Spirit Halloween is a chain of stores that typically open for business in August, offering holiday costumes and decoration for rabid fans of the season and families trying to solve any outfit issues in one fell swoop. Spirit Halloween is big news these days, with the fetishization of Halloween growing more intense every year, and the company seems perfectly comfortable with jabs at it’s business model, taking over buildings previously inhabited by retail failures. “Spirit Halloween” is the first film based on the brand, emerging as seasonal entertainment for younger viewers and a commercial for the stores, pitting excitable kids against possessed inventory. Director David Poag and screenwriter Billie Bates seem to understand the creative mission, creating broad emotion and conflicts to help inspire a mildly enjoyable adventure in the “Goosebumps” tradition, keeping things relatively easygoing and mercifully short.
STARRING: Rachael Leigh Cook, Christopher Lloyd, Marla Gibbs