When you decide to make a movie based on perhaps the biggest chain of Halloween superstores in America, you immediately run the risk of a 90-minute long, glorified advertisement for over-priced costumes and holiday decorations. However, there is also a chance that you might be able to create something that captures the kitsch along with the culture so that what you end up with is a quirky homage to a holiday staple. Director David Poag has tried to accomplish just that with Spirit Halloween: The Movie, and for the most part, he’s surprisingly successful.
Anyone with a pulse who has driven past a strip mall in late September over the last few years knows that with the changing leaves, so too comes the arrival of Spirit Halloween. The stores, which are nothing more than corporately run costume shops, pop up in previously abandoned store fronts (the Victoria’s Secret Spirit Halloween is particularly hellishly delightful) for a few short months each year to peddle costumes and Halloween décor, and because Halloween is currently having A Moment amongst the general population, people flock to these spooky megastores in droves.
The experience of shopping in a Spirit Halloween is unique. Since the stores are designed to literally appear overnight, they have a no-frills aesthetic that often makes the shopping experience feel like you’re wandering through the final days of a going-out-of-business sale at K-Mart. Costumes and decorations hang from precarious-looking black shelving units and slatwall, and if you wait until the last minute to shop, these shelves look dismally bare. Perhaps the most iconic feature of a Spirit Halloween though is its elaborate display of animatronic figures. Typically, these freaky abominations greet you immediately upon entering the store, and as you walk around the display, large buttons on the floor invite you to press them to bring said abominations to life. Hardcore Spirit Halloween goers will recognize yearly staples like the “Nightcrawler” and “Buzzsaw” who repeatedly go off, filling the store with their horrible, canned laughter and groans.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie gets its shine from this subject matter. The film tells the story of three 8th grade boys who are about to start high school the following year. Jake (Donovan Colan) is arguably the most sentimental of the three, struggling to adjust to the death of his father and the addition of a new stepfather and stepsister into his daily life. He is a monster-obsessed teen who holds a special place in his heart for Halloween (it was his and his dad’s favorite holiday), and he looks forward to trick-or-treating with his friends every year. But when his buddy Carson (Dylan Martin Frankel) reveals he would rather go to a local high school party than spend the evening gathering candy from the neighbors, tensions arise in the group. Desperate to prove that he isn’t unwilling to grow up, Jake proposes a plan to sneak into the local Spirit Halloween (which delightfully exists in what appears to be an abandoned Toys “R” Us storefront) and spend the night locked inside. Unbeknownst to them, this particular Spirit Halloween just happens to be built directly on top of the site where Alex Windsor (Christopher Lloyd, seriously), local spooky legend, met his demise long ago. Seeing his opportunity to finally inhabit a human body, Windsor sets out to possess the boys, who now must use their smarts to survive until morning amongst the store’s many polyester costumes and plastic pumpkin buckets.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie gets its inspiration from other popular family-friendly Halloween films that came before it. Movies like Disney’s delightful Halloweentown and Fred Dekker’s classic, Monster Squad clearly make up the DNA of Poag’s film. The plot of Spirit Halloween: The Movie isn’t complex or even that gory (not a single ounce of blood is shed throughout), but it does succeed at injecting the viewer with a certain nostalgic Halloween feel. Shots of tackily decorated suburban lawns and children dressed up in costume (most likely all for sale at a local Spirit Halloween near you!) pepper the film and give it a decidedly autumnal vibe. What it lacks in gore, it more than makes up for in spirit (pun intended). The acting is also nowhere near as cheesy as one would expect from a film of this nature. Frankel is convincingly both boyish and saccharine in his portrayal of Jake, and the trio’s friend Bo is brought to life by Jaiden Smith (no, not Jaden Smith) who gives the character punchy smarts clever enough for an episode of Stranger Things. Marissa Reyes who plays Carson’s older sister and Jake’s crush Kate is also a blast to watch as she perfectly encapsulates the uninterested air of a teenage girl while still remaining likeable.
While the film definitely does riff on the merchandise that can be purchased at a Spirit Halloween, it never really feels like it’s shoving its products down the viewer’s throat. When Alex Windsor begins to possess the bodies of the various animatronic figures throughout the store, the reaction is more one of delightful recognition than eye-rolling consumerist dread. After all, who hasn’t wanted to see the large Buzzsaw butcher man with a large mallet and circular saw for hands actually come to life? The effect feels more like an inside joke for Spirit Halloween goers rather than a ploy to sell more product, even though at least a few Buzzsaw butchers will be bought solely because of this movie alone.
Ultimately, Spirit Halloween: The Movie does the unexpected by managing to draw attention to all the details that make shopping at a Spirit Halloween unique without being too self-indulgent. The result is a movie that is surprisingly fun even if it’s simplistic, and families are sure to get a kick out of this tribute to one of Halloween’s greatest cultural monuments.
Photo courtesy of Strike Back Studios
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