Filmmaker Steve Rudzinski is well practiced of the very low-budget and the very ridiculous. While this may not be the premiere example thereof, it's still a whole lot of silly fun fitting neatly into his oeuvre. Take one earnest but bumbling fool of a (human) protagonist, add feline and rodent companions that speak perfect English (to each other), and stir in perfectly (deliberately) ungenuine stunts and "effects," and voila! - 'A meowy Halloween.'
The same delightful sense of humor fills these 50 minutes as populates Rudzinski's other features, including not least 2017's 'A meowy Christmas' and its 2020 sequel. In addition to the abject inauthenticity, we're treated to puns and quips (including passing backhanded social commentary), exaggerated characters, situational humor, and some minor physical comedy. To a degree that to me seems even beyond its sister movies, 'A meowy Halloween' is also flush with plentiful, delicious referential humor - in this instance, abundant nods to various horror flicks. The latter flourishes might be the best part of the film, and they help to compensate for a few inclusions that don't quite land.
In some measure I think this feature suffers from stilted pacing that diminishes some of the humor. It, uh, took me a lot longer than 50 minutes to watch this once I first pressed "play." This is unfortunate, not least for how enjoyable the film is generally - but on the other hand, any weaknesses are well outweighed by the cheeky cleverness involved, and the earnest love of making movies that everybody demonstrates here. Though imperfect, the only intent was to have a good time with some brazen tomfoolery, and 'A meowy Halloween' ably meets that goal. The style here won't appeal to all comers, but anyone who can appreciate shoestring cinematic fare should be capably entertained. Worth a mere 50 minutes of one's time? Yeah, I think so!
