benm-41751

This episode would have been a campy good time, except that Jesse Tyler Ferguson's dreadful acting totally ruins it. The whole show is fun and silly, although its weak point is that some of the acting goes past being silly and enters community theatre territory. But Ferguson really takes the cake, basically sounding like he's doing his first script reading through the whole episode. It's a shame because the Lavish Ladies are way more convincing and fit the vibe of the show. It also just wasn't the best written episode, with a pretty flimsy motive for murder and pretty much nothing about it being convincing.

On the surface it feels like this movie has all it needs: excellent visuals which hold up 20 years later, the roaring soundtrack you'd expect for spooky hijinks, a fabulous cast including beloved character actors, and a creepy mysterious plot. Yet it feels so very dull. I just don't care about anyone or anything in the movie, and you can see most of the plot coming from miles away. There is no element of the plot that feels original, in fact most of them have already played together many times.

Maybe if you've never seen a movie like this you'd find it more interesting, and for that reason kids might enjoy it. It's safe enough to show to them as long as they're okay with creepy things. Since it has nice visuals and there's no one element of the movie that's terrible, it would make good background viewing at a Halloween party. That's about the only reason I'd ever put it on again.