Scare Zone Review: A Quirky Slasher PopCorn Flick

Usually, when I’m sent low-budget indie horrors I’m quick to hide in a corner and pray no more press releases come my way but this one caught my attention. Here’s my Scare Zone review.

Shot inside a Universal Halloween Horror Nights attraction Scare Zone already steps up its levels with superb sets just dying to be used.

With three weeks of a maze out of action at the Orland Florida resort director Jon Binkowski took his opportunity to film Scare Zone and regardless of how you deconstruct this movie in any review, there’s one fact that remains.

The maze looks fantastic.

Having a Hollywood soundstage quality set as your movie backdrop is a blessing but it’s also a difficult challenge to shoot it in a certain way without damaging the set (weeks away from opening to the public) and with narrow corridors that I’m sure provided a challenge for the filmmakers.

Scare Zone has an indie editing chop to it that just works. It’s quirky, it feels like a TV movie but has a cinematic gloss that fixates my interest. It’s very difficult to describe but it works.

The cast are cheesy stereotypes with the cute busty girl, the jock, the runaway, the geeks, and the goth. They’re all involved but instead of focusing too much on character development, they’re given their costumes and into the maze they go.

Scare Zone ditches the meaty dialogue and droning on and focuses on fun mixed with epic kills and a simple story that you don’t need to dwell on as a viewer.

Grab some popcorn, disengage your brain and enjoy quite an impressive little independent horror film. 

You’re constantly interested in what is happening and for a theming guru like myself I’m admiring this scare maze tour with the lights on before the event begins.

There are so many factors to Scare Zone that go in its favour. Other films have tried shooting in a scare maze but have failed horribly to grasp my interest (watch The Tombs). But where The Tombs went horribly wrong with poor casting, direction and not utilising the set they had been given (it was shot at the London Bridge scare experience) Scare Zone ticks all of these boxes.

The cast is likeable and easy on the eye, the direction is clear and simple with a cheesy American TV-style twang and it’s lighthearted when it needs to be.

One cast member that stood out for me was Spider (played by Neil Brown Jr.) who just felt leaps and bounds ahead of the rest in terms of on-screen confidence, comedy relief and a driving force linking scenes together with ease.

Kills in Scare Zone are absolutely epic and are certainly worth watching for including a particular acid kill that made me feel a little green in the cheeks.

On paper and from the rather uninspiring trailer this film may be written off and cast aside to a bargain bucket without giving it a chance.

But trust us, watch this movie and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. 

There are moments of laugh out loud funny, the slasher element is engaging and you actually care and wonder who is under the mask slaying people within this scare zone and the practical effects are a joy to behold.

Scare Zone deserves your attention and I hope you give this little independent horror slasher a chance!