Hallowarrior review: Milly Shapiro shines in Halloween survival horror

Milly Shapiro delivers her first major screen role since Ari Aster's Hereditary in Hallowarrior, Ben Sottak's debut feature, an apocalyptic Halloween chiller described as Home Alone meets Mad Max.

The premise is lean. A disease has wiped out most of humanity. Sixteen-year-old Pumpkin, played by Shapiro, has spent the best part of four years stranded alone in her rural family home in the middle of nowhere. The classic American clapboard house has always been the perfect place to celebrate Halloween — quaint yet unsettling — and Pumpkin resolves to uphold the family tradition.

She sends a radio broadcast inviting anyone listening to celebrate spooky season with her. The message reaches "some less than wholesome types," led by Thalia, played by Shannyn Sossamon. From there, the film sets the stage, as the review puts it, "for the proverbial to hit the fan."

What makes Shapiro's performance a showcase?

Shapiro appears in almost every scene, and the role is built as quite the showcase for her. The casting works, according to the review: Pumpkin is "an intriguing presence – at once young and old."

The character's unusual duality stems directly from her circumstances. Pumpkin has had no adult guidance since the age of 12, which arrested her development in some ways. Surviving entirely on her own — being totally independent and grieving her entire family alone — has simultaneously made her unusually tough.

The review singles Shapiro out as "superb as the naive yet resilient home-defender." Her last prominent appearance was as the little sister in Hereditary, Ari Aster's 2018 horror, a debut widely remembered. Hallowarrior gives her a markedly different register: less the uncanny child, more the resourceful lone survivor.

How does the film deliver its shocks?

Sottak, making his first feature, builds the film around outlandish, Halloween-based scares. The review praises the film's "inventive shocks" and its atmospheric handling of seasonal horror. The title refers to the holiday itself, not a cheery greeting.

The structure borrows familiar siege-movie mechanics. A lone defender, an isolated house, an incoming threat, and a holiday that doubles as a trap. The Home Alone comparison signals the film's playfulness with booby-trap logic, while the Mad Max reference points to its post-collapse setting and hard-scrabble survival ethos.

Who should seek it out?

Horror audiences tracking emerging lead performances will find the clearest draw here. The review's emphasis falls on Shapiro as the reason to watch: a young actor carrying a near-solo film, four years on from a career-making supporting turn. With Shannyn Sossamon anchoring the opposition as Thalia, Hallowarrior positions itself as a seasonal programmer with a performance at its center — one that suggests Shapiro's next decade in genre film is now underway.