Haunted Heist review by Bobby Blakey
For years Rel Howery has been tearing up the industry on the big and small screen with TV series and plenty of films. Now he is taking on double duty and stepping behind the camera for his latest film Haunted Heist co-starring Tiffany Haddish, Andrew “King Bacch” Bachelor, Karlous Miller, Ari Dayan, and Brett Gelman. Could his directorial debut have the spirit to succeed, or will it be a haunting that needs to be exorcised?
Haunted Heist follows four estranged friends who reunite at a house, where one plans to find a valuable antique by robbing it. However, the haunted house's ghosts force them to overcome differences to survive.
I am a fan of both Howrey and Haddish and think the blending of horror and comedy can be great fun if handled right. It became clear early on that this was a lower budget film but that can still work so nothing against it on that front as it still looks well done. The story is set up right out the gate and given a funny opening sequence to set the tone, but sadly the rest of the film is hit and miss in the laughs.
The cast are fine and when the jokes hit, they are funny, but it seems like it is trying to rely too much on the banter and running gags instead of trying to make it something that pulls you in. Make no mistake the gags have their place, but if that is all you got then it better be damn good. The film plays almost like an escape room idea as they are running around this house with a large portion early on, mostly in the dark and hard to see.
There are moments that feel rushed just to get to the next thing and quick to accept the insanity that is going on without real concern confusion to it all. This happens more so in the halfway point when they start dealing more directly with the supernatural like they already knew stuff which just comes off silly convenient as
opposed to believable. Sure, the whole thing is silly, and you have to buy into but at least make it in a way that you can do just that.
The final act features some low-budget effects that most may think are silly, but I am a sucker for these kinds of things. Seeing what filmmakers try to pull off with the team and funds they have is always intriguing to me. Sometimes it works and others it doesn’t. Here its fine but not great but still applaud what they tried to accomplish.
I wanted to love this film, and it had the ingredients to work, but sadly it’s not nearly as funny as it wants to be. Howery did a good job with the directing and would like to see what he can do with a better script.
Decide for yourself and check out Haunted Heist available now on DVD from Sony Home Entertainment.