L'Esprit d'Halloween

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.

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.

I think grown adults forget it is a show for KIDS, probably around 9 and up. That being said it was a good background movie. I had it playing while I was getting some things done. It wasn't something to write home about but good nonetheless. I even paid full attention a few times and liked making connections. Though I wished we saw more of what was being connected. I wouldn't mind seeing the history of that. The acting was so/so but I expect nothing less from a movie like this. This isn't the 90s and early 2000s anymore. Haha.

In the end I am glad I watched it at least once. I love the store and I love the fact that it pops up from no where and then pops up from no where and gets a movie!

Every classic horror movie is contrived, tropey, filled with recognizable genre cliches. I love those cliches-dumb characters, haunted houses, body snatchers, poltergeists, jump scares, creepy clowns, all of it. These are bricks to build a house, and they need concrete told hold them together.

Spirit Halloween The Movie is just the building blocks and a blueprint of a horror movie. It's not real. I can't think of a more soulless horror film. It's the bare minimum needed for a plot, character arcs, and themes, along with the typical horror tropes, yet nothing is remotely original. An hour long commercial.

I do not know how the Spirit Halloween store got a movie, but now we have Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022). The main plot to the movie sounds interesting but it is not executed in a clever way.

The main characters are standard, and the acting is not that great. Christopher Lloyd is not in the movie that much and I do not know why he is in this movie; it feels weirdly random.

The animatronics that come alive sometimes look creepy, but you can tell they are people in suits. The animatronics are barely in the movie and when the animatronics are chasing after them once in the movie, they are not used again which is a waste it is supposed to focus on this part of the story.

There are some damaging effects and there are scenes that were funny and not scary. I would have wanted more out of this plot and more of an explanation on what is happening.

I do not think I would recommend watching this. If you do the movie is short and I would hope you could find anything that would be entertaining or worth watching. I guess you can watch it for the plot, but you will not get much out of it.

Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022) had an interesting idea that could be entertaining, but it was standard and wasted potential. The acting, less use of the possessed animatronics, and the execution of the plot is what brought this movie down for me.