A man who has faked being an exorcist for years, swindling people out of money while not actually doing much beyond providing a placebo for their issues finds himself faced with a real possession case and must rise to the occasion or move on from his career.
It’s surprising that “The Halloween that Almost Wasn’t” has managed to become something of a mini-cult classic over the years. It was a TV movie that was almost lost to time, and once reclaimed, has survived thanks to nostalgia. The TV movie was much before my time, so I don’t have any real sentimentality directed toward it. In either case, ”The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t” isn’t the best Halloween special, but it has its heart in the right place, even through the cheesy final scene.
“What is your pleasure, sir?”
Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” is a purely body horror tale about hedonism in its purest and most raw essence. Even today it’s a very erotic, but gruesome tale about the pursuit of pleasures of the flesh and how it links to a breed of entities that may or may not be pure evil. “Demons to some, Angels to others” Pinhead (technically named “Hellpriest”) proclaims is a representation of the how the cenobites reach deep down in to the pits of sexuality and kink. And no human can ever really be prepared to see what the practices of this otherworld army has in store for them.
I always get a kick out of Washington Irving’s story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. And I always get a kick out of movies that put a little twist on the formula. “The Haunted Pumpkin” is a short but sweet Halloween tale that takes the whole Headless Horseman story and brings it in to the modern age; the animators and writers insert a little bit of hijinks, and some comedy in what is basically embracing the tale of the Headless Horseman to an effective degree.
“A Tale of Two Witches” is a weird special in that it involves Mickey telling the story that becomes the center of the entire short. There’s no reason why we have to keep jumping back and forth from Mickey telling Pluto the story, and getting to the story. I don’t know why this couldn’t have been just a stand alone Halloween tale. In either case, “A Tale of Two Witches” is a fun and simple Halloween special that has a good time celebrating the holiday.
I’m quite surprised that the Muppets have never really been about Halloween in all their time on screen. They’ve mostly been about Christmas and Thanksgiving which is a shame, because they’re fitted well for the holiday. I’d love it if the Henson company allowed for yearly Halloween specials, but at this point it’s probably wishful thinking. Nonetheless, “Muppets Haunted Mansion” does a good job mixing the Disney attraction with the Muppets.
It truly pains me to see that “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” is a genuinely terrible movie, in spite of its best intentions. I love “Spirit Halloween,” I love the whole spirit of their stores, and their charity work, but “The Movie” is a misfire on all cylinders. It’s a boring, poorly concocted adventure film that, shocking enough, doesn’t know how to utilize the Spirit Halloween setting all that well at all. The best way to describe “Spirit Halloween: The Movie” is that, at best, it feels like mid-tier straight to video fodder from Charles Band circa 1994. Even the script feels retro-fitted from probably a screenplay that was finished in the late 90’s.