the film gives us and the cast does a great job with it. They all feel very natural in front of the camera and their dialogue delivery works very well for the film. While there was a few scenes that seems a little awkward with mindless banter and casual conversation, the cast delivers fantastic performances. The story for this one is not that original but it’s enjoyable. They go into this one with a story in mind and delivered on it. They didn’t reinvent the wheel or try to spawn the next horror franchise. Instead, they made a movie that’s enjoyable for genre fans which I think they achieved. The movie is a little one sided with most of the film used to establish the characters, their backstories, and the history of the home before we get to the horror. Typically this would be a huge turn off for me but the characters are likable, the performances work, and the writing is done so well that you find yourself pulled in. These scenes could be trimmed down to work with the pacing but I didn’t mind them the way there were. My biggest complaint is how the killers identity is never fully revealed aside from a few parts about the story of the home that was told earlier in the film. Slashers are known for their iconic killers with memorable back stories and this one seems to have every aspect of the film wrote out except the killer. Finally, the film has a lot of blood and some gruesome practical effects. The kills fit the film and the effects look great but I was expecting more gore. Overall, The Hoot Owl is a very well done slasher that delivers on the blood. The character development and backstory is very well written but the killers need more work. I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it.