Review of Halloweentown (1998) by Genevieve R — 07 Oct 2013

What can I say about this turd of a movie? I am astounded that it had not one, but three sequels and I shudder to imagine how much more terrible they must be. The performances (even from Reynolds, a seasoned actress) were mediocre, the plot uninteresting and cliched (a witch has secret powers and has to defeat the evil guy and prove herself) and the humour is bland and cheesy. Elements of the movie seemed to be copying Mary Poppins and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Halloweentown is probably one of the lamest imaginary worlds I have ever encountered. It looks like an unfriendly, unmagical, uninteresting world where the only unique element is that everyone wears a cheap Halloween costume and has magical powers. If I were a child watching this movie, I would be insulted that they expected me to believe that the monsters in the world were real when they use such tacky costumes, makeup and special effects. The whole production is very lazy, even for a made-for-TV movie.

The only redeeming thing in this movie (which is responsible for my generous rating) was Judith Hoag's performance as Gwen Cromwell, the stubborn, unmovable and frankly bitchy mother who eerily reminded me of Aunt Petunia from Harry Potter. Hoag was able to portray the strict, controlling parent so perfectly that even after her change of heart I knew it would only be a matter of time before she would try to suppress her children's freedoms again. What a thoroughly evil character.