Scream Stream 2023: Spirit Halloween The Movie

In the 1940s, a rich old man named Alec Windsor (Christopher Lloyd), attempts to evict a woman who runs an orphanage on a piece of land he wants.  But she happens to be a witch and curses Alec, who dies there on the spot.  His body is never found, and his mysterious disappearance becomes a town legend. In the present, Jake (Donovan Colan) is having a problem accepting all the change happening within is world.  His father passed away from blood cancer, his mother remarried a man with a young daughter, and his two best friends, Bo (Jaiden J. Smith) and Carson (Dylan Frankel), believe they are too old to go trick or treating on Halloween.  To placate his friends’ new desire to do something “cool” on Halloween, Jake suggests they spend the night in the Spirit Halloween store that has opened in an old, abandoned building. So, they hide out until after closing and are locked into the store when the staff leaves for the night. Unbeknownst to the trio the building is on the same spot where Alec Windsor died, and now haunts the place. As they are playing and having a good time, Alec’s spirit begins to possess the different animatronic characters famously sold at Spirit Halloween stores. Carson’s sister, Kate (Marissa Reyes), figures out where the boys are and not knowing the danger, breaks into the building through a skylight.  Lucky for the group, Jake’s dad gave him a book that tells them how they can fight the angry spirit. Can the foursome survive the night without getting killed or permanently possessed by the ghost of Alec Windsor? Watch and find out!

The performances aren’t all that bad.  Donovan Colan does a good job as Jake, a boy stuck in between childhood and becoming an adult, which is hard enough, but add in the loss of his dad and adjusting to a new stepfather and sister and you get a very angry young man who just wants things to be like they were before. Apart from the opening scene, we mainly just get Christopher Lloyd’s voice as he inhabits different animatronic characters. And at the age of 92, it is good to see Marla Gibbs still working and doing a great job as the mysterious Grandma G. The rest of the cast is all adequate.

I realize this movie tried to be the next Hocus Pocus or Goonies, but it never quite gets to that level of fun.  The story on its own is interesting and had potential but is never fully realized.  Not enough time is spent on the back story of Alec Windsor. The expositional information about Jake and his family dynamics was handled well, but the flow of the film just feels a bit rushed. The setting of a Spirit Halloween store is somewhat inspired but is not utilized to the fullest and what could have been a very atmospheric film felt like something on the Disney Channel. Only a small selection of the Spirit Stores merchandise is used, which is a shame since there has been such a great selection of hideous things over the years to have been chosen from. The movie isn’t bad, but it just isn’t that memorable or special.  There is nothing in it that makes me say “Wow”!