Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022)

Alec Windsor shows up at the orphanage and tells them he’s bought the property and they need to get out.  The woman tending the orphans is a witch who curses him and he falls down dead.  

Eighty two years later, junior high students Jake, Carson and Bo have decided they’re too old for trick or treating. They see the Spirit Halloween store and decide to sneak in and spend the night. What they don’t realize is it’s on the  land where the orphanage was and Windsor’s spirit is still there.

The kids hide inside the store and once the staff leaves, they run around and hang out until one of the animatronic ghosts comes to life, possessed by Windsor’s spirit.  When they try to escape, they find there is no way out, and must fight the ghost.

Meanwhile Carson’s sister Kate has come looking for them after discovering Carson is not at either friends house. She discovers their bikes outside the store. When she can’t get in, she climbs through a door in the roof down into the store.  Except now she’s trapped as well and the four try to figure out how to stop Windsor and survive the night.

This is a kids movie.  There’s nothing really scary in it and it takes place mostly within the Spirit Halloween store.  My friend contemplated whether it was written by AI due to the flow and lack of originality. It’s not horrible, but doesn’t have the charm that other kids movies have managed to pull off, probably because it’s a promotion for a Halloween store.

The thing that struck me the most is they live in a town where they can leave their bikes unlocked, even over night.  We also questioned whether a store would have no motion detectors or video surveillance which would alert them that someone was inside. After the battle the kids fought, you’d think there would be some sort of alert. The poor worker who opens the store in the morning has to deal with picking up everything they trashed.