Spirit Halloween: The Movie

Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022)

Runtime: 87 minutes

Directed by: David Poag

Starring: A bunch of random kid actors, plus familiar faces Christopher Lloyd, Marla Gibbs, and… my bae Rachael Leigh Cook

From: A few companies I’ve never heard of before

The things I watch for fandom… indeed, the main reason why I watched this was that it features someone I stan, Rachael Leigh Cook. What a surprise earlier in the year when on Twitter a link to an article by Bloody Disgusting was posted and it just mentioned it “starred” Christopher Lloyd. I read that article and what a shock it was to me to see it also had one of my favorites. Then later, a trailer was released and the general reaction was as if it farted in church! Despite the rotten reception, of course I would still watch this. After all, I’ve said elsewhere that there should be more horror films for the younger crowd as a gateway to develop fandom for more adult fare a few years later. And I don’t mean the presumed dreck on the Disney Channel.

Incidentally, from another website I’ve come to understand that those not in North America probably don’t know what Spirit Halloween even is and are flabbergasted to hear that it’s a pop-up store which operates in abandoned buildings (such as old Toys “R” Us stores, furniture stores, drug stores, or what have you) and the entire concept of these stores being around each September & October has been a meme since even before they made this film. As people from all corners of the globe follow me on Letterboxd-which will never not be astounding-this needed to be addressed.

As for the movie itself… it’s a silly infomercial for the chain and is filled w/ the expected cliché drama yet at least I could laugh that the plot was “Christopher Lloyd is an evil SOB who is killed by a witch’s curse so the spot he died on currently is land occupied by a Spirit Halloween store… three middle schoolers decide to spend the night there as a dare… Lloyd’s spirit inhabits various animatronics in the store to terrorize the kids… oh, and for some reason below the store is a GIANT CAVE.” The WTF aspects at least amused me. You only see Lloyd in the opening scene although he voices the various items, including a giant teddy bear. Marla Gibbs of all people appears for a few scenes but much to my delight, Rachael’s role was larger than expected.

It's easy to nitpick this-for example, there’s a fart joke-yet at least for me, this was inoffensive and not as horrible as I was led to believe. It’s not something I’ll watch again but I’m sure this will be fine entertainment if you’re the same age as the lead characters. It was nice to see the expected holiday bric-a-brac throughout in what seemed like a charming town… in fact, it’s so nice that children still trick or treat without being accompanied by their parents. I’ll happily admit the average rating is perhaps generous on my part because of my personal tastes yet if you do happen to watch this w/ your family in the future, at least it’s only 73 minutes until the end credits.