Haul Out the Halloween

Lets put it plain and simply, so the peolple who enjoyed it understands.. its like painting beige paint on a beige wall and watching it dry. No originality, terrible acting, basically local stage actors who will do anything for a few bucks. Not worth waisting your time on. You can just watch any hallmark film from any year and its about the same.

I was looking forward to a fun, light-hearted Halloween movie, but I lost interest within 10 minutes of the movie. It's a really awful production. I'm not sure who cared less... the actors or the writers and director. It was a cute idea but Wes was ridiculous as an over-the-top HOA president (even though I hate HOAs, he hammed it up far too much). I love Lacey but she just didn't seem into this move so there was no chemistry to be found anywhere. Every actor seemed completely disconnected from their role and the plot. Actually, I'm not sure anyone involved with the movie felt any connection. Hallmark, if you don't care about the product you put out these days, don't expect us to care either. I'm not expecting nor do I want deep and "messagy" movies from you, but don't expect me or millions of others to watch movies that you all just threw together and seemingly said "just release the movie, our viewers are stupid anyway".

There is no story, no plot, no romance, and whatever story was intended to be, I could not understand, and didn't care to. Can you imagine watching a hallmark and you can't understand the point? It was but a Lacey Chabert vehicle. "Put Lacey in it and they will come." "But boss, the story is awful." "Shut up Mimsy! Just do it!"

So many tedious dialogue filler scenes, I had to fast forward to move things along. They spoke their lines very rapidly with zero time in between lines, always trying to be clever. Every conversation was over-scripted.

What could've been a cute Halloween experience, was awful. When they finally had some sort of culminating halloween celebration at the end, it was all goofy elderly adults (plus lacey and her husband) wearing professional $1000 costumes. No kids were allowed in this neighborhood's high-falutin Halloween.

When I saw that Kimberly and Daniel were going to be in this movie I was SO excited for it. Hallmark you should've utilized the talents of these two and gave us something fresh while building the story line around them considering they are hugely known for their background in nostalgic Halloween movies. Please do more Kimberly and Daniel movies!

This third part of the Evergreen Lane franchise echoes the playfulness, warmth, and charm of the original. (I am not a fan of the Christmas sequel.)

The reference to the ancient Irish origins was a welcome surprise--though its widespread continuation, due to the Western Christian All Hallows (aka Saints) Eve thru to the festival of Dia de los Muertos (aka Day of the Dead or All Souls), was not added.

It also would have been fun to include the "new couple on the block" more since they provided such a wonderful energy during their opening scenes and could have been given their own happy subplot interacting with each favorite character in the trilogy. And what about that missing husband for our "Doctor of Arts & Crafts"?

If you're looking for fun ways to observe Halloween with friends or family, you'll find some fine ideas here. Watch this flick with the innocence of a child's heart and a smile on your face. It is reminiscent of a classic Hallmark romcom.