Helloween

I’ll admit, I went into *Helloween* expecting a straightforward homage to found-footage horror, but Ralston subverts that early. The first half plays like a darkly funny hangout novel—think *Super 8* meets *The Blair Witch Project*—with teens who feel real, flaws and all. Their banter is so sharp it almost distracts from the unease building in the background. Then, about a third in, the book *shifts*. The horror isn’t just in the supernatural (though there’s plenty of that); it’s in the way Ralston dismantles the idea of ‘just a movie’ as the lines between performance and survival blur. Joe Hempel’s performance is a huge part of why this works. He doesn’t just *read* the teen characters; he *embodies* them, from the wannabe auteur’s pretentious monologues to the quiet kid’s mounting panic. His delivery during the found-footage transcripts is particularly brilliant—stuttered, breathless, like you’re hearing raw, unedited terror. That said, the pacing *does* drag in the middle during some lore-heavy sections, and a few side characters feel underdeveloped (I still don’t totally get the purpose of one teen’s arc). But the finale? Worth every minute. It’s messy, brutal, and haunting in a way that lingers long after the credits roll. If you love horror that’s as much about the *making* of scares as the scares themselves, this is a must-listen—just maybe not alone in the dark.