I don’t know what I expected, but it shouldn’t have been more than what I got, honestly.
Alec Windsor is a despicable human. He recently threatened a woman to move or he would buy up her land and kick her off it anyway. That was his way of being nice, because, you see, he has already done this. Now she has to leave before sundown. However, the woman he is evicting is not an ordinary woman and she curses Alec. he plays it off laughing and starts to walk back to his car. Halfway there, he drops dead.
Flash forward from the 1940s to the current day, the day before Halloween. Three best friends, Jake, Bo, and Carson are arguing about what they should do on Halloween. Jake wants to continue the tradition they have always had of dressing up and going trick-or-treating. His friend, Carson, says they are too old and he has a different idea of something to do. After finding that there is a Spirit Halloween Store in their small town, Carson has the idea to go in before closing and then hide around the store. He wants to essentially stay in the store overnight on Halloween. They just need to tell each of their parents that they are staying at the other’s house and then find a good place to hide. Eventually, Jake relents, and the boys carry on with their plan.
After closing, and making sure the coast is clear, the boys come out of hiding and start having fun messing around in the store with all the props and costumes. Just when they start to get a little bored they find that though there isn’t anyone else in the store, it doesn’t mean they are all alone.
When I saw the image and trailer for this movie first pop up I think I may have gotten a little too excited to see it. I think I built up an image and a theme in my head that the actual movie wouldn’t be able to meet. Honestly, it’s a movie made about a brand. There was no way they were gonna cover this thing in exposed breasts, or tons of swear words, or even buckets of blood… though they might be able to spin the latter into some in-store promotion. None of that shows up here. It’s basically a kid’s horror movie.
Spirit Halloween; The Movie is kinda like the Monster Squad updated for the 2020s. Now, I know that evoking a movie that is beloved by so many might make eyes roll, but it’s true. Most kids nowadays have VASTLY different concepts of what a horror villain is and most of that is based on (sigh) memes and social media. I was just in two different Spirit stores this weekend and the array of different internet referential costumes and props was astounding. So seeing as how that is their reference to things, it makes sense that they only know horror through the lens of a cellphone or yearly trips to Spirit.
Having said all that, and taking it as it is with this in mind, the movie isn’t that bad. After having watched it and thought about it a little more, this is a movie I would probably let my ten-year-old watch. It’s not overly scary, and as I said, not a lot of swearing, blood, or any nudity. The only part that truly annoyed me about the film was the ending. It just didn’t make sense in the context of the rest of the film. Other than that, if you have young-ish kids this one is probably fine to watch. It has some humor, very light “moral lessons” and light on the rest of the horror tropes too. It was an easy first entry into the marathon, even though it wasn’t what I wanted.
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