File “Natty Knocks” under that broad horror film rubric “I’ve seen worse.”

It’s basically a screenwriting exercise, “Write another ‘Halloween’ without inviting a copyright infringement claim.” That makes for an unsurprising trek through suburbia in a Town With a Dark History, a burning witch’s threat, a mass murderer who prefers makeup to masks and a baby-sitter.

Decent production values, a couple of horror icons in the cast, a couple of decent jolts, and you’re in the black — or barely in the red. I haven’t had a look at Vertical’s books.

The opening shot is the scariest one in the movie — a female figure hanging like a scarecrow.

A blonde witch is interrupted, mid-coitus, by a lynch mob. Natty Knocks (Joey Bothwell) is given a stark choice by the lady-folks — “HYPOCRITES!” she screams — of Fillmore.

“She’ll talk or she’ll burn.”

The mob shouts “Burn the witch, burn the witch” until the flames comes for Natty, screaming “I’ll wait for you in hell! as she expires.

That was back in ’76…1976. The ’70s, man. You had to be there.

Cut to 2022, Halloween’s a’coming, and a stalker is on the loose. A trio of kids “ditching” school for the day (Thomas Robie, Noen Perez and Channah Zeitung) play the “Natty Knocks” game on the wrong house. You know how it goes. Knock nine times, repeat a long chant that ends with “Hide under your bed or she’ll take off your head.”

They see the brutish killer (Bill Moseley, whose 134-credits-and-counting career includes “Repo: The Genetic Opera” and “House of 1000 Corpses”) pummeling a girl. They flee, and as they ponder telling the cops, we see that our murderer loves face-painting and movies on real celluloid (Who doesn’t?) projecting drive-in B-horror movies via an ancient Bell & Howell.

They can’t tell Mom, or let her boss (Robert Englund sans Freddy Kruger hat and gloves) know. And the baby-sitter (relative newcomer Charlotte Foountain-Jardim) is just mad that they skipped school.

How will they ensure this creep doesn’t catch-and-kill again?

The mundane complications are just as generic as the basic plot. The two siblings, played by Robie and Zeitung, are coping with a break-up of the family, the other kid (Perez) has a mother who’s been married four times and a sketchy new beau (Amit Sarin, not bad).

And the baby sitter is anxiously awaiting college acceptance, using that as an excuse to fend off her douche-bro beau just a little bit longer.

The story, after that prologue, takes too long to get going and the pacing throughout is gassed, even though it’s 12 minutes shorter than the listed IMDb running time, suggesting a longer cut existed at some point.

The violence is jarring enough. And Moseley’s as creepy as ever.

But if you’ve literally EVER seen a horror movie, you’ve seen the plot-points “Natty Knocks” borrows — all of them from 366 versions of the same film.

Still, as I said at the outset, “I’ve seen worse.”

Rating: unrated, violence, f-bombs

Cast: Bill Moseley, Charlotte Fountain-Jardim, Thomas Robie, Noen Perez, Channah Zeitung, Amit Sain, Joey Bothwell and Robert Englund.

Credits: Directed by Dwight H. Little, scripted by
Benjamin Olson. A Vertical release.

Running time: 1:34