My Review of All Saints Eve (2015) By William S. Mayfield

Ah, the slasher genre. You either love it or your, well, wrong. Just kidding. People have been churning out slasher flicks since at least the 80's, Slumber Party Massacre, Halloween and Sleep Away Camp are just a few in an ocean of these wonderful movies. Now what is at the core of the slasher? You have a killer that uses either a elaborate killing tool, as in the mentioned Slumber Party Massacre, or as simple as a large kitchen knife as in Carpenters classic, Halloween. Then all you need is a group of teens, and sometimes, a house or camp setting. Then just sit back and wait for someone to have sex or read from a ancient book and wham, you have a slasher.

Now in 2015's ALL SAINTS EVE you get that plus more, a curse. Yes this movie starts off in the past and jumps to modern times to finish the tale. A family is accused of witchcraft all to gain some farmland. The accused puts a curse on the land with his dying breath and so our plot is born. Directed by Gerry Lively, who is mainly known for his cinematography, ALL SAINTS EVE brings together a group of actors and actresses for a romp in slasher land. Most of the cast are a collection of new comers to seasoned vets. It is written by Elizabeth Rossi who mainly has producer credits and this is her first writing gig.

Now there is a group of young people, and its also Halloween, and, of course, because of the curse there is a killer. Now some of the cast does shine and some not so much. One of the main problems I had was the lack of a constant score. There was some music but some scenes would have been a lot better if only for some back ground music. Now there was a few jump scares but they were painfully obvious. Yes the killer uses a scythe, but not to the fullest potential. There is so many wonderful ways I can think of to use a scythe in a horror movie and I feel that the writer failed to do so. Some of the acting was good but a lot of it was a little painful to watch. I understand that this is directed by someone who is not new to this game but doesn't understand the genre. All of the elements are here but something was off. Mr. Lively has been around horror movies for a lot of his career so I don't understand what happened. I give All Saints Eve a 3 out of 10.

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