R.L. Stine's Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It (PG, 2007)

The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It is a very bad movie, but it's not horrible. Most of the actors did poorly, especially Alex Winzenread (Max). Even Emily Osment (Cassie), Cody Linley (Sean), and Brittany Curran (Priscilla) didn't do so great as they normally do. 13-year-old goth Cassie (Emily Osment) moves to a new town. The fact that mean girl Priscilla (Brittany Curran) humiliated her in the lunch room on her first day doesn't make things any better. But she has no idea what other things will be happening soon. One day, while walking around town, Cassie discovers a store that she's never seen before, and that apparently is only open on Halloween. She finds a book, The Evil Thing. The one thing that gives Cassie joy is terrorizing her little brother Max (Alex Winzenread). When he cuts her computer off purposely, to get revenge, she reads him The Evil Thing, ignoring the warning "DO NOT READ ALOUD." However, she catches the warning at the end: "DON'T THINK ABOUT IT." and warns Max not to, but he can't help but. And so, he (along with Priscilla and a Papa John's delivery man) is captured by the actual Evil Thing and wrapped up in a cocoon, where he is almost eaten alive by its babies. And so, it is up to Cassie and Priscilla's boyfriend, Sean (Cody Linley), to go look for them before it's too late. Not only do many characters behave badly (including the heroine), but there are plenty of adverts: a Papa John's delivery man is a somewhat central character (we also see a Papa John's logo on his car and we hear Max talking about how good the pizza is at the end), we see SpongeBob and Pokemon items in Max's bedroom several times throughout the movie, Cassie listens to her iPod when she gets home from school, and Max and Cassie mention the Berenstein Bears two times. Also, Emily Osment's music video for her song, "I Don't Think About It", is played during the end credits. Along with this, the movie is also very creepy - scary enough to earn it a PG rating. This isn't a good choice for anyone under the age of 8.