The Hoot Owl (2022)

Directed by Jason Rader [Other horror films: N/A] & Jason Von Godi [Other horror films: N/A]

I can’t say that much about The Hoot Owl stands out. This low-budget slasher, filmed on location in the unincorporated community of Hagansport, Texas, did feature some okay gore, but despite being just an hour and 11 minutes, it felt a bit slow, and the massacre toward the end doesn’t really make up for the build-up.

Certainly, though, it was nice to get to know the characters here. It helps that generally, the cast is strong. Katharine Franco was perhaps the most forgettable, Carl Bailey (The Lotus, Evil Under the Skin) the most shaky, especially with some of the dialogue he had. Still, Augustine Frizzell made for a fair lead, and the friendship between J.D. Brown (Late Fee, Hunters, The Cemetery, Cross Bearer, The Burnt House) and Jason Skeen (By the Devil’s Hands) felt pretty authentic. Oh, and as someone who enjoys the occasional ganja, Roger Schwermer Jr.’s character spoke to me.

Still, it wasn’t until the final 18 minutes when anything of that much interest happened. And to be fair, when the gore came along, it was decent – a man’s head was sort of torn in half with a chain, someone else’s head was lowered into a bear trap, another got impaled through the eye. There was even a rather gruesome childbirth, shown in more detail than I personally cared for, toward the end. For a lower-budget film, the gore here showed a lot of promise.

The story, though, wasn’t exactly great. It had the basics down, but as around 50 minutes of the movie is just build-up and character-building, almost entirely without anything else going on, I can’t say it was that engaging. It was fun to set the film in rural Texas; that location was on point. I don’t think it makes the rest of the film much better, though.

We did have a bit of a psychological element toward the end regarding Augustine Frizzell’s character, and while I think it could have been executed better, it was still okay. Nothing game-changing, or even that surprising, but at least it had a little flavor.

Overall, though, I don’t think The Hoot Owl is a movie that will end up being that memorable at all. For a lower-budget slasher film, it might be okay for a watch or two, but I don’t think it’ll become a cult classic anytime soon, and I definitely think it could have done some things better. Killer poster, though.

5.5/10