SPOOKY HOUSE (2002)

 "HELP I HAVE TO PEE I HAVE TO PEE!"

  Now, I haven't seen everything writer/director Williams Sachs has ever done but this must be the best thing he's ever done.  GALAXINA and THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN have their charms and, for we horror nuts, hold a special place in our hearts.  But SPOOKY HOUSE out charms them all. 

A perfect Halloween movie for the kids that won't make the adults roll their eyes and suppress projectile vomiting, SPOOKY HOUSE really is 'fun for the whole family'.  Taking place before and during Halloween, the film starts with a flashback to a magician named Zamboni the Great (Ben Kingsley) performing with his assistant/wife Dawn Starr (Carmen Moore).  While Zamboni performs his patter, Dawn Starr is raised up above the stage inside a giant star.  There is a bigger-than-expected bang and, when Zamboni goes to make her materialize, Dawn is no there.  After the disappearance, Zamboni is suspected of murdering his wife but, without any evidence or corpus delicti, what can one do?  Flash forward 11 years later and Zamboni is living in the 'Spooky House' in town and is known as the 'Spooky Man' that kids (and pretty much all the townspeople) avoid. 

Wearing his glued-on mustache and turban, Zamboni walks his beautiful black jaguar Shadow on a golden chain.  A group of neighbourhood kids are hassled by the three town bullies who are being used by 'Madame Boss' (Mercedes Ruehl) to commit petty crimes.  Among these crimes is the kidnapping of one of the kid's pet goat 'Princess'.  When searching for the goat, the kids find her (really, him) grazing in the Spooky House yard.  Startled, Princess climbs through a basement window causing the children to follow inside where they discover magical artifacts galore among the many spooky rooms.  Zamboni, behind the walls, scares the kids away -- all except the youngest Max (Matt Weinberg) who is more intrigued than scared and has a conversation with the grumpy magician.  Despite Zamboni's long-standing hatred of children, Max slowing grows on the magician.  Soon, Zamboni and the kids join forces against the Boss and her bullies.  

Loaded with Halloween atmosphere, beautifully shot with spectacular sets in the 'Spooky House', I can see myself watching this EVERY October!  I am sooooooooooo not a fan of child actors (as I've said ad nauseum on this blog) but here is another example of kids that are not sickening sweet but behave like real kids.  I actually like them!  As I said before, the film is a fun watch for adults as well as kids.  It doesn't hurt to have not one but TWO Oscar winners heading the cast either.  It's not a perfect film; the use of some early-2000s pop songs does not help at all and actually take you out of the Halloween atmosphere so expertly conjured in the rest of the movie.  Thankfully, these songs are infrequent but they ARE rather insipid.  Not bad enough to ruin the movie, though.  Also, the movie goes on a little too long and the denouement does drag quite a bit.  I've never, ever heard of this film until this year; which is really odd since pretty much all of the ratings I've seen give this 3 1/2 to 4 stars.  How can I never have heard of this film in the last 20 years?!?!?!  It's beyond me.  But I've heard of it now.  And seen it.  And it's great fun.