The Haunted Trail. Terrorzone. Creep Castle. S**t Pants Creek. These are all names of amateur to semi-professionally run Halloween attractions. The documentary “Haunters” takes us inside these spooky mazes and introduces us to the folks who dedicate their time, some of them their lives, to the art of scaring the s**t out of you. God bless ‘em.
“Haunters” brings us face to face with…haunters…people who pour their blood, sweat and tears into creating the best damn Halloween attraction they can. We meet haunters from all across the country, ranging from rocker dudes who put down the guitars for a month to entertain as ghosts and ghouls, to children who take it upon themselves to transform their parents’ front yard into a spook show. And then there’s Rich Hanf. I didn’t know his name until seeing this film, but apparently a lot of either people did; people in the business of haunting. Hanf has been creating haunted attractions longer than most anyone else and is revered as an incredibly shrewd businessman when it comes to the “art” of haunting. Love him or hate him, Richard Hanf has passion and this documentary focuses a great deal of time on him and it’s understandable why, as he’s shown to be a natural showman. Richard Hanf – Captain Halloween.
Whatever these people’s stories are, they’re all shown to have tremendous passion for the holiday. And that passion definitely rubs off. Although, I’m just a bit biased. I mean, here it is, early September, and I’ve got less than a month before Halloween strikes. That’s right, less than a month. For me, Halloween is a month long holiday. I fill that time with as much spooky tomfoolery as possible, and that includes hitting all of the local haunted attractions. This documentary gives me a glimpse into the behind the scenes action of what makes my favorite holiday tick. So of course this doc is going to get me all excited. Fellow Halloweenies will find plenty to be excited in “Haunters,” as well.
