The Curse of Bridge Hollow review: Tropey rehash and a Halloween dud

In The Curse of Bridge Hollow, the Gordon family moves into the safest town in America only to face the supernatural Halloween perils that stand to wreak chaos all over.

Story

The Curse of Bridge Hollow opens with the Gordon family moving into a small town called Bridge Hollow from their previous abode in Brooklyn.

The dad Howard Gordon and mom Emily Gordon are pumped for the transition; the daughter Sydney, not so much.

The town is rife with Halloween celebrations and the residents seem to be especially enthused about the occasion, with a ‘Stingy Jack’ festival soon to begin as well.

Syd makes friends who are all paranormal investigators and they tell her about her new house being haunted by Madam Josephine Hawthorne, the greatest spiritualist medium of the 20th century.

Syd does some paranormal fidgeting herself and sure enough, the doors start opening up that lead her to the attic. She finds a chest there, and in it, is a Jack-o’-lantern.

While she tries to embody the Halloween spirit, her scientific and sceptical father doesn’t like her proclivities for anything non-scientific.

So in defiance of her father, Syd lights up the lantern. Howard extinguishes it but it lits up again; this goes on several times and Syd is scared that she might’ve set free something she shouldn’t have.

Her fears come true and the light from the lantern flees out of the house and siphons into other Halloween decorations, bringing each one to life.

The entire town of Bridge Hollow is rife with live Halloween decorations and amid all the chaos, the father-daughter learns a terrifying truth.

Stingy Jack is real and he’s been set free to hunt for a soul he can trade with the devil. The trade will allow him to stay in the mortal realm for more than just a brief period on Halloween eve each year.

Along with her friends and principal Floyd, Syd and Howard hold a seance and temporarily bring back Madam Hawthorne. She teaches them the spell to trap Stingy Jack in the lantern again.

Stingy Jack reached Emily at the home and starts pushing her into the portal to hell to finish the trade. However, Syd and Howard arrive in time and fight him.

Howard uses his Latin skills and a reignited belief in the Halloween spirit to cast the spell, trapping Stingy Jack inside the lantern once again. Syd comes and extinguishes the flame in an instant.

They put the lantern back inside the chest, drowning it in fire retardant to ensure it never gets lit again.

However, before The Curse of Bridge Hollow rolls the credits, the father and daughter find a bunch of similar chests all sitting in their attic for decades.

Performances

Marlon Wayans is a clear stand-out in The Curse of Bridge Hollow, with his acting skills elevating just about every scene he’s in.

Apart from Wayans, the rest of the cast does a good job with their performances even if the physicality that Wayans brings to his character rarely ever appears in any other.

Positives

There’s a surprisingly impressive amount of CGI and special effects in the movie that’s executed brilliantly. Some special standouts come in the sequences involving the killer clowns and the killer skeletons.

The Curse of Bridge Hollow does manage to bring a familiar warmth to its characters and story, something a lot of viewers can take delight in.

Negatives

Despite Wayans’ performance, the movie suffers from any significant effort from the humour department.

Moments of hilarity are far and between, with only spare ones managing to induce a belly laugh.

Similarly, the moments of dread that can be common in films like these are also not as quite scary or spooky.

Much like most of the runtime, the climax also lacks a certain oomph and would likely fail to scare the younger audience.

Verdict

The Curse of Bridge Hollow is the quintessential cookie-cutter rehash of familiar, much better movies of the same genre.

Despite moments of great CGI and a standout hilarious performance from Wayan, the film fails to recreate the Halloween magic of the films it rehashes.

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Also Read: The Curse of Bridge Hollow ending explained: Is Stingy Jack gone for good?