Probably this is a movie that resonates really strongly with twenty-somethings who work at historical reenactment museums or maybe citizens of Salem or possibly none of those. Geena Santiago, the star of this movie, is clearly a star ascendant, and she’s not well supported by the rest of the cast or the script.
I watched Mass Hysteria after having thrown out my shoulder sitting in an inner tube on the Russian River for too long one afternoon in October. Looking back on the whole experience, I would say that I probably would have enjoyed the trip a lot more if I hadn’t watched this movie. There are some headfakes and Edgar Wright-esque editing gags that are definitely on point, but a lot of the story that tumbles past the town of Salem being infected by tourist zombies reads like more of a sanitized Scooby Doo caper than the demographic it could have gone for, a little more mature and pop culture savvy. Now that I’m thinking of it, the colonial reenactor plot is actually quite good too.
Overall, I’m not entirely sold on the necessity or universal appeal of this small tourist town update to the Salem Witch Trials turned zombies-for-a-night film.
