‘Tis the season for scary stuff, but some fright flicks are more family-oriented than others. This one is definitely family friendly, yet it has some very effective moments of horror and especially character design. I stumbled across this movie on one of the streaming services and was piqued enough to watch and review it.
Jeff Wadlow’s film follows an urban family, the Gordons, to the small New England town of Bridge Hollow (shades of “Gilmore Girls” Stars Hollow? Perhaps.). Howard Gordon (Marlon Wayans) is a science teacher, his wife Emily (Kelly Rowland) wants to bake healthy snacks, and their daughter Sydney (Priah Ferguson) just wants to fit in at school. Instead, Sydney accidentally unleashes the spirit of Stingy Dan, the town’s local evil legend, causing all sorts of zombie mayhem just in time for Halloween. Can Sydney persuade her father that science cannot explain the creepy goings-on? And can anybody survive, or keep their teeth, after eating one of Emily’s gluten-free muffins?
As goofy, and tame, as this premise is, the film does a nice job of mixing its horrific and comedic elements. Some of the humor falls flat (like Emily’s cooking) but the material involving Sydney and her oddball new high school friends works pretty well. The family situation rings quite authentic, with its rather square father having no clue as how to relate to his teenage daughter. And the scarier elements work really well; there are some genuine moments of uneasiness as so many Halloween decorations and characters come to life. Most effective is the design of Stingy Dan once he returns to bring evil back into the world. The effects in this movie are very well done.
In an era when horror is not just suspenseful but grotesque to the nth degree, it’s rather nice to find a more traditional, clearly old-fashioned approach to scares. It may be too mild for some, and its occasional racial remarks are distasteful to some viewers. I found the film completely appropriate for this time of year. It’s nothing super special, but it’s fun for what it is. ☆ ☆ 1/2. 12 October 2024.