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| All Images Courtesy Borderline Media/MVD |
When Screamityville turned up in my latest batch of screener discs, I was thoroughly perplexed, and also a bit intrigued. Between the bizarre, truly terrible title (seriously, what IS that?), and the extremely vague description on the box that gives absolutely no information about what it actually is, I was very curious (and a bit nervous) just what the hell I was about to get myself into. With the title Screamityville, I assumed that this was some low-rent haunted house movie cashing in on the Amityville name, since that is a very prolific subgenre in itself. I must imagine that most people who stumble across this blu-ray case with no knowledge of what the film is would assume the same. But it’s not that at all. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is something really cool and fun. It’s not a movie, and not something you would sit down and watch with dedication, but it’s a really cool spooky-season vibe piece, made to have on in the background of a Halloween party.
Screamityville is basically a “ghoul log” of sorts – a non-narrative sights-and-sounds reel designed to have on in the background to set a Halloween mood. And it’s a very cool one! It is 85 minutes of well-shot footage of elaborate haunted house displays and lavish Halloween decorations; like the coolest, most well-decorated house in every neighborhood. Each house is documented for a few minutes, soaking in all the details of the decorations and displays, while the soundtrack is filled with spooky sound effects and Halloween-y atmospheric music. The videography is very strong, capturing the vibe and atmosphere of the various decorated houses in aesthetically cool ways, and color graded so the colorful lights really pop against nighttime darkness. The music and sound effects are solid, and very appropriately create a Halloween-night mood. If you put this on in the background of a Halloween party, it would absolutely work, and create the right kind of vibe, either on its own or with your own Halloween-appropriate music playlist.
You likely would not sit down and watch it from beginning to end, or watch it for very long at all, since it isn’t a documentary and has no narrative structure. But it is definitely something that you would watch in bits and pieces during a party or gathering, and periodically be sucked into by the atmosphere. It does what it does very well, and is something you can totally vibe with if you love Halloween.
The biggest problem Screamityville is going to struggle with is its frankly terrible marketing. The blu-ray cover makes it entirely unclear what it actually IS, and gives the impression that it’s a horror movie, which it is decidedly not. If someone buys this expecting a horror film, they are going to understandably feel like they fell for a bait-and-switch. Borderline Media, who released it, really should have done a better job of honestly conveying what it actually is. And they should have come up with a better title, because I can only imagine that a lot of people will be immediately put off by the absolute cringe of the name Screamityville. But if you understand what this is, and what you’re getting when you pick up the disc, it is honestly really cool, and very successful at what it sets out to do. This is something that I would genuinely recommend, if you want something cool that isn’t a movie to have looping on your TV during your Halloween party.
- Christopher S. Jordan