An 87min commercial for the Spirit Halloween stores. Shameful! They just picked one of their stores and filmed a "movie" in it. No effort whatsoever just a few stand-ins wearing their costumes and spooking a few kids around the store. Bad acting, bland characters and hardly any story. It doesn't even have that much of a Halloween style and feeling. Not much spirit and not much Halloween!

Went into the movie knowing full well what to expect, that is to say: I had no illusions that this was going to be a great movie. Now, that being said, this is not terrible, and it has the decency to be quick about getting to the end. Where the movie really suffers is in the story. There is simply too much, and at the same time too little going on. This didn't need to be more than some kids sneak into a Spirit Halloween, spooky stuff happens, the end. No, it didn't need to work in a backstory for why this is happening. Furthermore, trying to add depth by shoehorning in family drama or a coming-of-age plot just didn't work. Too many plot threads that were never needed. Another detail to keep in mind is that this is a family/kids' movie. It's rated PG-13, but I don't see why it should be more than merely PG. Maybe if I were a little kid, I'd like it more. However, as an adult, I can say that this doesn't hold a black-flame candle to _Hocus Pocus_ (1993) or _Goosebumps_ (2015). This could have been better, but the writers clearly didn't know what they were doing. I can easily imagine a superior film... maybe I'll pitch the idea to Party City.

It was a kind of campy movie. Would be good for older kids. Otherwise it was a decent ad for the spirit halloween stores.

So just finished this one, spoiler free review is this is a family-friendly film which also caters to younger audience's who no doubt will enjoy, Its not a bad movie per sae there are however other alternatives you could be watching instead, as someone best described it as a lite version of a goosebumps movie. The film has a lot going for it initially, its set in a Halloween store on Halloween, featuring Christopher Lloyd as the evil spirit with a hint of a "Stranger Thing's" feel to it now and again so it checks the boxes, it just has a lot of missed/wasted opportunities that it never fully capitalizes on, a sort of hollow misadventure. Now for the spoiler related review of what I didn't like; [spoiler] I disliked the chase through the store by Lloyd's spirit, channelling into different costumes to chase after the kids so he could possess one of them, it goes on too long and wastes too much time. At one point Lloyd has a cool evil looking character complete with a saw and a hammer but then has to go and get a more generic costume as he cant open a hatch the kids escaped down (which makes sense as he doesn't have hands, it's just wasted time though. [/spoiler] [spoiler] When Lloyd does possess the girl "Kate" only then does the store really come to life with some good visual lighting from the outside as well. It all ends too soon though, the kids just trap "Kate" who is commanding the store at this point by stringing her up with a rope foot trap, suddenly all the costumes lose their life, it's like thanks for showing up guys we need to hurry this along we're running out of film. [/spoiler] [spoiler] I liked the part where Christopher Lloyds spirit inhabits the first costume and he picks up a baseball bat and drags it along the floor menacingly, there needed to be more of that, there wasn't enough mortal danger, they could have used spiders, possessed dolls I dont know so many ideas unused. [/spoiler] [spoiler] For the most part your sitting there thinking they are trapped in a Halloween store on Halloween with a possessed and vengeful ghost, why are they not throwing the entire store at them, some more tense moments, more scares, more action, anything. I'm pretty sure the trailer showed them being chased or attacked by an evil clown which I did spot in the movie, he just didn't do anything so I might have to double check that, still again wasted potential. [/spoiler] [spoiler] The ending surprisingly touted a possible sequel which based on the mixed reviews, I'm not sure will happen, if it does I really hope it learns from this one and brings more life into the film, I'm never against seeing another Halloween themed movie or show so I do kind of hope it happens. [/spoiler] It's not a bad film, it's also not as great as it could have been either, it sits in the middle, think of it as more of a build up to the Halloween season, your mileage however may vary, to be honest at that point I would prob point you toward "The Curse of Bridge Hollow" instead.