The annual Halloween Haunt, produced by BBN is a highly anticipated clip that students enjoy watching in their English classrooms. Although this year’s Haunt featured new ideas and stood out from the attempts in previous years, the product fell short in terms of creativity.
The introduction opens with a light car ride down various roads and soft jazz music playing in the background. At first, it appears to be a buildup of suspense like the beginning of a classy Oscar-worthy film. The festive Halloween party environment and the flashbacks of character Forrest hint at a beneath-the-surface level of meaning. However, when zombies enter the scene, the downward spiral begins.
The zombie invasion had a shallow plot, essentially one big violent war scene with one character dying after another. The progression of violence was predictable with the linear story, and the humorous scenes only slightly made up for it. Mr. Pefferonis’ heroic role was poorly played with a lack of emotion that did not fit in with the playful style of the others. A clichéd parting speech followed the death of every character. Without the occasional inserts of humor, the production would have completely fallen on its knees.
Fortunately, there was a deeper story unknown to most viewers. The making of the Haunt is, in fact, far more interesting than the Haunt itself. The Pho-Nomenal Five worked under conditions so stressful that even completing the production is a major accomplishment in itself. For the past few years, the Haunt has been an ambitious project requiring at least seven months of planning, filming, and editing. This year, they managed to do it in one.
“When I first took on this project, I thought it was fun, until halfway through,” said Vinh Vu (’12), who spent countless sleepless nights editing the feature. On top of time constraints, the group dealt with a slew of retakes due to inconvenient scheduling, actor requirements, and weapon regulations.
“It was a special privilege to be able to work on the Haunt, even though it was our first year [in BBN]”, said Nathan Nguyen (’12), a member of the Pho-Nomenal Five.
The 2011 BBN Halloween Haunt will forever go down in history as the product of countless hours of blood-sweat-tears, fake blood, and actual blood. No clock can measure the amount of sleep the editing crew lost in the making. Appreciate the Haunt for the story behind it and what the journey represents, not the quality of the production itself.
I thought that this year’s Haunt was the best BBN in my years here. They took a risk in doing a funny ep. instead of the usual, routine scary ep. It was humorous and witty which allowed me to enjoy it instead of, almost hiding under my desk, and closing my eyes throughout it. Keep up the good work BBN! 😀