The Night Before Halloween

When a prank inadvertently kills someone, a group of friends attempting to get away with the crime find themselves stalked one year later by a strange being that's part of a curse against them and they must find a way to stop the deadly creature from taking them all out.

This here turned out to be quite a problematic offering. The vast majority of the problems with this one lies in the fact that there's just not a whole lot of work done here to make the main group likable enough to follow them. The concept of their initial prank is so ludicrous and stupid that it really boggles the mind what it was supposed to accomplish, and then to top it off the idea of them abandoning the whole affair in light of the accident the way they do so here by actually figuring on letting a friend die instead of trying to save her merely to save themselves makes them out as utterly despicable and deplorable so that they deserve the fate that befalls them. How easily they get coerced into going along with it isn't all that much better, and the fact that it almost lets them get away with the accident when a simple matter of innocent explanation all could've saved themselves the trouble and kept themselves from revealing what could've happened would have made the story hold together a lot stronger. There's also the fact that the film here presents itself as such an utter cliché in the manner of how the creature goes about being unleashed against the group which doesn't make any sense why they would need to carry out a dangerous action here in order to let the creature get involved. As well as some typically spotty CGI used in the concept of the flies, these here are what really hold this back even with a few rather decent elements. One of the stronger parts to this one is the actual attack scenes which are some of the most fun and enjoyable parts of this one with the opening prank resulting in a frantic chase down the streets trying to stop them, their first encounter in the hospital room where the creature assembles as flies to confront them in the vicinity of the bedridden-witness and the stellar scenes in the parking lot where they get arrested only to get confronted by the creature again and leads into the crazy encounter at the police station which is a strong highlight series of confrontations here. Even the fun scenes in the later half, detailing their battle in the warehouse that's quite detailed and much more action-packed than anything else in the film while managing to fill in the blanks of one of the biggest unresolved plot-points so far and becomes a spectacular twist ending as well. These here really manage to hold this one up although a vast majority of it's flaws do hold it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Sure, this 2016 horror movie, from writer and director Sheldon Wilson, was one that I had never heard bout when I sat down to watch it. But with it being a horror movie, then I needed no persuasion to check it out, given my love of all things horror.

The storyline in the movie made zero sense, but it proved to be entertaining enough in terms of being a horror movie. I can't fully comprehend what writer and director Sheldon Wilson was thinking here when penning the script for the movie.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which is actually something I do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. And I will say that the acting performances were fair.

The special effects in the movie were okay. I mean, whenever the swarm of flies or insects was seen, it looked good, but whenever you had a single or few flies on the screen it was pretty terrible CGI.

"The Night Before Halloween" is suitable for a single viewing, but doesn't have the contents to support more than just that one single viewing. Would I recommend this movie to horror fans? Well, sure, if you are a newcomer to the genre, but if you're a life-long horror fan, nah, the movie just doesn't bring anything exciting or new to the genre.

My rating of writer and director Sheldon Wilson's 2016 movie "The Night Before Halloween" lands on a generous five out of ten stars.

It's ok, but slow and confusing kinda tbh. Wouldn't watch it again. Stupid ending too

Scyfy doesn't do horror very often and on the rare occasion they do they don't have the habit of producing anything even remotely watchable.

Bailee Madison stars in this messy little tale which though has an explained concept (As terrible as it is) it doesn't explain itself beyond that and leaves it to the viewer to fill in the blanks.

Poorly made, terribly paced, with forgettable characters and few redeeming features this paint by numbers effort isn't terrible it's just simply not very good either.

A decent enough (Though inevitable) twist near the end saved it a point or two but even that should have been handled better.

If they make a sequel (Which is teased though I doubt it'll ever happen) I just hope everyone packs bug spray and those annoying sticky yellow tape things that catch flies! That would make the movie at least comical.

Move along, nothing to see here

I'm not going to lie-the acting was pretty good, and the movie was alright. It was a bit entertaining, but I still didn't really understand where the "game of the bees" originated, why it started, or what the motives were. I wish there had been more explanation or depth to that part. Maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention. Overall, it's an okay film. You don't lose anything by watching another silly horror movie. So go ahead-don't always rely on critics. Be your own critic.

I think this movie needed a bit more depth when it comes to the curse-how it started, who created it, and why it chose that specific method of killing. It wasn't particularly scary, but it did show how friendship and love can take a dark turn between the characters. And of course, it's always ironic that it all happens on Halloween-apparently the devil's favorite playtime.

Like I said before, it's an okay film and worth a watch.