Spirit Halloween: The Movie – Film Review

When a Spirit Halloween Store opens in a deserted strip mall, three middle school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick or treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night. But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids will need to embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.

When you think of the Halloween season – what do you usually think of? Scary movies, pumpkins, trick-or-treaters, and cozy Fall weather are among the things that come to my head. That, and Spirit Halloween aka one of my favorite places to visit during this time of year. It truly never fails to bring out my inner child, walking inside and seeing all of the zany animatronics and fun props, costumes, and collectibles.

It seems as though millions of other share this same love for the store, as they have quite the following. So much so, that they now have an entire movie centered around them, appropriately titled Spirit Halloween: The Movie. I saw the trailer for this film online a while ago, and while it looked to be outrageously cheesy, I was nevertheless hoping for this to be a fun and wholesome film that would be fun for the whole family.

Unfortunately, that is not what kind of movie this is. Spirit Halloween is honestly one of the most uneventful horror films of the entire year, with perhaps the most annoying group of characters in any film released so far this year, period. Seriously. We are presented to the main group of kids in the opening few scenes, and we are supposed to relate to them and root for them, but that feels impossible seeing as how they’re all insufferably annoying.

They practically whine in every single scene, and their characters are basically non-existent. There is no depth given to any of them throughout the entire duration of the running time. I understand that this film didn’t really set out with the goal of having fleshed-out characters in the first place, instead opting to tell a more family-friendly, straight-foward tale, but it was still frustrating.

The main character in the film is still wanting to go out trick-or-treating on Halloween night, but his two buddies are insistent that they do not go this year because they are simply getting far too old to be doing it. That’s honestly the extent of their characters in this film. You may think that I’m exaggerating a little bit, but I’m not. This film really did not understand how to craft likable protagonists.

All of the “horror” elements in the film are also extremely bland and uninteresting. The most “exciting” thing that happens in this movie is when a ghostly spirit possesses one of the store’s many animatronics and proceeds to walk around and chase some of the kids. Not even that scene was all that fun, though. There are a couple of scenes where I did end up smiling and having a fun time, but they were extremely scarce.

At this time of the year, many folks are on the prowl, searching for films that they can put on and get in the Halloween mood. But I assure you that watching Spirit Halloween: The Movie is not going to put you in the Halloween mood. There are far better viewing options for you out there. This is not one of the worst horror films I’ve ever seen in my life – not by a long shot – but it’s definitely not a good one, either.

Spirit Halloween: The Movie is a painfully bland and uneventful horror film that features extremely annoying protagonists, awful writing, and a story that we’ve all seen done before countless times in the past.