For a week, Spirit Halloween will hit theaters before a DVD release, and… why not? It knows what it is; you know what it is. A throwback to kids’ “horror” movies of the 80s, it’s got a few jump scares, a wistful emotional arc for the lead character Jake (Donovan Colan), and a couple of former big names in small but pivotal roles. As you might expect, it’s also got a lot of product placement.
But it’s literally about a haunted Spirit Halloween store, so I kind of appreciated seeing what new yard figures they have. In case you were concerned, the shenanigans do stay away from putting the “sexy nurse” costume section in focus. Directed by first-timer David Poag, it’s mostly fun for kids and a few adults who have always secretly believed those audio-animatronic figures come to life at night.
Spirit Halloween opens with a flashback to a time long before Spirit Halloween stores existed. It’s the 1940s, and an orphanage is about to be torn down to create an industrial boom for the town. Evil land baron Alex Windsor (Christopher Lloyd) gleefully confronts the orphans to personally evict them. Unfortunately for him, the woman who runs the orphanage also has supernatural abilities, bloodlessly killing him and cursing his soul to wander the area forever.
Considering how old Lloyd is, giving him a role he can briefly cackle through and then just voice possessed dolls is a brilliant move. He does seem to have fun with it. For indeed years later, horror-obsessed middle school student Jake delves deeply into the town lore of the ghostly Windsor. Halloween is Jake’s favorite time of year, a love he shared with his deceased father.
Screenwriter Billie Bates plays all the hits for this kind of film. Mom (Rachel Leigh Cook) has remarried, so Jake has a young step-sister who ruins his hopes of a scary Halloween by just existing. His best friend Carson (Dylan Martin Frankel) can’t wait to be in high school, ready to give up trick or treating for high school parties. Waffling in between is Bo (Jaiden J. Smith), who just wants to keep the peace. Bo’s Grandma (Marla Gibbs) can definitely give kids the evil eye on Halloween, and Carson’s older sister (Marissa Reyes) hovers to be both the voice of reason and the reason Jake might be willing to grow up. It’s a harmless crush, of course, and the movie never lets that waver.
Naturally, the boys decide to have one last spooky blowout. They sneak into a Spirit Halloween store and hide until everyone’s left. For kids who watch a lot of horror movies, they sure aren’t aware of figures’ eyes following them. Creepy dolls — and Spirit Halloween has a lot of creepy dolls — show up where they shouldn’t be. Conveniently, one of Jake’s dad’s last gifts was an antique book of supernatural lore and spells.
Poag stages the action with an eye for light chills where he can. It’s competent, but not consistent. Likely there was a line the studio didn’t want to cross to let it get too scary for kids. That does mean the flow sometimes hiccups. There’s also a giant set that promises much more than it actually delivers. Suffice to say there’s a lot more to this mill town than this movie has time to explore.
There’s a meta layer to this story, of course. The villain moves his business on top of a failed one, and sure enough, the production doesn’t bother hiding that this Spirit store is in an abandoned Toys r Us. Sometimes going into a Spirit Halloween store does feel like walking on the ghosts of shoppers past. While this movie doesn’t offer anything particularly new, it’s a decent kids’ movie.
Side note: in my hometown, Spirit Halloween did move into the husk of a Toys r Us. But only for one year. Because my hometown is Sunnyvale, and the Toys r Us there was infamously haunted. I have no idea what determines what real estate Spirit Halloween uses, so I don’t know the employees found it more frightening to work there than usual, but… friends have confirmed that Spirit set up across the street the next year, and never returned. The space is now an REI.
