Garota vs. Monstro

Trying to keep a rival from her crush, a teen's attempt to sneak out to a party frees the captured monster spirits collected by her monster-hunter parents and must round them up before they overtake the town during the Halloween party.

This here managed to be a pretty enjoyable and entertaining children's horror effort that has a lot going for it. By starting off with all the usual teen drama over the wishful relationship, the friendships between each other and their ability to almost be superheroes by accomplishing anything no matter the situation or solution presented gives this a rather easy integration into the horror scenes, watered-down as they are for such a release format as this one has, that come later on. Those aren't bad, with a creepy graveyard stalking, a rather enjoyable confrontation in the woods between the group and a pretty creepy creature as well as a rousing hunt for the creatures inside the mansion party when they get released and begin wreaking havoc with the guests, only to be saved by another dose of the super-teen lifestyle mentioned earlier. It's also got a lot of good by showcasing the monsters mostly as practical effects instead of CGI only for minimal use, plus it has a lot in the overcoming of your fears which is a good message to spread and does nicely in managing to mix the two genres together nicely. As usual, the comedy's hit-or-miss but it's not enough to hurt it much overall for the lame joke or pratfall doesn't hurt it as much as it could have.

Rated Unrated/PG: Mild Violence.

Skylar Lewis (Olivia Holt) comes from a family of monster hunters and she doesn't know it. Her parents keeps her home for Halloween but she decides to cut the power to the home alarm. The problem is that power is also cut from the containment vessel and various monsters are released. Family friend Cobb reveals the family secret. With her scared friends Henry and Sadie, she must recapture Deimata who intends to possess her.

This Disney movie is a showcase for some of its young stars and is aimed for their young fans. It's inferior in many ways. The writing, the adult actors, the special effects, and the plotting are all second rate in one way or another. Mostly, this relies on the movie's young stars. Olivia Holt is definitely a beauty although she may be better off playing the mean girl. Kerris Dorsey plays the best friend and she may have better dorky innocence to accentuate the leading role. Why not have the mean girl and the sweet girl team up to defeat the monsters? The plot doesn't really make any sense. I don't know why she would go to the party except that it needs to manufacture the situation. It does have the central premise about fear which is very appealing. One must grade on a curve for these kinds of movies.

Monsters are gaining strength and power as they feed on the increased fear of humans on Halloween. Meanwhile, a teen girl who simply wants to enjoy her normal life, discovers she belongs to a family of monster hunters

There is definitely an audience for this movie. Just not a very big one. The problem with movies like this is that they don't age well. The music and the story are geared toward a very specific audience and time period. There's a line in one of the songs that says, "You don't have to try that hard." That feels like the motto for this movie. From an adults viewpoint, it's poorly written and poorly executed to the point that it's hard to overlook and enjoy what's presented here. It feels long and gets repetitious. The acting and dialogue is cringey at times. I've never seen ghostbusters, but from what I know about it, this movie feels like a preteen version of that movie.

Of course I had never heard about this 2012 movie titled "Girl vs. Monster", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance here in 2024. And believing that it was a horror comedy, of course I opted to watch it. Yeah, I didn't know that it was a Disney family movie. And had I known that, I might have skipped on the movie entirely.

Writers Annie DeYoung and Ron McGee put together a script and storyline that appealed to quite a different audience than what I am in. So I didn't particularly enjoy this movie, to be honest. Not that it was a bad movie, I guess, but I just wasn't the target audience of the movie.

While I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, I will say that the acting performances were good, despite of the storyline failing to entertain me. And truth be told, I do enjoy watching unfamiliar talents on the screen.

Visually then "Girl vs. Monster" was nothing outstanding. Sure, there were special effects, and they were up to par with what you would expect from a TV movie or a Disney TV movie, I suppose. So that counts for something.

My rating of Stuart Gillard's 2012 movie "Girl vs. Monster" lands on a four out of ten stars. This just simply wasn't my cup of tea.

When Skylar Lewis, a savvy tween, accidentally releases a ghostly evil in her town, she discovers that she is a fifth-generation monster hunter. With the help of her right hand, Sadie, Skylar must defeat the monsters during a thrilling Halloween party.

"Girl Vs. Monster Was Reminiscent Of Those Disney Classics We Know And Love Such As 'Halloweentown' And 'Twitches'. Action-Packed And Full Of Family Friendly Scares, The Movie Maintained A Ghostbuster-esque, Cartoon-ish Vibe. The Cast Constantly Entertains And The Story Flows Steadily. The Campy Visual Effects And Catchy Soundtrack Give The Movie That Creepy Monstober Ambience That All Of Us 90's And 2000's Babies Were Partial To; So It's Safe To Say That This Was The Last Satisfactory Original Disney Horror Film... 71%!