Once Upon a Time in a Haunted House (2019) Review
Once Upon a Time in a Haunted House won the Best Horror Film Award at the Academy Award Qualifying LA Shorts International Film Festival and is now an Official Selection at the HorrorHound Film Festival Weekend and a Finalist at the Hollywood HorrorFest! I’m pleased that writer director Ramone Menon’s short film is being well-received as it’s evident that a lot of work and effort has gone into ensuring this horror story has the appropriate look and mood, aided by a great score and lighting.
Where the film lacks that extra oomph is in the story department – a desperate illegal immigrant takes a job as the caregiver of a malevolent ghost at a haunted house. Its bare bones stuff split into chapters (hence the nod to storytelling in the film’s title) that feels one-note ending with little or no pay-off to reward the viewer for their time watching. The lead character Maria/Raquel (Daniella Mendoza) invites dates over to the house and they fall victim to the entity that she serves and that’s it!
There’s a maddening lack of reasoning or common sense. Why would Maria/Raquel’s nervous date stay in a house where his host refuses to talk his language, supply him with his choice of drink and who basically freaks him out? Once Upon a Time in a Haunted House is one of those flicks where an unsettled character becomes more unsettled by the appearance of feet poking out from under the curtains, and rather than run out of the front door goes and has a look instead.
Menon uses that old cliché of having the film’s bogeyman walk across the back of the frame to hopefully illicit a jump scare. I’ve never ever understood why a bogeyman would just wander across the background of a shot. Where is the bogeyman off to? To the toilet perhaps? Off to grab a light snack from the kitchen or pop outside for a smoke? Who knows? It’s one of those niggling things that crops up nonsensically in so many genre efforts that it’s become an immediate turn-off for me.