Horror Movie Review: One Night In October (2019)

One Night in October is billed as an anthology but if you didn’t know that going in, you’d probably find yourself confused and annoyed. Confused and annoyed as the three parts cut back and forth across the film’s length with no connecting story. Instead the three stories are supposed to taking place on the same night.

Written and directed by Christopher M. Carter, story number one (they don’t have individual names) is a home invasion story. One with a very familiar twist.

A group of thieves break into a woman’s home (Jessica Morgan) and plan to rob her but unfortunately for them she’s a bit psychotic. The tables are turned and suddenly it’s the thieves who are fighting for their lives.

Plot wise, this has been done to death and here we get nothing new to chow down on. However, it’s a decent story as Jessica Morgan has some fun when she’s in killer mode and the blood and gore effects hold up nicely.

The second story is a dull one, particularly in how it ends. A group of teens go wandering in a cornfield when they shouldn’t be and end up suffering the wrath of a scarecrow. When the action gets going, it’s entertaining enough if not really familiar. However, it stutters and runs out of gas right when it should be getting good.

The third story surrounds Emma (Rachel Netherton) and Dominic (Nathan O. Miller). They seem to love each other but something is keeping them apart.

This is the best of three as the two main characters have great chemistry. Enough so that it’s easy to root for them to get together. The slow reveal over the film’s run-time of just what is going on between them is effective and it leads to a smart but bloody conclusion.

As good as the third story is, it can’t make up for the issues  with the first and second sadly. Although most of them relate to the ‘seen it all before’ plots rather than poor acting or bad filming. This does mean One Night in October is not a recommended watch. However, if you do fancy a watch, you’ll certainly get a kick out of some of it.