Well this is in fact a real movie. I went into this hoping for something similar to early and mid 2000s Disney Channel movie but sadly this can barely even stand on its own as a full length film.
Following a group of friends all in different stages of growing up and not wanting the same childhood traditions to continue they decide to skip a party and instead break into and spend the night inside a closed Spirit Halloween store. Little do they know though that years before the ground on the store was cursed and an orb featuring the spirit of Alex Windsor would be haunting the store taking over animatronics in an attempt to gain a body to live in.
The story here is barely there really and just hangs on enough to move this film along. Its a simple possession type story that has no real hooks with it and really feels like theres nothing at stake. The kids never feel in real danger and since most the movie takes place inside what appears to be the worlds largest Spirit Halloween store we never see much. Speaking of which, for this being a clear product placement movie it feels lacking. The Spirit store feels hollow and empty and outside of the beginning we never really get shown much product wise to advertise them.
What the real issue is here though is that the film isn’t ever fun at all. Theres no cheap scares or anything suspenseful, the animatronic possessions here end up being goofy at best, and the film eventually takes itself into underground tunnels so it doesn’t even believe it can hold the movie keeping it in the store. Once the story adds one of the friends sister as the older wanna be love interest and throw in the cliched story arcs about being yourself growing up and it feels like it is just going through the motions.
While my hopes weren’t high for this I just expected better. The concept of this had so much potential and not even a brief moment of Christopher Lloyd can make this more enjoyable. While I assume the budget was super cheap for this they could have done so much more here.
Score :
1 / 5
