The Curse of Bridge Hollow Review

If Netflix's Halloween family comedy "The Curse of Bridge Hollow" has anything going in its favor, it's that it's a whole lot more watchable than the streaming service's 2020 film with a similar theme, "Hubie Halloween." That doesn't make it comedic gold mind you, but I sat on my couch never hating what I was watching on my unseasonably warm Sunday mid-October.

Marlon Wayans plays Howard, who we meet driving his wife Emily (Kelly Rowland) and daughter Sydney (Priah Ferguson) to their new house. They're moving from Brooklyn to what I assume is Massachusetts, based on the license plates I saw (though a few cars didn't have front plates so I dunno), as he's the local schools new science teacher. And as a man of science, he hates Halloween and all things supernatural. That bothers Sydney, who wants to able to make her own choices, but it also has the possibility of rubbing the local townsfolks the wrong way. See, Halloween is everything to this town, with every house on every block erecting these impressively cheesy seasonal ornaments. Of course, nobody seems bothered at his prejudice towards October 31st since the film glosses over any would-be tension in favor of a script that goes straight for the special effects.

There is a refreshing lack of any prepubescent drama with Sydney, who makes friends with literally the first group of kids she sees. Ones she sees in a crypt at the cemetery, but beggars can't be choosers.

She loves the scary stuff only kids found creeping about catacombs would enjoy, and wouldn't ya know it, she just happens to have moved into the Hawthorne house. A, ahem, haunted house if rumors are to be believed, and thanks to the Ouija board app (I can only imagine the ads that app shows), she finds locked away in the attic a pumpkin head. Unfortunately to any cult horror fans, not the same one Lance Henriksen once battled, but I digress.

The pumpkin, once lit, unleashes a spirit bent on trading his soul to the devil so that he can rule the world! Soon all the decorations come alive and, well, there it is. The plot is more shallow than a grave.

I would be remiss if I said I cared- sure, normally I prefer films to make some sort of effort towards characterizations and narrative sense, but "The Curse of Bridge Hollow" goes-for-broke with an engaging energy of silliness. I never laughed, and I hardly smiled, but all the monsters and frights are decidedly cartoony, maintaining throughout the look that they were bought from the local Spirit Halloween. 

It's in the tradition of better films like 2015's "Goosebumps," and though I imagine very little kids could find this a bit too intense, it sets its sights on being a family film for children that both teenagers and adults probably won't absolutely despise watching alongside. That's a lot more difficult than it sounds, and if you'd like an example please type in "The Munsters" on the search page of your personal Netflix account. You can thank me with candy corn.