THE STORY – Desperate for companionship on a post apocalyptic Halloween night, the last girl on Earth gets more than she bargained for when something far more sinister arrives on her doorstep.
THE CAST – Milly Shapiro, Shannyn Sossamon, A. J. Bowen & Ajani Russell
THE TEAM – Ben Sottak (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 80 Minutes
More than almost any other film genre, horror is a great way for actors to be immortalized. Fan conventions are filled with performers who had supporting or even cameo roles in iconic horror films from decades ago, easily amassing queues of eager autograph seekers. Milly Shapiro is a name that devotees of spooky cinema will certainly recognize thanks to her supremely memorable, head-turning work in the modern classic “Hereditary,” giving a performance that’s undeniably forever imprinted on the minds of all who have watched it. Now, she’s back in another H-titled horror movie and, amazingly, it’s only her second film ever. And with “Hallowarrior,” she’s the central star, spending a significant portion of the film entirely by herself onscreen until her carefully-curated post-apocalyptic existence is punctured by the arrival of strangers. As the titular Hallowarrior – a portmanteau that’s both clunky and clever in the way that only a child could devise – Shapiro makes for a compelling icon of survival, and the film is undeniably at its best when she’s the solitary figure carrying the story.
Referred to only as “Pumpkin,” Shapiro’s character is shown to have survived some sort of infectious blight that took down the world’s crops and livestock, leading to a true apocalypse. Four years into this plague, she lives her life all alone at her family’s large farmhouse. As usual with these types of films, she’s put out a hopeless repeating emergency signal, but having never received an answer, she assumes she’s the last girl on Earth. But things aren’t all bad in her ultra-lonely existence. When we meet her, it’s the beginning of her favorite day of the year: Halloween. Despite her life being decidedly more tricks than treats, she still celebrates the holiday by decorating the absolute hell out of her house with vintage-style decorations that’ll make any Halloween-lover jealous.
Watching Pumpkin navigate her world in the film’s first act – making the best of an actually-scary existence by leaning into the fun-scary energy of Halloween – is by far the most enjoyable, fascinating part of “Hallowarrior.” Shapiro’s desperate narration and determined, trying-to-make-herself-happy energy are riveting. Plus, Pumpkin’s cozy Halloween sweater and gas mask decorated like a jack-o’-lantern make for an instantly-iconic character design that could and should lead to some excellent real world costumes.
Director Ben Sottak’s camera captures her world with a stunningly autumnal eye for beauty. Simply put, the movie looks gorgeous, showing a shockingly colorful landscape, thanks to both the seasonal tones of the setting and some truly spectacular magic hour cinematography. Sottak also focuses on unusual light sources to illuminate Pumpkin’s world, like an emphasis on the flickering candles inside carved pumpkins and the beams of her flashlight. The isolated environment she moves through is constructed in a claustrophobic way that makes viewers feel as if they’re also living in her lonesome, paranoid, sad head.
But we can’t follow Pumpkin by herself for an entire movie. About halfway through the film’s breezy 80-minute runtime, a band of intruders shows up, with both Pumpkin and this trio of survivors surprised by each other’s existence. Husband and wife Royce (AJ Bowen) and Thalia (Shannyn Sossamon) stumble into Pumpkin’s life, along with the moody, young Wendy (Ajani Russell). They seem to be decent enough, approaching Pumpkin at first with a trusting energy rather than competitive, end-of-the-world hostility. But of course, this congeniality doesn’t last forever. Bowen and Sossamon make for a realistically devilish pair, with Royce’s cynicism and Thalia’s unexpected patience making for a strange, unsettling combination of energies. Wendy is decidedly sour, always saying what’s on their mind, but Russell’s committed performance keeps the character from feeling one-note.
From here, the movie tips into something a bit more typical in the realm of survival horror, using the connection that the audience has forged with Pumpkin in the film’s opening chapter to (along with Shapiro’s winning performance) make viewers strongly root for the young girl’s triumph. Once violence enters the film, it loses a bit of its inviting, spooky season energy, and the dialogue gets decidedly more cheesy, but there are still grimly delightful moments to be found. (A nasty moment involving an eyeball is sure to evoke squeamish squeals.)
As Pumpkin puts it in the film’s opening moments, “Hallowarrior” depicts a reality where “the whole world is a haunted house.” The kind of viewer who’s likely to fire up this film on Shudder will undoubtedly feel strangely comforted by the apocalyptic October setting, especially with Milly Shapiro’s highly-relatable Halloween-obsessed creation of a character at its center. With its short length, it ultimately feels a bit more disposable than might be intended, but “Hallowarrior” is an excellent Halloweentime watch that fits in nicely with other annual seasonal viewings.
