HALLOWEEN SPOOKIES is the rarest of rarities: an amateur production that is wonderfully watchable! Dustin Mills and Dave Parker have already made their own movies before but this time they made a Halloween movie geared specifically for kids; however, this here adult enjoyed the hell out of it!
HALLOWEEN SPOOKIES is an anthology film with three individual stories contained inside a wraparound sequence. The wraparound features two witches introducing each segment while stirring their cauldron and, while obviously filmed in someone's kitchen, manages to still provide good performances. That goes for the whole movie! Friends and relatives seem to populate the cast but, despite this fact, seem to deliver damn good acting jobs. Even the kids in the first story -- "The Babysitter" -- are wonderfully capable little actors (and child actors are NOT number one on my hit parade normally).
The stories are written, directed and shot alternately by either Dustin Mills or Dave Parker and are uniformly entertaining while the cast is damn charming as well. There is no new ground broken here but the execution of each story is always immensely enjoyable to watch! "The Babysitter" features two kids and their babysitter coming back from trick-or-treating to encounter an evil clown. Second tale "The Messenger" finds a man who encounters a "messenger of death" and the third story finds a couple nerds conjuring up a few demons to terrorize a Halloween party. This sequence features some wonderful demon puppets by Dave Parker reminiscent of his previous "film for grownups" SLIMY LITTLE BASTARDS and is probably my favourite of the three stories.
The whole film HALLOWEEN SPOOKIES is such a hoot to watch and comes in at just a little over an hour in length. The true spirit of Halloween inhabits every frame and, despite the amateur origins, shows enough of wit, talent and charm to make it one of my yearly Halloween rewatches. Messrs Mills and Parker, congratulations on a great Halloween family film!
