Movie Madness: The Haunting of the Murder House (2022)

(Available on Prime)

If you were just going by the title, would you guess this was a movie or story from a 4th grader?

A cop is investigating a noise complaint in a house (where creepy opera music is playing). He walks around carefully, and when he comes to the garage, there is a creepy clown holding a knife against the throat of a woman who looks mildly inconvenienced by the whole thing. Not for long, though, as the clown kills her. The cop shoots the clown. (Not to nitpick or anything, but maybe he should have killed the clown BEFORE he killed the bored woman?)

So of course, a group of young people searching for fame and fortune decide to have a live broadcast from the “murder house” for their YouTube channel, or whatever the kids are doing nowadays. The clown guy kidnapped and murdered a whole bunch of people in that house (when he was alive, of course) – was he possessed by a demon or just a real jerk? Their YouTube show is about paranormal stuff, so they are hoping to get some good footage!

We find out: (1) That they fake footage when nothing is happening, and (2) it is worth a bunch of money if they can keep up the viewers! We find this out over and over again, because they keep saying it over and over again.

The three young people in the house don’t seem that bright or that charismatic. At one point the camera guy sees a clown ghost (or ghost clown?) but doesn’t say anything to anyone, which seems like it may be something you should share.

When the circus peanuts hit the fan, they can’t get out of the house because it is a lock-down and they have been locked in. Why can’t the crew guy pry away the plywood from one of the windows like he did from the front door at the beginning? Not sure.

Gruesome use of a hacksaw. Cringe-inducing use of a nail on the floor – I gotta give them credit for that one.

The trope of having a ghost hunting show (where you are filming everything) where the people actually run into ghosts was new about 10 years ago, I guess, but how many of these movies can you make?

I did think the scene with the clown masks/mannequins was kinda spooky….guess I gotta give them credit for that, too.

It was still better than Scream 6.