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Has anyone ever really stayed the night in a Spirit Halloween store? But not just any store. One built on or near cursed ground that may be haunted? I don’t know, but that’s the basic premise for Spirit Halloween: The Movie, and this review explains why it’s not a perfect family movie, but it is a fun one with a lot of heart.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie Synopsis
When a Spirit Halloween Store opens in a deserted strip mall, three middle school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick or treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night. But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids will need to embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie Overview
The first thing that impressed me when I started watching Spirit Halloween: The Movie was Strike Back Studios. Specifically, their opening logo. Which, I’m not even sure that’s the correct terminology for it. Blumhouse has a cool one too. This was my first time viewing a Strike Back Studios film, so their moving logo made an impression on me. A good one that put me in a favorable frame of mind.
As far as the movie goes, it incorporates as many standard horror movie elements as it can, starting with Alec Windsor (Christopher Lloyd), a Scrooge-like rich man who owns most of the property in the town, including the land the Sacred Hearts Home for Wayward Children is built on. The movie opens in the past with him arriving and delivering the final notice to the woman running the orphanage—who happens to be a witch and curses him when he laughs at her plea for leniency.
Needless to say, the curse works. Windsor drops dead, but fast forward to the present. Out of that encounter, the Legend of Alex Windsor was born. Apparently, his body was never found. Now every Halloween he seeks out new property to possess —but rather than grass and soil, he’s in the market for a flesh and blood person to occupy.
Unbeknownst to friends Jake (Donovan Cole), Carson (Dylan Martin Frankel), and Bo (Jaiden J. Smith), the building where the Spirit Halloween store opens in their town is directly on the site of the former orphanage and Windsor’s death spot. But even if they had known, it just would’ve made their mission that much more of an adventure.
As it is, it’s pretty thrilling. In his quest to possess one of the boys, they discover Windsor can also bring inanimate objects —like the merchandise in the store— to life. From a creepy animatronic gypsy to a haunted doll, to Teddykins the bear and the nightmare-inducing Nightcrawler prop, Windsor terrorizes the boys in his quest to regain life in mortal form.
But the boys don’t have to battle Windsor alone. With the help of Carson’s sister Kate (Marissa Reyes) and Jake’s mom Sue (Rachel Leigh Cook), the boys realize that together they have what it takes to face every challenge life throws at them, whether that’s losing a parent, growing up, or standing up to an evil ghost.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie Rating & Review
Besides witches and curses from which legends spring, other popular horror movie tropes abound in Spirit Halloween: The Movie. There’s even a bit of a Goonies element when the boys and Kate find a cavern under the store with a mysterious house.
Which made for an over-the-top addition that, while fun, wasn’t really necessary. It didn’t add anything to the plot, which was fairly predictable. You won’t see anything new in this movie that you haven’t seen in dozens of others before.
However, its message is good, and it does have a lot of heart. Life is hard, and not always as we imagine or hope it will be. But if you have good friends you can count on in good times or bad, you’ll make it through.
It also has laughs sure to please kids, including fart jokes. Because what movie with pre-teen boys would be complete without those?
Spirit Halloween: The Movie isn’t the scary horror movie I hoped it would be. However, it’s good for audiences just beginning to cut their teeth on the genre. I give it a solid three out of five skulls.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie Trailer
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What’s your favorite family-friendly Halloween movie?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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Good review! It sounds like a nice diversion for awhile even if it wasn’t particularly scary. One of my favorite family-friendly Halloween movies is Scooby Doo, the movie… though I don’t think it took place at Halloween, so I’ve failed this question.:-(
LOL! It is not possible to fail a question when it involves Scooby Doo. I gladly accept your answer!