Christopher Lloyd Is Making A Movie About A Spirit Halloween Store And It's Got Me Intrigued
“When a new Spirit Halloween store appears in a deserted strip mall, three middle-school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick-or-treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night,” reads the logline. “But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.”
At first, this is something that had me roll my eyes. There is a conundrum where it sucks not having a lot of original properties, but it's almost worst to have all the original movies be based on something dumb like a seasonal store. However, the synopsis of it kind of sold me. I love movies where people are caught somewhere after dark and I personally think animatronic animals are creepy as all hell. The recent 'Willy's Wonderland' starring Nic Cage only reinforced that fear.
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Another thing that sold me is this quote.
“One of the reasons I immediately connected with the script is it is very much inspired by some of my favorite kid adventure films growing up from ‘The Goonies,’ ‘Gremlins,’ ‘Monster Squad’ and so many great films made by Amblin Entertainment,” said Noor Ahmed, president of Strike Back Studios.
Not everyone can do Amblin right. 'The Adam Project' recently borrowed a lot from them and was referred to as an Amblin-Light movie. The vibes were there, but the competence in execution was not. But the fact that they realize what this kind of movie SHOULD be is a great sign. We could have a family-friendly adventure-horror that maybe touches a little bit of the mystique of everyone's favorite nomadic store.
Speaking of Amblin, check out our interview with Ke Huy Quan, who played Short Round in Indiana Jones and Data in The Goonies.
This is the directorial debut of David Poag and it will be the first full length movie from writer Billie Bates.