Hallowarrior review
A Halloween themed home invasion.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Hallowarrior
Directed by Ben Sottak
Written by Ben Sottak
Starring Milly Shapiro, Ajani Russell, Shannyn Sossamon and AJ Bowen
Hallowarrior Review
I’ve tried to take a new tactic with Shudder Originals and Exclusives. I recognize that I’ve been a little harsh at times on how similar so many of them seem to end up…quality wise. There’s excellent buzz about next week’s release The Cycle…so maybe things are about to change anyway. It didn’t save V/H/S/Mixtape from falling to the level that I’m talking about, however. That level, if you are new here, is “fine”. Shudder hasn’t been releasing bad movies. They just rarely release a good one anymore either. So, as I sat down to watch Hallowarrior, I decided to put the fact that it is a Shudder Original out of my mind. To approach it as I do any other horror release and stop fixating on the fact that I’ve written the same opening for a dozen movies this year.
The result? I thought Hallowarrior felt like a Shudder movie. I don’t take any joy in framing Shudder movies like that. But let’s be honest with each other here. Tubi has put out two more entertaining and interesting releases (R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 and Buzzkill) in the last month than Shudder has managed to in a while. Penny Lane is Dead is the highlight of Shudder’s year…and it’s a very good movie. I can’t name a second one. Hopefully The Cycle does manage to break the streak…because Hallowarrior just extended it. Maybe Shudder should call Jem Garrard.
Alright, enough of the outside the review talk for now. Let’s discuss Hallowarrior. Hallowarrior is a Halloween themed home invasion movie. It has some good performances. It has some good practical effects. And, like many of Shudder’s releases for the last year or two, something is missing. In Hallowarrior’s care…it feels like a great idea for a short film that couldn’t stretch far enough to fill its barely feature length. This is a 78 minute long movie that thankfully doesn’t try to go for 90…but probably could have stopped at 45.
That doesn’t mean that Hallowarrior is bad. As I stated, Shudder doesn’t really release bad horror movies. At least not lately…some things in 2025 might fit the bill. But they don’t release many good movies either. And Hallowarrior, like so many of Shudder’s 2026 offerings, is fine. A decent watch on an October night. It has enough stuff to keep you on board and not enough to keep you engaged. There is a difference.
Hallowarrior takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. It stars Milly Shapiro as Pumpkin…a girl who fears she might be the last person on Earth. What she has is a large collection of Halloween decorations and candy. And a crippling loneliness. Pumpkin is a great character and Shapiro plays her wonderfully. You can feel her loneliness…and her innocence/naivety throughout the story. She’s been alone for a long time and is desperate for any human contact. She radios out to the void in hopes of finding someone, anyone who will answer. Someone that she can share her candy with. Someone answers, of course. We couldn’t have a movie if they didn’t. And we couldn’t have a horror movie if the people who answered were great people.
You see where this is going. And that’s some of the problem. Pumpkin has to fend off a home invasion. That’s a decent story. It’s a fine one, in fact. But there isn’t much more to it. Sure, she finds an unlikely ally and the home invasion aspect provides some fun moments. But something is missing. Maybe a better understanding of the world outside…though keeping that at arm’s length has some merit to it. Maybe a better understanding of the people trying to take what’s hers. Though…again…there are things about secrecy that lead to a creepier result. Hallowarrior never really finds that next idea. It executes the one that it has pretty well. But the result is a fun size snack at a time of year everyone is searching for full bars. Shudder has been handing out a lot of fun size bars lately.
The Halloween aesthetic might be the most interesting thing about Hallowarrior. It gives it a look that evokes innocence surrounded by danger. It leads to a good laugh or two as well. That’s something that Hallowarrior could have used a bit more of too. In truth, it could have used a bit more of everything. Not to fill out an additional dozen minutes…to fill the 78 that it already has.
Scare Value
All that said…it comes down to the same question a lot of these Shudder releases do. Are you a Shudder subscriber? If the answer is yes, you might as well give it your 78 minutes. It’s fine. If the answer is no, just move on to whatever you were going to watch instead and check in to see if The Cycle makes a case for changing that. Maybe there’s a full sized candy bar in there after all.
2.5/5
Hallowarrior Link
Streaming on Shudder
