When Halloween comes along and you want to watch Halloween-themed movies with your kids, what do you usually go for? Typically you’d want to share with your kids what you loved so much when you were a kid, right? So you’d show them It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or the Garfield Halloween special from the ’80s and maybe throw in some The Nightmare Before Christmas or E.T. for good measure. Every year new Halloween movies come out trying desperately to make it into the regular yearly rotation. Monster House is the closest movie in recent memory to really have the potential of becoming an annual tradition. This year, beloved kiddie author R.L. Stine has released a movie adaptation of one of his popular book series, in the hopes of creeping out a new generation of trick-or-treaters. After watching this, maybe Stine should stick with the novels and steer clear of movies.
11-year-old Max is a bit of a dorky kid who loves magic. He constantly practices his magic act with the hopes of winning his school’s talent show. He’s picked on by his brother Colin and his dad, who wishes he were more into sports like his brother. Max is also picked on at school by the school bully, Billy, which makes it difficult for him to work his magic on his crush Traci (Ali Lohan in her film debut). If being dorky and being into magic wasn’t enough to make poor Max the subject of ridicule, he can also apparently see ghosts. Two ghost children – a brother and sister, Nicky (Luke Benward, How to Eat Fried Worms) and Tara (Madison Pettis, The Game Plan) – show up in his house one day looking for their parents. They’ve been captured by an evil spirit named Phears who will release all of the ghosts on Halloween night. Halloween night is also the night of Max’s talent show. Can Max stop the evil that will be unleashed upon the earth?
I’m actually surprised. Written out like that, the concept doesn’t seem like such a bad one. Unfortunately, the execution ruins it. It’s difficult to think of the worst aspect of this movie because everything is equally bad.
The special effects were the first thing I noticed. The movie begins with Phears appearing in a cloud of smoke out of a statue in Max’s front yard. The glowing effect and the smoke surrounding Phears as he makes his entrance is very reminiscent of the effects in Ghostbusters. Like they didn’t use the technology that they have available. It’s not even laughably bad, it’s just plain bad.
But kids (and we should remember that they are the target audience for this movie) might not care about the effects so much. They should care about the dialogue though, and the dialogue is horrible. For example, the first time we see Max’s dad, he’s coming home from a workout and immediately begins ripping into Max for doing magic. The cliché, “Why can’t you be like your brother?” is actually uttered. The exchange between the two brothers doesn’t seem natural at any point throughout the movie. When Nicky and Tara, the two ghosts, show up, they look like they don’t know what they’re doing. They’re giggly and repeat themselves all the time. It really comes across like the director, , didn’t know how to wrangle the kids involved in the movie. No wait, not just the kids, he didn’t know what to do with anyone in the cast. Oh, and the icing on the cake is the big finale of the movie. The whole movie is building up to Phears unleashing these ghosts on the town and the havoc that will be raised. The ghosts are literally released for a grand total of two minutes, flying around looking like Ghostbusters rejects, and then they are sent away to another dimension by a chant that Max has learned. After they’re gone, Max’s dad says overenthusiastically that this has been the Best Halloween Ever!! Whaaaat? This is definitely not the best Halloween movie ever, that’s for sure.
If kids are drawn to this movie at all, it will be because of the cast. Almost all of them are from the Disney Channel. Madison Pettis has been in The Game Plan, Cory in the House, and Hanna Montana. In addition to starring in 2007’s How to Eat Fried Worms, Luke Benward also starred in the DCOM (Disney Channel Original Movie) Minutemen. Even the grown-ups are Disney. David DeLuise plays Max’s dad and is currently seen in the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place. A nearly unrecognizable Kim Rhodes, who plays Max’s mother, is also the mom on the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Even the teacher at Max’s school who encourages him along in his plight against the bullies, is played by Cheetah Girl and Dancing With the Stars alum Sabrina Ryan. Kids enjoy spotting actors who are familiar to them just as much as adults do. This is probably the strongest point of the movie.
Unfortunately, every other aspect of this movie makes it one to avoid. This is probably not the last we’ll see of R.L. Stine movies, but hopefully it will be the last of the bad ones. When Halloween rolls around next year and I’m in the mood for some spooky movies to get me in the mood for trick-or-treating, this one will not be one that makes it into my rotation. Give me Charlie Brown, Jack Skellington or Garfield any day.
This DVD gives you the option of either widescreen or fullscreen, and is presented in 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound with your choice of English, Spanish or French subtitles.
Thank goodness there were no extras on this DVD, except for a few previews before the feature: R.L. Stein’s The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (Starring Emily Osment of Soccer Mom and Tobin Bell. Yes! Jigsaw without the puzzles!), and Beethoven’s Big Break.
I was incredibly disappointed in this movie. While I really wasn’t expecting it to become a Halloween movie to watch every year, I was at least expecting it to be entertaining. Whether it be a fun guilty pleasure, or just one that my kids enjoyed and I didn’t, I wanted someone to like something about it. Nobody did. It’s just a big mess of a movie that fails on every level. That might sound harsh, but it’s the truth. Not at all recommended.
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Universal Studios presents R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Who Let the Ghosts Out?. Directed by Richard Correll. Starring Ali Lohan, Madison Pettis, Luke Benward. Written by Pat Proft, Richard Correll. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated PG. Released on DVD: September 30, 2008. Available at Amazon.
