The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)
Halloween comes to life
Yes, October is over and this is a Halloween movie. If I’m being real, I just didn’t get around to watching this movie until today - it happens sometimes - and I spent a little too much free time tonight watching documentaries so this ended up being the best option to do unless I wanted to be up extra late writing up a review. We’ll be back to your regularly scheduled programing later on - I found a stop motion flick I’d like to check out, a sequel I didn’t know existed or was asked for, and at some point I should really rip through the Wick franchise on here - but for tonight, just bear with me. Let’s all settle in with the family and the pots of popcorn as we discover The Curse of Bridge Hollow.
I say the whole family, but technically it’s a tv-14 rating (which means that younger than 14 will apparently see things they shouldn’t, which I find somewhat funny). Our story is a classic family one for the holiday this was intended to be watched at (and not when I actually watched it) - Family moves to a new place, there’s some conflict between the parents and the kid because the kid’s whole world has been turned upside down. Of course, one parent ends up more in conflict with the kid than the other, and in turn some kind of ancient evil is unleashed and now spooky stuff is happening - like all the decorations in town coming to life. It’s up to the two to bond together and defeat the unleashed curse for the good of the town and their own family relationship. It’s kind of basic, but honestly most family flicks follow the same kind of beats, and just because the stories are so similar doesn’t mean they can’t offer their own little twists one way or another. At the very least, it gives the movie plenty of room to run with it’s jokes.
Jokes are out in force for this one, and as usual how well they lay you out is entirely dependant on just whose watching it. Some of it, like the old person looking up to see the (now alive) grim reaper prop and proclaiming “Not today!” as they hurriedly shuffle off in the other direction are low hanging fruit - it’s easy to laugh at, although in the particular example I feel like maybe the timing could have been handled a little better as it felt like he should have already seen it at least once on his way over. Other jokes, might fly over a persons head because they are a little nerdy - and some of them are more akin to the pop culture references that can be amusing but probably better for people “in the know.” To round it all out, there is a plentiful candy-bag of slapstick and physical humor as well. There’s also a running gag about vegan food tasting horrible, which is funny in-so-much as “bad cook be baking bad food” and pays off with the preacher trying some, but as someone who isn’t vegan it’s quite easy for me to not be offended by it and just enjoy it for the joke it is.
The actors do a good job here. Some of it isn’t necessarily the best acting I’ve ever seen, but everyone is totally giving it 100% of their energy on the older staffing choices. The younger crowd strikes me as probably a more fitting younger crowd - but I’m way out of touch with that group, even if (unlike the movie’s dad) I understand all of their costumes just fine. Still, I feel that there’s more energy coming from the main four or five adults than their comparative number of kid actors - but the kids do fine as far as acting quality goes regardless, and the low-energy of at least one of them feels far more intentional than accidental. Of course, the acting helps with the jokes landings, so it’s nice that they all do as good a job as they do, and it fits perfectly into the level of acting you would expect out of a family holiday themed movie.
The mayor has the entire backstory on her sweater.
Characters have that classic room for advancement in the main family. Dad has to learn to come to turns with his daughter growing up and being capable of making her decisions - but also has to overcome his fear of the unknown and to a more general extent Halloween. The fun is in how both sides of the situations are presented - there’s moments where his daughter wouldn’t be able to perform as well against the situations had she not done the things he wanted her to do like Science team and Karate, whereas her interest in things like the paranormal ends up being just as useful and she shows her own level of intelligence in helping her father combat his fears. It’s a pretty good mix in there that allows for the dad to grow more than the kid in all honesty, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing as even older folks deserve to grow over time.
Audio wise there’s plenty of mood setters and modern radio action. It’s not bad, the only one sticking around after the movie for me is AC/DC. Of course, that’s because I like them and know the song anyways, so it’s a bit cheating. That being said, the scene it takes place in is also stuck in my head thanks to someone replacing it with the music from Doom, but that’s neither here nor there for the movie itself. You hear everything well, and deliveries are well done so it works well with the jokes.
Effects work is pretty decent here. Yes, most of it is costume suits, but it’s all good in my book. The fact that they are all supposed to be decorations and props helps alleviate an effect from looking too fake, as it’s still an animated Halloween prop either way. It’s charming enough and works fine, particularly for a family flick, and there really wasn’t any major moments of me being taken out of it because of the costumes. I wouldn’t think any of it would be scary enough that it’d traumatize a younger audience, but I’m also not the one who decides on ratings or anything so someone probably knows better than me.
Father-daughter tag team, bringers and enders of stingy evil.
It’s a fun little Halloween-themed family movie. It might not go too far out the box when it comes to mixing things up, but it’s light hearted and funny in the right moments while still doing that typical family movie thing of driving home some moral or value to make people better people. It might not take over anyone’s already existing spots in the comedy or Halloween comedy top-standing charts, but there’s certainly less entertaining movies you could watch in pursuit of a good time. If you already have a Netflix account, perhaps check it out when the mood fits - doesn’t cost anything extra!