THE HAUNTING OF THE MURDER HOUSE

Stars: Kellan Rudnicki, Tyler Miller, Sarah Tyson, Dylane DeVane, Walter Braithwaite and Brent Downs.
Writers: Brendan Rudnicki and Kellan Rudnicki
Director: Brendan Rudnicki

Rating: ★ ★ ½

From the SEO-friendly title (which sounds like a Simpsons Halloween episode) to its outfitting of a supportive relative’s home as its key location, The Rudnicki Brother’s no-budget mash-up of found-footage tropes and slasher beats is made for the scroll-friendly depths of Roku or Tubi, those modern streaming equivalents of the weekly VHS rental shelf. And like the cheesy, underlit splatterfests that dwelled on those shelves of yore, The Haunting of the Murder House will provide giggles, gasps and groans in equal measure.

The hosts of YouTube paranormal show ‘The Otherside’, Harper (Sarah Tyson) and Kai (Tyler Miller) find their online popularity on the decline. So, with reluctant cameraman Kel (Kellan Rudnicki) along for the ride, they decide to live-stream an 8-hour lock-in at the site of a legendarily brutal crime, during which a grotesquely-masked killer clown (here we go…) slashed and stabbed his way to infamy. Now, with OB-van tech Dylan (Dylan DeVane) calling the shots, the three settle in for a night of jump scares and swearing at each other.

(A quick aside - if you get a sense of deja vu from that synopsis, you may have seen The Rudnicki’s 2019 opus, The Murder at the Suicide House, in which three ghost-hunting YouTubers spend a night at the titular estate to get the material they need to boost the popularity of their channel.)

No haunted house cliche is left unturned, with ouija boards, hidden rooms, salted pentagrams, demonic possession and night-vision cameras all getting raked over the cinematic coals. Most effectively utilised, of course, is the image and presence of ol’ bloodthirsty Bozo himself; his introduction, in which he faces off against an increasingly jittery cop (Brent Downs), is legitimately scary. A combination of flashy lighting and a punchy score makes the clown’s first reveal to the YouTubers a genuinely chilling few moments. Also shocking are the occasional leaps from shadowy atmospherics to giallo-esque gore.

And that’s the take-away after 80 minutes of The Haunting at the Murder House - much of it actually works. There will be snarky web-critics who want to tear it down (some sketchy acting and loopy plotting give them an in), but for a calling card film that indicates the creatives have a handle on filmmaking technique and storytelling craft, it is a win for the Rudnicki siblings. Their production outfit DBS Films is favouring quantity over quality at this stage (they’ve banked seven low-budgeters since 2019), but one senses there will be a time soon when that equation balances out.