The Vault

31 Days Of Horror 13

The Vault (2017)

Trailer

This is one of those “crime story intrudes on horror story” movies - a gang tries to rob a bank that was once robbed with all hostages dying in the 1980s. And it doesn’t try to hide this, with mentions of The Vault being haunted upfront. And unlike some examples of the subgenre where the crime story would be interesting itself (see From A House On Willow Street, where a gang kidnaps a rich kid and makes the ransom call... and nobody answers...) it’s a pretty generic robbery setup to get to somebody getting shot unleashing the haunting.

Not the best "crime story intrudes on horror story" I’ve seen, but like most of them it would make a good basis for a horror one-shot for something like Chronicles Of Darkness, Dead Of Night or Dread.

The haunting itself has a bit of a twist...

The assistant manager helping the robbers to keep the hostages safe is one of the ghosts, and he has his own agenda - but the twist is pretty clearly telegraphed by James Franco’s very late 70s to early 80s moustache.