The American Scream
Director: Michael Stephenson
Cast: Victor Bariteau, Matthew Brodeur, Manny Souza, Richard Brodeur
Part of: /slash Filmfestival

Plot:
The American Scream is a documentary about 3 families in a town in the USA who have given their hearts to Haunting. Every year they transform their houses into spooky places, pouring money, sweat and love into it. But as much as their passion is similar, their approaches could not be any more different and go from the perfectionist on a quasi-professional level to the guy who builds everything from the scraps he can find to the father-son duo who make everything themselves, just as best as they can – as long as their having fun with it.

The American Scream is an absolutely sweet film that was obviously made with a lot of love and respect for the people it features. It could have easily gone differently, but I’m glad it didn’t.

Having such a passion is something that most people like to make fun of. They don’t get it and their reaction to it is to ridicule it. Why spend so much money and effort on something that lasts only for an evening? But even if Haunting isn’t your passion, if you are a nerd/geek with a passion, the film will resonate deeply with you. (As somebody who just watched over 40 movies in 10 days, I know I could.)

And that’s because Michael Stephenson does get it, or if he doesn’t get it, at least he’s pretty good at showing how these people feel and see their world. He manages to communicate their passion, without leaving out a few of the downsides of such an obsession. But where other movies would have concentrated on the unusual parts of the hobby and made the people look like freaks, Stephenson makes you like and understand everybody.

Prior to reading about the movie in the festival program, I didn’t even know that Haunting was a thing at all. (Probably due to the fact that I’m from Austria and Halloween only arrived here in very small doses in the last couple of years.) But I felt like the film gave a fair impression of it.

Plus, it had not only the hands-down best score I’ve ever heard for a documentary, it was generally one of the best scores, fiction films included, that I heard in a while. Congrats, Bobby Tahouri. Congrats to the movie in general.

Summarizing: loved it.