Spooky House

Normally I don't bother with kid-oriented movies such as this, but I decided to watch this one because it was directed (and co-written) by William Sachs, whose previous movies have been mainly R-rated exploitation fare for adults. This sudden change in pace for Sachs may explain some of the problems in the finished product. The movie is somewhat too goofy for the most part, enough that even kids may be annoyed by the movie's low mentality. The story is pretty slow and stretched out (there are far too many plot threads), though oddly there are some moments here and there where footage seems to be missing. Also, the relatively low budget may explain why the movie often looks and feels like a television effort made for a network like Nickelodeon.

On the other hand, the end product does have some strengths. Ben Kingsley, as expected, gives a professional performance. He helps to make his character a multi-dimensional person and not a stereotype. And the scenes where he is paired up with child actor Matt Weinberg (who plays the orphan boy Max) generate some great chemistry. In fact, this part of the movie - the relationship between these two people - is without doubt the strongest part of the movie.

I think the movie would have been a lot better had it instead focused on that aforementioned part of the movie instead of adding all that padding and juvenile nonsense. As it is, the movie is best suited for young kids only. Their parents, on the other hand, should have some reading material on hand.

Cute, but they told my kids the tooth fairy was really his mom. 😭

OK, my wife rented this off-the-shelf, thinking it would be a cute "family" movie, so we were forced to buy pizza and sit through it with our kids (9 & 5). In a nutshell, the kids loved it, although my 5 year old thought parts of it were a bit "scary", and didn't want to sit through it. For my wife and I, however, it was definitely a tremendous groaner...The biggest plus was the fact that it was SOOOO bad that we actually laughed at how bad it was! This was one of those "I'm too drunk to go to sleep...what's on TV?" B-movies from the old USA Network "Up All Night" series (if you remember those).

There were parts of it that actually reminded us of the old "Little Rascals" shows, where the kids---and their so-obviously-memorized scripts---were almost like puppets. The super-fast-motion scenes to speed things up were good for a chuckle.

Rent this for your kids to enjoy, but don't dare watch it yourself unless you want to bang your head afterwards for wasting this much time.

I was skeptical about watching this movie, as although I really enjoy children's movies, this one LOOKED like it might be a bit too childish. But to my surprise, there is quite a story to it, for the young and old! Matt Weinberg is one of the most charming little actors I have ever seen! The movie, of course, consists of many magic tricks, which makes it very pleasant to watch. There is also familiar music, that is so entertaining! Give it chance, especially if you have to entertain the wee little ones :)

Watched this film tonight with my 10 and 13 year old boys. Took a little while to get into it but loved the children and the storyline. Had some great themes for kids with magic, bullies, family, halloween and an adorable orphan all combined to make an entertaining film. I especially liked that they had used a real black panther instead of some CGI effect (really hate how they've used a CGI cat in the new Witches film!). However, what could have been a really fantastic film was spoiled for me and the kids by the odd choice of jarring, mismatched music in places and the terrible slow mos and camera work. At one point they switched to an outside shot of the house about 5 times for no real reason (and this shot was the fakest looking thing in the whole movie!) Think this film would have really benefited from a talented director. At times, it came across very pantomimish. Nevertheless, the ending, though predictable, managed to bring a tear to my eye and, all in all, I would recommend it as an enjoyable family film.