By: JWBM
A rowdy, life-is-one-giant-joke-and-party fraternity is throwing a luau to end all luaus. The drinks are bottomless, dancing is all night, and as a safety precaution pledges are there to keep things in order for what's going to be one heck of a cleanup. Oh, right, the horror portion of it. The story throws in some secrets uncovered at the same time. Soon enough, buzzes and sex drives are squashed when some strange ghost like stuff starts to feed on the festive energy.
This is filmed as a moment-by-moment, shaky camera mockumentary with both a raw and measured take. You get a flashy feel one moment, random shenanigans over here, and then some loose shreds of a story over there with a human element for some character to character connection, and then also a supernatural side for mystery's sake. It's up to a paranoid pothead to weave back and forth from the party to research what should have stayed locked away.
The film feels like it's trying to pull the loose vibe of, say, "Dazed and Confused" meets an amateur YouTube compilation meets a haunted house experience. You get a crazy collection of hopeful, young people with little direction and more energy than they know what to do with up against an unmatched entity. It ends up coming across as a clash of tones from jumping back and forth and having little to show for itself other than a few creative ways to have fun and some skin in the mean time.
The horror portion is pushed to the wayside in order to gear up for a finale, but feels like it was thrown in as an after thought. You get your standard pop-ups and did-you-see-that CGI scares that are so vague and lazy in build up as to be more head-scratching than anything remotely terrifying or even cinematically gripping. You could watch this with the lights out, with black candles burning, and the worst-of-the-worst tarot cards laying on the coffee table and the mood still wouldn't be set with how this constantly pulls you out of it.
"Haunting on Fraternity Row" doesn't come full circle. You get characters that either suddenly flee, or die at random with little fight. It desperately tries to be diverting with your typical, brainless college age revelers, but never ends up overcoming its superficial characters and story that doesn't require a second thought as soon as the credits roll.
Rating: 2/10
Director: Brant Sersen (Blackballed; Sanatorium)
Actors: Jacob Artist, Ashton Moio, Shanley Caswell, Molly Tarlov
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: YouTube link
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