Zombieland: Double Tap

Today I went to see “Zombieland: Double Tap,” which came out two weeks ago, and I will let you know what I thought about it. A lot has happened since the first “Zombieland,” the violent funny zombie flick, came out.

Emma Stone is an Academy Award winner. Abaigail Breslin is no longer a kid. Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg – let’s just say that Harrelson still brings his everything in every movie he’s casted in, and Eisenberg continues to concentrate in playing, as Richard Roeper describes, “fast-talking geeks trying to keep up with their mile-a-minute brains.”

People have also been obsessed with zombie movies and TV shows, including that handful of satirical ones. This makes it very difficult for “Zombieland: Double Tap” to create something fresh and new – and honestly, the task is rarely seen. Roeper said, “Save for a few moments of brain-splattering inspiration here and there, much of this tale has a “been there, killed that” vibe. Even some of the zombies look like they’re going through the motions.”

Roeper continued, “And yet “Double Tap” just made it over the fence from two and a half to three stars in my book, mostly because of how much fun it is to see the four stars from the original reunited onscreen as a dysfunctional family of sorts who are so consumed with working through their various issues, the zombies are often nothing more than annoying distractions.” Everyone kills it, but Emma Stone particularly kills with a harshly perfected, funny and engaging performance as the bellicose and sarcastic Wichita, who is fearless when it comes to killing zombies, but scared when it comes to making a commitment to settling down.

We continue the story in real time, a decade after what happened in the original film, with hordes of zombies still on the loose while a small group of humans do everything they can to survive.

Jesse Eisenberg’s Columbus, Woody Harrelson’s Tallahassee, Emma Stone’s Wichita and Abigail Breslin’s Little Rock are living comfortably and safely in the White House, with Columbus telling the audience in voice-over narration it’s the happiest he’s ever been, including before the zombie apocalypse. He’s madly in love with Wichita, while the serious Tallahassee has really become like a father figure to Little Rock.

However, Columbus isn’t the only one who is impatient. Tallahassee really wants to go out on his own again. Little Rock has just turned 18 and really wants to leave the nest and be with someone her own age. Wichita feels trapped with Columbus, especially after he proposes to her.

Wichita and Little Rock leave in the middle of the night. Columbus and Tallahassee go out to find them. Roeper said, “We’re back on the road, which means an influx of cheerfully gruesome zombie-kill moments, self-referential pop culture comedy, and new supporting characters, including Rosario Dawson as a strong survivor and potential love interest for Tallahassee; Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch as zombie-hunting partners who are almost mirror images of Tallahassee and Columbus, and Zoey Deutch as Madison, a stereotypical idiot blonde straight out of a Z-grade mid-1980s rip-off of “Valley Girl.””

Every time Madison appears, we’re really cheering for the zombies.

Spoiler alert: When the movie ends, you’ll want to stay for a mid-credit and post-credit scene with Bill Murray.

That’s all I’ll say. If you’re a fan of the first movie, then you’ll want to see the sequel. You’ll have a nice, fun, enjoyable, laughing time watching it. It may not be as good as the first, but I say it’s definitely one to see around Halloween day. Make sure to check it out because you will love it.

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope that everyone enjoyed my reviews and hopefully all of you have seen the movies that I have recommended. Make sure to dress up in your costumes, go out and get as much candy, watch some Halloween related movies, and overall, just have a fun, safe time out there tonight.

Stay tuned tomorrow for when I pick back up with my Friday reviews for next month.

Child's Play (2019)

There are horror icons: Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Norman Bates, Leatherface, the members of the high class that have immediate recognition, even to non-horror fans. And below them are the lower class that includes those like Pinhead and Pumpkinhead and the Tall Man, and, obviously, Chucky. The doll villain of the “Child’s Play” series that had a lot of box office success over the course of seven films over 20 years that, undeniably, here comes the remake, which came out in June.

The franchise maker, Don Mancini, and Brad Dourif, the voice of Chucky in every installment are not here because they’re working on their own TV series, continuing from the original series, which causes the story to make a reboot. Chucky the Good Guys doll is now Chucky the Buddi electronic toy: Same design, but instead of being infected and animated by the soul of a serieal killer, he’s given evil intentions by a rascal AI. Richard Whittaker said in his review, “That's explained in an awkward – and quite possibly a little racist – opening sequence in which a disgruntled employee in a Vietnamese sweatshop turns off his safety protocols.” Once he comes to lonely American kid Andy, played by Gabriel Bateman, this killer doll has already been returned to the store by one family – the smartest people in the film – for malfunctioning. Basically, Andy’s mom Karen (Audrey Plaza, bravely trying to give the action some volume and failing) simply blackmails her boss (Amro Majzoub) into letting her keep the damaged toy as a birthday present for her son.

Bad idea! Buddies aren’t only dolls. They’re also a walking, talking Alexa, a learning AI that can also control every electronic and bond with their owner. Once this damaged toy, voiced by Mark Hamill, bonds with Andy, he’ll do anything for his friend. Whittaker said, “Anything (stares pointedly at carving knife).”

Whittaker continued, “When in one of the first acts a major, supposedly sympathetic character commits extortion, that's a bad sign.” Actually, this indicates the direction the remake is going in. None of this is Chucky’s fault. Between the factory worker, and seeing that Andy is kind of a jerk, he gets some bad writing. Whittaker said, “That decision to make Chucky a victim of society never really works. Frankenstein's benighted monster, he ain't.”

Whittaker continued, “Aimed squarely at the late-night Friday night crowd, in its own right Child's Play 2019 is unexceptional. It's got a few laughs and a few decent kills, a couple of them even moderately innovative; but Andy works out Chucky is alive early in the bloody proceedings and starts covering up his crimes, while still supposedly being the likable one. Not only that, but he drags in his own Scooby Gang – Falyn (Kitsos), Pugg (Consiglio), and Omar (Kazadi) – in some misguided attempt to evoke Stranger Things.” Any commentary on how dangerous smart electronics, even digital observation looks like a random extra. Whittaker noted, “Similarly, any critique of end-stage capitalism and must-have toy culture was done better by Jingle All the Way. Worst of all, its mix of horror and comedy never walks the tightrope of shrieking absurdism that the originals did at their peak (and it's easy to forget that they started as a straight horror franchise). Instead, it ends up with the off-putting mean-spiritedness of late-era Charles Band, the king of 2000s straight-to-video exploitation.”

Where does this “Child’s Play” end up in the countless remakes nobody wanted? Whittaker said, “While not as obnoxiously and needlessly revisionist as last year's vile Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, it'll kill an hour and a few brain cells for anyone that doesn't know the original, and irritate fans of Mancini's chilling original.” For them, this Chucky can be thrown in the same garbage disposal as any other horror remake nobody talks about again.

I don’t understand why they didn’t decide to make a sequel to “Cult of Chucky,” seeing how that ended off great. I liked the direction that film went and would have welcomed another sequel following that, seeing how it was the only one in the franchise that I enjoyed. However, we instead get this sorry excuse of a remake that I will highly recommend to those who (unfortunately) liked the original, don’t watch the remake. Unless you want to see how good Mark Hamill is as the voice of Chucky, there’s nothing really likable about this film.

Alright, now that I have reviewed that sorry remake, look out tomorrow to see what I will finish this year’s “Halloween Month” off with.

Joker

My friend and I went out and saw the new “Joker” movie, which came out almost four weeks ago, so I will let everyone know what I thought about this.

Todd Phillips will always be remembered with this stylish, bitter and instinctive movie, which is set in Gotham City in the early 80’s that clarifies about how the depressed Arthur Fleck, creepily played by Joaquin Phoenix, became the DC villain that we all know from the Batman franchise.

Arthur, who has a condition that makes him laugh spontaneously during tense situations, is a punching bag of a society tarnished by money and power. Tortured from intense childhood abuses, he works by performing in parties as a clown or holding store signs on the streets. He lives with his mother, Penny (Frances Conroy), a weak woman who ironically calls him Happy and lives obsessed with Thomas Wayne (Brett Cullen), her affluent former boss who is now running for mayor. The latter’s son is the young Bruce Wayne, played by Dante Pereira-Olson, who will become Batman in the future so he can avenge the death of his parents and fight the crime in the streets.

Heavily medicated to treat mental illness, Arthur wants to become a standup comedian, which is hard with his condition. Filipe Freitas said in his review, “He is an innocent victim of a bleak world and is wounded both in the heart and in the head. It’s so, so weird to see one of the saddest persons in the world cackling without control whenever in trouble. It has a disquieting effect. The bitter circumstances of life deteriorate his fragile state to the point of making him commit murder and feel good with it. It’s his instinctive and emotionless response to a poisonous society, the dangerous chant of the displaced and the dispossessed.” The wicked act has the support of the crime people of Gotham, who starts a riot against the corrupt system.

Freitas said, “Arthur’s creepy side makes him unpredictable and his tortuous mind has lots of room for imagination.” With a killer stare and that wide smile in his face, he premeditates his next step: take down Murray Franklin, played by Robert De Niro, the popular host of a talk show who is part of his downfall by making fun of him on his show.

Freitas noted, “Simultaneously gripping and unsettling, Joker is a win for Todd Phillips, an unremarkable director until now, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver (The Fighter; 8 Mile) and had dedicated his directorial career to comedies such as the Hangover trilogy (2009, 2011, 2013) and War Dogs (2016). Without a hint of hesitation, he injects mordantly funny moments among the torrents of sadness and makes the film thrive both as a noir drama and a clever psychological thriller.” Embodying deep in his role, Phoenix was the main person required to make everyone see the human pain behind the Joker’s evil.

This was not what I was expecting when I went to see this movie tonight. Phoenix wins the creepiest performance this year. This film is not part of the DC Extended Universe, but they might try to insert it in later on, which I doubt if they continue to cast Jared Leto in the role. However, Phoenix’s laugh did sound like Mark Hamill’s Joker laugh, which I believe was an influence for this role. I don’t think this performance is one of the best ones for the Joker, but it’s still a good one. If you’re afraid of clowns, this is not one to see, but if you aren’t afraid and are a fan of Joker, this one is a must to see, especially for the Halloween time. This one fits with the creepy time of the year.

Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review. Look out to see what I will end this year’s “Halloween Month” with.

Leprechaun Returns

Now we come to something new, one that borrows a page from last year’s “Halloween.” “Leprechaun Returns,” released on TV in 2018, like “Halloween,” is a direct sequel to the original “Leprechaun,” ignoring all of the previous sequels before. Rather than taking place in the Hood with Ice-T or in space, the leprechaun, this time played by Linden Porco, has spent the last twenty or so years rotting down that well. He finally comes back when an eco-friendly sorority decides that the rundown house and well are the perfect place for their environmental sorority house. When newest member Lila (Taylor Spreitler) arrives with Ozzie (Mark Holton), the leprechaun finds the perfect way out of the well and soon begins hunting the girls and their friends, as he once again is looking for his pot of gold.

What made 2018’s “Halloween” as great as a direct sequel, which cleaned the slate on the other versions, was that it greatly included the original heroine again. “Leprechaun Returns” didn’t get Jennifer Aniston back in here, so sadly we get the confusing ‘daughter of,’ a trope that was used in a lot in horror sequels around the time of the original “Leprechaun.” Kat Hughes said in her review, “The buzz around the Halloween direct sequel paid off, but here it feels like a really cheap hook, and one that you wouldn’t really miss unless you have seen the first film.” There also included Ozzie, but he’s sort of being a ‘hey he’s back from the first movie,’ his role could be any other character.

Hughes noted, “Leprechaun, which is included with the DVD for Leprechaun Returns, wasn’t the most solid of movies to begin with, and the sequel falls even further from perfection.” It also goes in a very different direction. The first one was a comedy horror, and despite the same could be said for this sequel, it’s way more of a gruesome movie. Hughes said, “The first film was rather anaemic, but here blood gushes freely with nearly all of the deaths featuring bucket-loads of the red stuff. The original had a rather limited kill count, here it’s a more standard slasher affair with almost all characters perishing in more and more absurd ways. We get someone split in two by a solar panel, someone water-sprinkled to death, and an idiot who clearly went to the ‘Rickon Stark school of evading’ whom seemingly allows himself to get taken down by a drone. And did we mention a game of charades with a ghost? That pushes Leprechaun Returns firmly into jumping the shark territory, and certainly won’t keep Wayne’s World’s Garth up at night.”

What really aggravates about “Leprechaun Returns” is the unwanted and outdated trust on misogynistic jokes. For some reason the leprechaun has suddenly become a huge desirable predator. He’s seen watching one of the girls in the shower, and later says that she has ‘chest of talent,’ the same girl smacks him across his face and he replies, ‘you give great head.’ The girls themselves aren’t the intelligent and independent sisters you would want for today’s times, and each of them instead is a clichéd trope. There’s the bossy one (Sai Bennet), the alcoholic (Emily Reid), and the girl (Pepi Sonuga) who keeps sleeping with the boy (Ben McGregor) she broke up with, just because. Characters also change traits constantly, with one character (Ben McGregor) that has been nice and friendly to Lila suddenly taking a photo of her getting out of the shower and saying it’s going up on social media. It’s confusing and hard to put together whether we should be cheering for the girls or the leprechaun, as both sides are unacceptable.

Hughes is right when she said, “A sorry sequel that limps to its conclusion, Leprechaun Returns is a confused and outdated muddle of a movie.” Just like the leprechaun, you’ll really want to look for gold, but will end up with nothing but weak lead.

Despite that I like the idea that they finally decided to make a direct sequel to a film as opposed to constantly changing the story that you could watch these out of order, just like the rest of the franchise, this one is just garbage. How can anyone really like this franchise, especially since Porco doesn’t stop with the weak rhymes and riddles that he constantly spews? Like I have said with the rest of the franchise, avoid this film and all the others because I don’t find this funny or entertaining, as I didn’t laugh at anything.

Now that I have got that out of the way, look out on Thursday for the finale of this year’s “Halloween Month.”

The Boxtrolls

Sheila O’Malley started her review by saying, “When I was a kid I saw both David Lean's "Oliver Twist" and Carol Reed's "Oliver!," and then promptly spent a summer plowing my way through Dickens' book, which I hadn't read, hoping to step into the fantasy launched by those films. After that, any story involving orphans held a huge appeal, and if it also took place in Victorian-era England, well, even better. It was a fantasy that lasted for years. "The Boxtrolls," the latest film from the Oregon-based stop-motion studio LAIKA (who brought us "Coraline" and "ParaNorman"), reminded me of getting lost in those vividly told and sometimes awful stories of children going up against a cruel adult universe.”

“The Boxtrolls,” released in 2014, co-directed by Graham Annable and Anthony Stacchi, has darkness to it – in the images and in its themes – a darkness that is really existential in nature. It’s actually heavy stuff for children, but children have been craving for “heavy stuff” since stories for children were made. O’Malley stated, “What "The Boxtrolls" does is create an entire hierarchical world, with strict rules governing that structure, and it introduces us to a cast of eccentric and often grotesque characters who live and breathe in that fetid air.” It’s beautifully inventive, amazingly funny, and splendid to look at; the screen sometimes consisted of overwhelming detail. The world “The Boxtrolls” gives us is one both strange and familiar: a town that exists in some type of combined unconscious with its narrow streets, huge Main Square, shaking mansions and slippery alleyways. O’Malley noted, “It's out of a fairy tale; it's medieval Europe; it's Dickens or the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet.”

Based loosely on Here Be Monsters, the 2005 novel by Alan Snow, “The Boxtrolls” takes place in a city called Cheesebridge, balanced insecurely on the slopes of a dagger-shaped mountain. The town loves cheese. Cheese is this town’s version of owning a fully-loaded sports car. If you can afford to have tasting parties where you offer the latest Brie, you know you have made it.

Lord Portley-Rind, voiced by Richard Harris' son, Jared Harris (who you might remember from "Mad Men"), is the Mayor of Cheesebridge and owner of a “white hat” (the symbol of being a noble). He has a small red-haired daughter named Winnie, voiced by Elle Fanning. The scared silly people of Cheesebridge have been taught, through rumor and scary bedtime stories, that the Boxtrolls, little beings who come out at night and go through the trash, are going to threaten the town, steal their children, and eat them. O’Malley is right when comparing, “It is Cheesebridge's version of The Bogeyman.”

O’Malley continued, “At night, the "Snatchers", led by the snaggletoothed and bulbous-bellied Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), come out, trolling the streets looking for Boxtrolls.” The mission is to expunge the entire Boxtroll population. Archibald Snatcher is dishonest, and all he wants to do is give up his “red hat” (lower-status) and join the “white hats.” That selfish reason makes him do awful awful acts. He is joined by a dreadful trio of helpers: Mr. Gristle (Tracy Morgan), Mr. Pickles (Richard Ayoade) and Mr. Trout (Nick Frost). Mr. Gristle laughs with sociopathic delight at thinking of expunging the Boxtrolls and is really expressively dull he can only repeat the last word of whatever was said to him. However, Mr. Pickles and Mr. Trout are in the middle of a continuing crisis of principles. At first, they believe they are on the side of law and order; they are the “good guys.” Increasingly, though, they’re not so sure, and they try to comfort one another with unsuccessful supportive statements.

Meanwhile, we see the Boxtrolls. The Boxtroll home is a beautifully-imagined area: a huge cave, packed with found objects, gears, light bulbs and toasters; things thrown away by the Cheesebridge residents. The Boxtrolls speak, but we don’t understand their language, and there are no subtitles. The Boxtrolls exist as amazing evidence of the amount of power and precision of pantomime. O’Malley said, “They babble and gurgle to one another, and we understand every word.” In the Boxtrolls is a little boy named Eggs, voiced by Isaac Hempstead Wright, probably named that because that was the word on the box he wears like a huge sweater. Eggs’ Boxtroll mentor is a nice, worried little being named Fish, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, who looks strangely like Abe Vigoda (probably referencing a movie). The two play music together, they are friends, Eggs has always lived with the Boxtrolls and he thinks he is a Boxtroll.

O’Malley mentioned, “LAIKA has outdone itself in its imagining of this complex world.” There’s a ballroom dance in Lord Portley-Rind’s mansion that has to be seen to know. Sometimes, we see it from Winnie’s point of view, the big leaping skirts at her eye level flying by her, and other times, the camera circles up to look down on the flying colorful couples. The streets of Cheesebridge are abrupt and winding, with secluded streetlights having trouble shining their light through the blue shade. O’Malley said, “There is a gigantic bouncing cheese wheel, catapulting itself down the slopes like some engine of doom and destruction, both hilarious and scary. After a night of scavenging, the Boxtrolls stack themselves into a sleeping formation, and, overhead, the bare lightbulbs they have hung from the dirt ceiling turn their lair into a place of wonder and magic. These images have great emotional resonance. The details of the costumes are amazing, the frayed stitching on Snatcher's waistcoat, the tiered ruffles of Winnie's pink dress, the gleaming ridiculous badges sewn onto the front of Portley-Rind's coat. The images do not have a modern gleam, they are not slick. They feel slightly tattered, hand-made, deteriorating.”

Without being informative, “The Boxtrolls” shows the dangers of a hierarchical society, separated from high-status and low, and also has some very interesting and moving things to say about identity, family, and morality. O’Malley said, “There is a suggestion that a moral compass exists on its own, whether it has been nurtured in us or not.” Critical thinking skills means you look around and estimate reality based on what is being shown. O’Malley said, “The residents of Cheesebridge, drowning in myth, rumor, and the comfort of intermittent mob violence against the Boxtrolls, are unable to do that.” However, Winnie slowly sees she has been lied to forever. She is able to see her world and see that the way things are set up is wrong and unfair.

“The Boxtrolls” is a beautiful example of the possible in LAIKA’s stop-motion approach, and the images onscreen are physical and covered. However, as always, it’s the story that really matters, and the story told here is funny, ugly, emotional and true.

As always, if you’re a fan of stop-motion and liked everything that LAIKA had done with their other movies, this one is actually a very good one to see. It’s actually nice that something came out with an original idea as opposed to making a sequel, reboot, adaptation or some kind of movie that has been told to death. I thoroughly found myself enjoying this movie because it was a lot of fun and I think everyone will enjoy it as well.

Look out next week to see what garbage I will be ending off “Halloween Month” with.

Frankenweenie

In 1984, Tim Burton started his career with a live-action short named “Frankenweenie,” and he came back with that material for the 2012 “Frankenweenie,” a stop-motion, black-and-white animated comedy inspired by “The Bride of Frankenstein” and so many other classic horror film where science has gone insane.

Roger Ebert said in his review, “The story takes place in a familiar Burtonesque world of characters with balloon heads, saucer eyes and pretzel limbs. Seeing them in b&w only underlines their grotesquerie, and indeed the whole story benefits from the absence of color, because this is a stark world without many soothing tones. Burton uses a stop-motion animation method employing puppets, and I learn from Variety that he employed "about 33 animators working to produce five seconds of film per week apiece." Amazing that such a lively film took such laborious piecework.”

The story is about young Victor Frankenstein, voiced by Charlie Tahan, and his dog Sparky, who is, as Ebert described, “not nearly as smart as Uggie the dog in "The Artist."” Sparky is one of those dogs who is really loving and wants to please, but Victor loves him and is shattered when Sparky runs into the street and is blindsided by a car. Victor buries his best friend under a sad tombstone in one of those horror graveyards where you think flowers would be in black-and-white even if the movie wasn’t.

Victor’s science teacher is Mr. Rzykruski, voiced by Martin Landau, who, as Ebert describes, “Looks and sounds like an elongated Vincent Price. If you wonder how his voice can sound elongated, apply here.” The next day at school he gives the students an assignment where they apply electrical charges to the nerves of dead frogs, which makes their legs twitch. Ebert admits, “This brought back strong memories of my own frog dissections. When you make a list of things you learned in school and have never needed to use since, don't forget the dead frogs.”

Victor is a science-loving boy with a weird laboratory up in the attic, which looks two times larger than the suburban house he shares with his parents, voiced by Catherine O’Hara and Martin Short. The frogs inspire him to go back to the graveyard and bring back Sparky into the attic – where, yes, after a few stitches and patches, Victor is able to resurrect him with a nice lightning bolt. Ebert notes, “It must be said that the newly energized Sparky has much the same manic personality as the dog in the original version, although like your cellphone, he sometimes needs to be recharged.” His tail or an ear falls off when gets really excited, but overall he stays together very well.

Victor becomes crazy with hiding the revived dog from his parents. When you think why some kids are bored in the suburbs, it has to be because of the overpowering rule of parents like Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein. Given that they’ve had to live with that name, undeniably they’re not wanting to have it known that Victor has resurrected his dog – especially not since he used lightning bolts just as in the making of the Bride of Frankenstein. It’s the type of thing the town will be scared over.

However, the rumor goes around and soon all the children in Victor’s class are using high-voltage electricity to their own dead animals, and even a seahorse. Ebert said, “This leads to events at a town parade equal to anything you've seen in a Japanese monster movie.”

This isn’t one of Burton’s best, but it has obsessive energy. It might have been too gruesome for kids long ago, but current kids, they’ve seen it all, and the love of a boy and his dog keeps its demand. Ebert ended his review by saying, “I only hope that young Victor doesn't let Sparky lie out in the sun for too long.”

I’m going to be honest; this isn’t one of my favorite Burton movies. He has made better movies, and this one is definitely one of his weirdest. If that’s what you like, you can check this one out. However, this is up to you if you want to check it out. I like how it actually is inspired by the Frankenstein novel and past movies, but it does get very weird. Like I said, if you watch it, there’s nothing wrong with that. Not like this is a waste of time, there are some good things in it.

Check out Friday to see what I have in store for everyone. It’s a current animated film that I actually think is a nice one for this year’s “Halloween Month.”

ParaNorman

From the creators of “Coraline,” but not having that 2009 film’s interestingly chilling, gentle touch, “ParaNorman,” released in 2012, is an entertaining but only restlessly involving animated adventure about an 11-year-old boy with the ability to communicate with the dead – and the living.

With its technically confident stop-motion animation and capable synopsis, the film, co-directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, had the creation of something more significant, but it lacked with story and character development.

Michael Rechtshaffen said in his review, “There should still be enough going on to engage both the stop-motion and zombie-flick aficionado, but the unmistakable Tim Burton-Henry Selick vibe likely will be too intense for younger viewers.”

Set in the ghostly town of Blithe Hollow, whose tourist-attraction self-important rights hang on it being the site of a 300-year-old witch hunt, “ParaNorman” focuses the clairvoyant talents of boy Norman Babcock, voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, whose ability to speak with its dead residents has him labeled as a freak.

Sharing that look is his disturbed dad (Jeff Garlin) and small-minded older sister (Anna Kendrick), who are scared over Norman liking to watch TV with the ghost of his grandmother (Elaine Stritch).

More encouraging is his eccentric, homeless uncle Prenderghast, voiced by John Goodman, who sees in the wide-eyed kid a family spirit – and the only one who’ll be able to prevent a stubborn witch’s curse from creating all sorts of frights, starting with the zombies of the founding fathers.

Rechtshaffen mentioned, “Wry touches abound, from the retro titles onward, but though the filmmakers have said that they were going for a “John Carpenter meets John Hughes” vibe, those diverse styles never quite come together.”

However, more difficult than making a combining tone and sticking with it is the failure of Butler’s script to give his characters (mainly those walking-dead elders) enough to do and creative ways of making them.

Rechtshaffen ended his review by saying, “Although the 3D element doesn’t really enhance all that much, Laika Studios’ distinctive stop-motion technique makes for notably fluid, jerk-free, detailed animation that continues to introduce fresh, intriguing possibilities to the venerable Ray Harryhausen model.”

Overall, I think that this movie is very well done and something that the whole family can sit around watching around Halloween time. Especially for those who are interested in the dead and zombies, especially with the whole zombie craze that’s been going around lately with the popularity of “The Walking Dead,” which I have never seen. However, if you’re a fan of this studio’s work, definitely pick this one up, and have a scare of a time.

Now hold on tight everyone because next Monday will be a movie that is definitely from the weird mind of a popular director, which I will look at next in this year’s “Halloween Month.”