Spirit Halloween: The Movie
By Brian Costello,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Tween-friendly horror has some jump scares and spookiness.
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Spirit Halloween: The Movie
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What's the Story?
In SPIRIT HALLOWEEN: THE MOVIE, Jake (Donovan Colan), Carson (Dylan Martin Frankel), and Bo (Jaiden Smith) are childhood friends who are starting to grow apart. While Carson wants to go to high school parties like his older sister, Jake still likes Star Wars and trick-or-treating. But when the high school party doesn't work out, the three decide to go to Spirit Halloween, a local Halloween store in a desolate strip mall, and hide until the store closes so they can spend the night. While their plan works, they soon get more than they bargained for when they unwittingly bring back the haunted spirit of Alec Windsor (Christopher Lloyd), a 1940s developer who was cursed by the woman who ran a school for wayward kids after Windsor purchased the property against her wishes. Now, the boys must find a way to stop all the animatronic ghosts and monsters that are determined to attack and kill them so that Windsor can take over one of their bodies to terrorize the town.
Is It Any Good?
This is a spooky coming-of-age horror-thriller with appropriate tween-level scares. Spirit Halloween: The Movie does a good job of including side stories that encompass relevant tween topics like the different rates that childhood friends grow and mature and adjusting to life in a blended family. It's a simple story about ragtag tweens taking on an evil resurrected spirit, played with gusto by the legendary Christopher Lloyd.
The acting is very good across the board, and while it doesn't rise to the level of being a great movie, Spirit Halloween: The Movie, unlike so many horror movies, doesn't try to do anything that it can't in terms of storyline and special effects. It's fun for what it is: scary but not too scary.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies like Spirit Halloween: The Movie. How does the violence here compare to that in other horror movies? Can movies be scary without graphic violence or gore? Why, or why not?
The friends start to drift apart as their interests change. Has that ever happened to you? How did you handle it?
Why are scary movies so popular? Why do you think some people like to be scared?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: September 30, 2022
- Cast: Rachel Leigh Cook , Christopher Lloyd , Marla Gibbs
- Director: David Poag
- Inclusion Information: Black actors
- Studio: Strike Back Studios
- Genre: Thriller
- Topics: High School , Middle School , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Run time: 80 minutes
- MPAA rating: PG-13
- Last updated: October 7, 2022
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