Spooky Night: The Spirit of Halloween review – off-the-shelf family horror

When is a Spirit Halloween store branding exercise not a Spirit Halloween store branding exercise? When it’s a film released in the UK, where Spirit Halloween stores just aren’t a thing. In the US (where this film was titled Spirit Halloween: The Movie), consumers are blessed with more than 1,500 of them, and this pre-teen Halloween yarn set in a store built over the final resting place of evil property developer Alex Windsor (Christopher Lloyd) presumably registers more immediately as an attempt to shift some All Hallows’ Eve merch.

As far as weird IP inspirations go, it’s not the worst, but it’s also far from the best. Suitable for pre-teens too young for genuine horror movies, it’s a safe watch for a family Halloween movie night, with one or two fairly creepy moments slotted in amidst the more hokey stuff. The notional plot sees a trio of best friends pondering their Halloween options now that one of their number has grown a couple of chest hairs and considers himself too old for traditional trick or treating. They opt for a night sneaking around a deserted costume store with a dark past.

Great plan, but unfortunately Windsor’s ghost is roaming about looking for souls to possess. Any Back to the Future/Addams Family fans excited to see Lloyd’s eccentric charisma back on the big screen may like to note that the vast majority of his performance is vocal: the various items he possesses are played by animatronics or guys in suits. (I’d hazard the production had maybe one session with Lloyd actually on set, which is over and done with in the pre-credits flashback.) The film does find time to build in a few nods to the greatest villain the man ever played – Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? – with little visual references to trip-hazard eyeballs, buzzsaws and mallets for hands.

Still, on this evidence, movies spun off from US retail outlets aren’t a trend to be encouraged: anyone currently in development on M&Ms World: The Movie, Ronald McDonald’s Big Day Out or The Starbucks Mysteries, please go back to the drawing board.