Movie Review
Hallowarrior
7/10
TLDR
Hallowarrior is a trim, effective Halloween survival story that plays more like The Road than Mad Max. Milly Shapiro gives a mad-confident lead performance, Ajani Russell is dynamite, and the gore effects rise well above the budget.
Where to watch: Streaming on Shudder and AMC+ October 16
The Facts
Synopsis: Pumpkin, the last girl on earth and sole survivor of a humanity-ending plague, scavenges the wasteland for supplies on the eve of Halloween. Her lonely holiday ritual is interrupted by the arrival of a savage gang of raiders at her doorstep led by the fearsome Thalia. Outnumbered and armed with candy, wit and weapons, Pumpkin must ferociously fight back to survive the night.
Director: Ben Sottak
Stars: Milly Shapiro, Ajani Russell, AJ Bowen, Shannyn Sossamon
Rated: Not rated (Shudder)
Running Length: 80 minutes
The Thoughts
The world ended four years ago, but nobody told Pumpkin (Milly Shapiro, Hereditary) to stop celebrating Halloween. She might be the last girl on Earth, but the candy bowl is full and the old farmhouse looks like the holiday never died. That’s the setup for Hallowarrior, a lean Halloween survival story from Shudder. It gets a big boost from Shapiro’s mad-confident lead and a dynamite supporting turn from Ajani Russell.
Early buzz has sold it as Home Alone meets Mad Max, and I see why. A kid booby-traps her house against a gang of wasteland raiders, so the comparison practically writes itself. Spend some time with Pumpkin, though, and it plays more like a Halloween-tinted The Road. It’s bleak and lonely, and far more interested in her heart than in the body count. Trim, effective and surprisingly tender, it has me signing up for whatever writer/director Ben Sottak does next.
Hallowarrior and the Last Girl on Earth
Sottak first sketched this world in his 2021 short, Scavenger, the proof of concept for this feature debut. He shows real restraint at the outset, giving the film time to sit with Pumpkin’s loneliness. She isn’t helpless, but she’s at a loss for how to cope without another human voice. So she scavenges the wasteland for supplies and keeps the holiday going all by herself.
This year, she broadcasts a message over her walkie-talkie. It’s a convenient way of doling out exposition, but it also gives Shapiro a runway, and she uses it. Speaking into the void, Pumpkin vows that if nobody shows up to her Halloween party this year, she’ll end her life. Then she gets ready anyway. She sets out the candy (the world may be ending, but there will always be candy) and readies a tub of rotten apples for bobbing. She also rewatches old home videos of her family celebrating the holiday.
Late that night, she finally gets her wish. Three strangers come knocking, and she opens the door. They’re drug-addicted and maybe cannibalistic raiders led by Thalia (Shannyn Sossamon, A Knight’s Tale), and Pumpkin regrets it almost instantly. That’s where Sottak’s script feels so right. In most horror movies, we’d be yelling “Why would she open the door?” Here, we’re thinking, “Of course she’d ask them in.”
More The Road Than Mad Max
Hallowarrior premiered at the Tribeca Festival in June, and Shudder snapped it up for its Season of Screams. Its premise is going to strike a nerve. We’re years past the lockdowns, but plenty of us remember that loneliness and the dread of an invisible threat. Pumpkin’s fixation on her family’s Halloween rituals isn’t a quirky gimmick. It’s a look at how we cling to comforting traditions to keep our sanity when the world unravels.
Horror has turned holidays against us for decades, from Black Christmas (and its 2019 remake) to April Fool’s Day to Halloween. Sottak finds a fresh angle. He takes the ultimate symbols of childhood comfort, trick-or-treating, plastic buckets and fun-size candy bars, and drops them into a world that’s completely dead. When those nostalgic relics become tools for survival, the film has something bittersweet to say about the end of innocence.
Milly Shapiro Grows Up
It’s been almost a decade since Shapiro’s unforgettable debut in Hereditary. Beyond a handful of shorts and a six-episode run on Peacock’s Hysteria!, this is her return to film. In Hallowarrior, Shapiro shows how much she’s grown as a person and as an actress, and both are impressive leaps forward. In Hereditary, she was the tragic victim of forces beyond her control. Here, she gets to be a gritty, proactive survivor who sets traps and fights back.
She’s well matched by Sossamon, who brings a menacing indie-rock-star swagger to Thalia. Going in, I knew Shapiro, Sossamon and Royce (AJ Bowen, You’re Next), and I figured they’d be the ones I’d leave thinking about. Instead, it was Wendy (Ajani Russell, Skate Kitchen), the member of Thalia’s gang who gets left to watch over Pumpkin. Russell lets Wendy change at the script’s natural pace, and the scenes she shares with Shapiro feel easy and unforced. It’s a terrific performance you believe in and care about.
Pumpkin Orange and Razorblade Red
Sottak conjures nightmarish visions of the demented crazies in Thalia’s gang. It’s the kind of detailed creativity we don’t see often enough from indie filmmakers chasing their moment in the sun. He handles the gentler moments with sensitivity, too, proving he’s comfortable outside the guts and gore. That said, the gore is a highlight. Amanda Pepin‘s special makeup effects are impressively repulsive and rise well above the limited budget, and the practical effects work nicely. Many of the most impactful shots involve injuries to the face, including razorblades to the tongue and a plastic mask melted onto the face.
Steven Jacob Russell, who also shot Scavenger, makes the whole thing gorgeous, pitting deep shadows against intense pumpkin-orange light. Pumpkin has had a few years to perfect her lighting, and the house is appropriately spooky by the time the witching hour draws near. It’s wonderful for the atmosphere, and it gives the actors an extra creepy glow as they run or hide from one another.
I especially loved the score by producer Emmajane Hoffman and Elizabeth Maniscalco, an Australian electronic artist who records as BRUX. Movies like this usually lean on ear-splitting rock that pumps up the adrenaline with bass and beats. This one follows Pumpkin’s emotions through her whole journey instead. It’s only unleashed over the closing credits, into something expected but still very satisfying, and that’s the perfect time. Hoffman, who starred in Scavenger, also produced this one, and it shows.
Keep the Porch Light On
The script is thin and simple, and in a longer movie, that would be a problem. At 80 minutes, though, it works in the film’s favor, letting the tense atmosphere do the heavy lifting. That keeps it from turning into a goofy action-horror romp and closer to bleak, raw survival. Pumpkin’s stubborn little ritual, kept alive with nobody left to share it, is the most human thing here. Hallowarrior streams on Shudder and AMC+ starting October 16, just in time for your own Halloween traditions. Leave the porch light on, but think twice about who you invite in.
The Final
The script is thin, but at 80 minutes it barely matters. Pumpkin-orange photography, impressively repulsive gore, a score that follows its heroine’s heart and a mad-confident Milly Shapiro make this a treat. Sign me up for whatever Ben Sottak does next.
7/10
Where to watch: Streaming on Shudder and AMC+ October 16
Reviewed by Joe Botten
Joe Botten is The MN Movie Man, a Twin Cities film critic writing spoiler-free reviews since 2012. He also writes for Loud and Clear Reviews, a Rotten Tomatoes approved site. Find him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
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