The Night Before Halloween (2016) Reviews

• The Night Before Halloween: Terrible premise, terrible execution

  Platypuschow2017-07-30

  Scyfy doesn't do horror very often and on the rare occasion they do they don't have the habit of producing anything even remotely watchable. Bailee Madison stars in this messy little tale which though has an explained concept (As terrible as it is) it doesn't explain itself beyond that and leaves it to the viewer to fill in the blanks. Poorly made, terribly paced, with forgettable characters and few redeeming features this paint by numbers effort isn't terrible it's just simply not very good either. A decent enough (Though inevitable) twist near the end saved it a point or two but even that should have been handled better. If they make a sequel (Which is teased though I doubt it'll ever happen) I just hope everyone packs bug spray and those annoying sticky yellow tape things that catch flies! That would make the movie at least comical. Move along, nothing to see here

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• Stupid poorly executed nonsense

  William_Henry_Pratt2016-10-29

  I don't know if executives bother to read scripts anymore. How could this film have gotten green-lit? The characters are half dimensional, the story doesn't make any sense, everything happens very conveniently for the plot to unfold in a tired, uninteresting, and convoluted way. No tension, no suspense, nothing of real interest at all. Lots of misplaced jump scares, yet the film has absolutely no atmosphere which is essential for a horror film. I give credit to the actors for doing what they could with an exceptionally poorly executed, amateurish script. The dialogue is ridiculously bad. The worst part is that there is no catalyst to invoke the villain, who as it turns out is not very scary at all. SyFy has got to pick up their game. This is garbage. Junk like this plays better on some YouTube channel.

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• convoluted curse business

  SnoopyStyle2017-10-28

  It's the night before Halloween. Lindsay (Kiana Madeira) invites her friends over. Their other friends Kyle (Jahmil French) and Adam (Justin Kelly) are not there. Wyatt (Alex Harrouch) is killed. It's actually a prank. Megan (Bailee Madison) is scared but Beth (Natalie Ganzhorn) is unconscious after hitting her head. Megan wants to call an ambulance but the others refuse. Kyle goes crazy secretly under The Curse of the Carver. They abandon Beth in the streets to be picked up by the ambulance. Kyle leaves a message explaining the curse and is later killed at midnight. Detective Burke (Anthony Lemke) investigates. One year later, Megan receives a call from Beth despite her being in a coma. The others return to town after similar calls. It's a convoluted curse and I'm not sure about the fine print. Abandoning Beth in the streets doesn't make sense for most of the characters. It's a lot of teenage stupidity to swallow. The plot is so swiss cheese that I'm not sure which is an actual plot hole. There are lots of conveniences and bad turns. This could have worked as a prank gone wrong or these teens getting cursed. The ongoing curse idea is tiresome which is worst than simply tired. Jumping a year ahead necessitates a lot of questionable plot. The fly monster is intriguing but also presents plenty of questionable logic. This is generally bad.

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• A prank is just part of a curse.

  michaelRokeefe2017-03-17

  Sheldon Wilson writes/directs for the Syfy Channel this creepy bit of horror. The night before Halloween, a group of friends are trying to scare each other with what is thought to be a prank and Beth (Natalie Ganzhorn) ends up in a coma after being accidentally electrocuted. What is unknown among the group, is that newcomer Kyle (Jahmil French), is being secretive of the fact he is trying to rid himself of the Curse of The Carver. He has to trick someone into committing murder before midnight on Halloween Eve or he will be mutilated by a mysterious creature. That's all I can say; all pranks aren't pranks. All accidents are not accidental. Detective Burk (Anthony Lemke) is finding it hard to believe what the friends have to say about the situation. No one should feel at ease. Fear is for real. I personally feel that Bailee Madison steals the show. Also in the cast: Justin Kelly, Kiana Madiera, Elisa Moolecherry, Alex Harrouch, Jonah Wineberg and Dani Kind.

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• Half-baked horror curse nonsense

  Wuchakk2017-10-31

  RELEASED TO TV IN 2016 and written & directed by Sheldon Wilson, "The Night before Halloween" concerns a group of teens who must deal with the ramifications of a Halloween prank gone wrong. It is eventually revealed that they are under the Curse of the Carver: a curse that slays you on the night before Halloween unless you can trick someone into killing someone else. The overall filmmaking is professional and the cast takes the material seriously and perform proficiently with Bailee Madison & Justin Kelly emerging as the main protagonists. Anthony Lemke is particularly effective as the detective. There's an almost "Wow!" moment at the halfway point where Wyatt (Alex Harrouch) reveals what was really going on during the confusing opening act and I hoped the rest of the movie would change my "Meh" feelings, but it was not to be. The perplexing curse and the baffling non-creature it unleashes (a bunch of flies that sometimes morph into a partial monster) are too befuddling. If the viewer can hardly understand what's happening how can the teens in the story comprehend their life-or-death situation with any certainty? Note to emerging filmmakers: Work the kinks out of your premise BEFORE making the movie. The director, Sheldon Wilson, needs to improve his scriptwriting skills because the movies he writes tend to be problematic story-wise ("The Hollow," "Neverknock" and "Stickman") whereas his movies written by others can be quite good for TV-budgeted flicks ("Mothman," "Red, Werewolf Hunter" and "Scarecrow," which is excellent). The female cast is decent, but not stellar, rounded out by Kiana Madeira as Lindsay and Dani Kind as the secondary detective. Natalie Ganzhorn has a small role as Beth. THE MOVIE RUNS 90 minutes and was shot in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. GRADE: C-

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