The Barn — The Barn(DVD)
The Barn originally appeared back in 2016, and it was written & directed by Justin M Seaman. And it’s fair to say the film is a largely wonderful crafted tribute to all things 1980’s- we have teens in peril been stalked ‘n’ slashed, a trio of ghoulish monster killers and a select of clichéd-if-likeable enough characters- going from the mixed selection of teen fooder, pious busybodies & corrupted priest, drunken naysays who have been warning of the town doom, flashes of female flesh, some neat & splattery enough killings, oh and a soundtrack that moves from sinisterly throbbing synth scaping-onto- campy rock-outs.
The films is set in and around Halloween 1989- in small-town USA- the lead characters are teens recently left school buddies- Sam(Mitchell Musolino), who has something of a young Sam Rockwell about him, and Josh( William Stout). The pair are still a trick ‘a’ treating youngsters from their home- with Sam giving out the candy, then Josh jumps out of an oil drum on those who have bad or non-existent costume. The pair hear that their favorite rock band is playing at a nearby town- so they decide to trick ‘n’ treat with their friends in near by town, then head to the gig. On the way to the town the group stumble across a barn that’s meant to linked into a Halloween legend of three demonic monsters, invertedly they rise the monsters- and slow but surely get stalked & more often than not slashed by the monster killing trio of The Boogeyman( a demented zombie miner), Hallowed Jack( a flaming pumpkin-headed ghoul) and The Candycorn Scarecrow( whose deformed face is masked by a sack & he chops away at his victims with his razor-sharp candy corn teeth). The film does pretty much what you’d expect at each turn, but like the best slashers, that’s not a criticism- as with this type of film there’s so much joy to be had in wonderfully retro-ness of the whole thing.
If you either lived through the 80’s-to-early 90’s horror film genre, or just love that 80’s feel you’ve got to check out The Barn- as Seaman captures the feel of 1980’s horror perfectly- with a plot that nicely twists and turns with gory murder, campy dialogue & set-ups, and a largely likable young cast.
On the extras front we get a commentary track featuring the films director/ writer Justin M Seaman, and one of the main male leads- this is a nice chatty affair with the pair discussing the two year period the film was made over, where different shots come from, location discussion and casting decisions. We also find out that Seaman wrote the original concept for the film back when he was aged just aged eight- so the film has been a long term dream project for him- all told it’s an informative & very down to earth track, that I think will be of interest to anyone who wants to get a good insight in to low budget filmmaking these days.
Otherwise, on the extra front, we get a short that Seaman made years back, focusing in on one of the trio of monster. We get two lots of trailers, a four-minute interview with the director that was done for the Indiegogo campaign, and a few other shorter extras.
I’d be aware of The Barn for a few years now, so it’s great to finally check it out- and unlike many modern horror films it’s not a let down- Seamans passion for 80’s monster & slasher films drips from every frame of the film all making for a modern classic, there’s mention of a second Barn film in the works lets hope it becomes a reality!.