L'Esprit d'Halloween

This was much better than I was expecting or anticipating. This has all the great compliments of a great fun-filled Halloween flick for kids but has the adventure of like The Goonies. Yeah some parts are a little cheesy but it's a good kind of cheesy. Some of the animatronics coming to life can be a bit on the lower end but the story, premise, and characters aren't half bad. Like I said earlier I was expecting something not nearly as good or fleshed out. It's definitely made for kids but it can be fun for the whole family to watch on Halloween night and not get too scared but just to enjoy the vibes. It's like hocus pocus, meets the goonies, meets Scooby-Doo all wrapped into a really nice Halloween spooky adventure!

These are the consequences of IT and Stranger Things being so commercially successful. Every film studio now wants to make a "a group of goofy kids on the brink of going to high school get caught up in something spooky" film, and they always forget to add anything else remotely interesting to the movie. IT and Stranger Things work because each kid is unique in some way. They can't ALL be the annoying one. Even if I was able to look past the annoying main characters, there's not much to like about this movie. The animatronics are vastly underutilized and serve more as a commercial for the real product than an actual plot element. I'm sure if you're a kid trying to get into horror then this is slightly entertaining, similar to Goosebumps, but it feels so soulless and empty. This would've been so much better had they gone for an R rating and an older set of main characters in a legitimately high-stakes story.

My daughter and I recently watched Spirit Halloween (2022) on Shudder. The storyline revolves around a group of teenage friends who feel they've outgrown Halloween and seek a new, eerie ways to celebrate the holiday. They stumble upon a Spirit store and decide to break in, spending the night inside, unaware that an evil spirit from the town's past has taken over the store with dark intentions.

Directed by David Poag in his directorial debut, the film stars Donovan Colan (Theatre Camp), Jaiden J. Smith (Blue Bloods), Dylan Martin Frankel (Life & Beth), Marissa Reyes (A Little Family Drama), and Rachael Leigh Cook (She's All That).

The child actors in this film deliver solid performances, and it incorporates meaningful coming-of-age elements. It evokes a Stranger Things vibe in terms of relationships and perspectives. Spirit Halloween is clearly aimed at younger audiences, offering more "fun" than genuinely frightening horror. It includes some effective jump scares and well-executed CGI that adds a creepy atmosphere without going overboard. Christopher Lloyd's performance is enjoyable, and the monsters in the film are visually appealing. However, the ending falls somewhat flat.

In conclusion, Spirit Halloween is a suitable horror movie for kids who are beginning to explore the genre. I would give it a 3.5/10 and recommend watching it once.

Honestly I thought it was a good movie for what it is. This movie is meant for kids and is a gateway into the horror universe. But as someone who is older I thought the movie was good it had a group of young teenagers going through life as teens. At some points I think a little cheesy but what do expect from this kinda movie. So if you have a kid and you are thinking of introducing the to horror n movies this is a good start I would say maybe 8 and up. The only complaint I'll say is I wish we had a little bit more time in the store and it look like how the store looks like in real life with stuff like Ghostface and what and ofc it would be better with more gore.

I sat down with my 12 year old son to watch this 2022 family Halloween-themed movie titled "Spirit Halloween". I hadn't heard about the movie prior to sitting down on All Hallows' Eve to watch it, so I wasn't really sure what I was in for.

Writer Billie Bates churned out a fair enough script and plot for the movie, though "Spirit Halloween" wasn't really the most enjoyable or interesting of family Halloween-based movies out there. Sure, it was watchable, but this is hardly going to become a Halloween classic. The story was just simply too mundane.

The acting performances in the movie were fair enough. I was only familiar with Christopher Lloyd and Marla Gibbs on the entire cast list here.

The special effects in the movie were actually fair enough for a movie such as this. Not scary though, as it is a family-friendly movie.

Watchable for what it was, but you're not in for a particularly outstanding, memorable or ghoulish Halloween-based family movie here.

My rating of "Spirit Halloween" lands on a four out of ten stars.