October 14th, 2013 
Brian Leak 
Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single day is more loved by the UTG staff than Halloween. With the arrival of October, the time has finally come to begin rolling out a plethora of features and special announcements we have prepared in celebration of our favorite day, including the one you’re about to read.
31 Days Of Halloween is a recurring daily feature that will run throughout the month of October. The hope and goal of this column is to supply every UTG reader with a daily horror (or Halloween themed) movie recommendation that is guaranteed to amplify your All Hallows’ Eve festivities. We’ll be watching every film the day it’s featured, and we hope you’ll follow along at home. If you have a suggestion, contact us and we may include your favorite scarefest in an upcoming column!
Day 14: The American Scream (2012)
The Home Haunt. You might not know the term, but if you’re lucky, you grew up in a town with one. Every Halloween, it was trick or treating destination number one. Maybe it was a backyard landscaped with cardboard gravestones and the sickly sweet smell of a cheap fog machine, or the dark house where your mail carrier donned a witch costume and dipped your hands into bowls of peeled grape eyeballs and cold linguine intestines. For me, it was hiding my eyes behind splayed fingers just long enough to claim the king-sized candy bar prize at the other end. Michael Stevenson’s documentary, The American Scream, chronicles a home haunt in the small town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts – a home haunt so impressive, it has spawned a slew of others in the same neighborhood.
The film begins with its protagonist, home haunter Victor Bariteau just thirty days away from Halloween night. With his stress level, you might think he was thirty seconds away from marching on Normandy Beach. Victor is a perfectionist, and his haunt is his life. With a straight face, he asks, “if you can see it in anybody’s backyard, then what’s the point in coming to mine?” Though he maintains computer servers for a living, Victor’s dream is to turn his home haunt into a professional one. His house – which Victor confesses he chose first and foremost for its ideal trick or treating location – exists in a constant holding pattern as it waits for October 31. The garage, attic, and closets overflow with props, costumes, and supplies, while the basement is a workshop to develop scares bigger and better than the year before. His wife and two daughters are inevitably caught up in the process, though with varying levels of enthusiasm. This is both a source of tension and humor in the film, but ultimately unites them, as even his young children rally to do everything they can to contribute.
Victor’s passion and dedication have also proven contagious outside his family. The film’s supporting characters are in the middle of constructing their own annual haunts just blocks from Victor’s. Amazing subjects in their own rights, neighbors Manny Souza and the father-son duo of Rick and Matt Brodeur don’t meet Victor in artistry and technical prowess, but they match him shoulder to shoulder in undying enthusiasm. Rick and Matt are a real life Laurel and Hardy, their lo-fi haunt just held together with duct tape and Matt’s homemade “monster mud.” It’s impossible not to laugh as Rick and Matt repeatedly try to reinforce a toppling paper mache monster, but it’s okay, because they’re laughing too. With no professional aspirations of their own, the men are just happy to participate in their community’s unusual niche.
The countdown to Halloween shows off the doc’s structural smarts, tying the audience into both the hard work and ultimate payoff of Halloween night. Hidden cameras capture scream after scream and the joyous laughs that follow, with the film’s protagonists revelling in the glory of their efforts. The stress of even Victor’s perfectionism is finally tossed aside for a few hours: “everybody’s screaming, they’re smiling – this is what I live for.” A documentary about my favorite holiday that encourages me to work my ass off and follow my dreams? It’s enough to set the Halloween spirit, even in sunny Southern California.
Editorial written by guest contributor, director Jennifer Raite
Last year’s Day 14 film: The Violent Kind
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