Spirit Halloween : Dull and Never Scary
The family-friendly horror flop Spirit Halloween: The movie has unnecessarily high emotional stakes. The screenplay by Billie Bates isn't much better than the one created by David Poag, a veteran cinematographer who is now directing his first feature film. There are undoubtedly low expectations for the movie coming in, but there is a world in which an intellectual property about a little village is at least entertaining. The one saving grace is christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future, so it's a good thing he's on the cast. Spirit Halloween: The movie is, at best, a squandered opportunity and, at worst, completely pointless.
Although they all adore Halloween, Jake (Donovan Colan), Carson (Dylan Martin Frankel), and Bo (Jaiden J. Smith) can't decide how to celebrate it this year. Bo just wants to hang out with his friends while Jake is committed to trick-or-treating, Carson wants to sneek into a high school party, and Carson wants to do both. Jake and Carson disagree on what adulthood entails and feel resentment toward one another as a result. They come to an agreement and determine that having a Halloween party inside a Spirit Halloween store will be cool and eerie enough. Things start to get strange after you enter the store. A long-dead town landowner named alex Windsor (Lloyd) reappears in the store and is adamant on taking control of a body so he can reanimate. The three lads must work together with Carson's sister Kate (Marisa Reyes) to make it through the exorcism and the night.
The opening scene of Spirit Halloween: The movie shows Lloyd being cursed to death. After that, every scene is uninteresting, predictable, and empty. Although the idea is sound, the movie never approaches becoming fascinating or enjoyable. While ostensibly aimed for children, Spirit Halloween is definitely for nobody, so maybe these young actors will make it big in hollywood and Poag will work on more interesting projects.