One that…the more I watched it, the more I felt i'd seen it before…But for the life of me I cant place where or when I might have seen it. 'The American Scream' is a 2012 documentary that explores the art of the 'Haunt'. The art of transforming an everyday street home into either a haunted house, or a haunted maze or some kind of spooky 'experience'.

The documentary explores what drives average people to get into the annual tradition of making their home a spooky trip, what drives the hobbiests and the professional 'Haunt Scene', as we follow three experienced 'Haunters' from Fairhaven NJ as they prepare for their annual halloween haunt experiences.

regular readers will know im not the best at talking through 'Documentary' as a genre. So I'll keep it fairly brief. I really personally enjoyed this documentary. I found its exploration of 'The Scene' to be insightful and engaging. I loved how the film went a bit more 'multi layer' in its exploration of the people who get into this field. But also into the families of these people, how supportive or helpful they can be to keeping the dream going. and I feel like the film is very sincere in its intentions of showing the craft, warts and all for what it is.

Visually its very well put together, it all flows together well both visually and narratively, and while it takes its subjects seriously, it is also not afraid to get a little bit of humor into the mix as a nice palette cleanse to some of the more serious moments.

'The American Scream' is a fantastic Halloween Pre-gamer documentary, something that really helps to get you in the mood for 'Spooky Season' and a really solid documentary in and of itself. One I can definitely recommend, its full of likeable and memorable people, doing something that they love, and the film presents that in a considered and entertaining way. Definitely one for you 'Watchlist' this Halloween.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-american-scream-2012/