- Directed by Leigh Janiak
- Written by R.L. Stine, Kyle Killen, Phil Graziadel
- Stars Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr.
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9PuKH4hKSU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A lot of teenagers in their 20s go through drama, romance and horror as they try to fight a witchy evil that’s been tainting their town for hundreds of years. There are a lot of 1990s references that are hit and miss, but they mostly get the vibe right. It’s well made overall, and there are some good moments, but we found much of it dull and predictable. It’s certainly not the worst thing we’ve seen, but we were pretty lukewarm toward it.
Spoilery Synopsis
A woman buys a book at the B. Dalton’s in a mall full of stores, so we know this is the 90s. Heather answers a phone call from Ryan, but the line drops. He gives her a jump scare using a blow-up sex doll, and they get separated again. Suddenly, a man in a skull-faced Halloween costume attacks her with a knife. She runs to another store and calls 911. She whomps him with a lava lamp, but he eventually catches and stabs her. As we hear gunfire, the killer pulls off his mask, and it’s Ryan. As the cop shoots him, both teenagers die in the middle of the food court.
Credits roll as we hear news reports that Shadyside has all kinds of crazy slashers and murders.
Deena watches the news as Sheriff Nick talks about all the town’s serial killers. She yells at her little brother Josh about running up the AOL bill with the Internet. He’s in chat rooms on AOL talking about the serial killer and the massacre last night at the mall.
At school, everyone thinks “The Witch” is back, and that seems to be all anyone talks about. There’s a lot of very typical high school drama as the school has a memorial service for Heather and Ryan. Mayor Goode is there, and he addresses the crowd. Deena runs into her ex, Samantha, and returns a bunch of stuff she borrowed from her. Sheriff Goode talks next, as Deena and Sam argue about Sam moving to Sunnyvale, away from Shadyside. The memorial service soon turns into a big brawl as the two football teams fight. They all seem to attend a school with no adults present, not even a bus driver.
On the way home, the Sunnyvalers’ car attacks the Shadysiders’ bus, and that goes badly. When the car goes off the road, Sam sees something.
The next night, Deena sees Skullface outside and runs him off, where he goes to her friend Kate’s house. Kate and her brother then tell the story to Josh and Deena. They all assume it’s Peter, Sam’s new boyfriend. They go to the hospital, where Peter has been with Sam all day. As Deena and Sam argue, someone stabs Peter in the back, as this is one of those hospitals without any staff or other patients.
After much running around and fighting, Deena knocks the killer’s mask off, and it’s Ryan– again, even though he’s clearly already been killed. They talk to Sheriff Goode, who doesn’t believe them, since they’re accusing the kid the sheriff killed just last night. On the way out of the police station, Deena shoots a girl who doesn’t die after attacking Simon.
Josh listens to Simon’s story and recognizes Ruby Lane, a woman who killed her friends and herself thirty years ago in 1965. He has a crazy wall full of old news clippings of slashers and murders in the town. Normal people keep turning into psychos, and it goes all the way back to 1666. Sarah Fier was a witch, and she’s been possessing people to use as killers.
Sarah remembers seeing the witch in the woods, so the whole group goes out there to look. They find Sarah’s bones and try to bury them to put the witch back to rest.
They get chased by a man in a scarecrow mask with an axe. The witch is not back at rest. Sam thinks the killers are specifically coming for her. The killers seem to be able to smell Sam’s blood, which is on Simon’s shirt and Deena’s shoe.
They break into the high school to take clothes from the lost and found. This involves everyone taking off their shirts and getting close as they talk about their feelings. All five of them end up having sex, which is weird when you count the numbers.
The teens make a big trail of blood to bait the possessed killers, and they soon start showing up. Ruby, the Halloween axe killer, and Skullface are all there. They walk right past the living teens and go after the blood-smeared dummies. The killers get trapped in a restroom and are set on fire.
The kids soon notice that the killers reassemble themselves from the pieces. Kate wants to give Sam to the monsters so the rest of them can live. Josh remembers that in 1978, the camp massacre had a survivor, so maybe it’s possible to get through this. They call the survivor on the phone, but she’s not home. Turns out, the camper woman died, but was brought back, so that might be the secret.
Meanwhile, the sheriff, after cleaning up the bodies at the hospital, drops off a note at a house: “It’s happening again.”
Simon’s brother OD’d, died, and came back, so he thinks he can do that to Samantha on purpose to kill her and bring her back. They all go to the grocery store where Simon works. Sam takes a bunch of pills as Kate, Simon, and Josh fight the monsters. The pills don’t work fast enough, so Deena drowns Sam in the store’s lobster tank.
Kate gets brutally sliced up, and Simon gets the axe. It’s all looking bad until Sam finally dies in the tank. Deena and Josh work to revive her. They shoot her with about a half-dozen EpiPens (for a drowning?) and soon, Sam is fine again.
We cut to the sheriff, interviewing Sam, Deena, and Josh, who lie about the whole thing. He blames Kate and Simon, and that’s gonna be the story from here on. Sam’s mother angrily picks her up.
They get together again that evening, and Deena gets a phone call. “They’re still alive,” it’s the campground survivor. “It’s not over. She makes the rules. The Witch will do whatever it takes.” Yes, Sam is now possessed, and she stabs Deena. Deena and Josh tie up Sam, vowing to get her back.
Brian’s Commentary
Kevin pointed out immediately that all the teenagers were being played by actors in their upper twenties. Not long after, he was already rooting for everyone to die. Other than the sheriff, there doesn’t appear to be any adults in this town.
Teen romance and high school rivalries just don’t matter to us anymore, and it’s all very hard to take seriously. There are lots of 90s references here, but a lot of them aren’t really all that accurate.
I am amazed at the positive reception this got when it came out. We’re both too old to have read either Goosebumps or Fear Street, so there’s no nostalgia there for us. It’s like this was made as a horror movie for people who had never seen a slasher movie before. It’s well made, I guess, but I found it interminably dull, offering exactly nothing new or interesting.
Kevin’s Commentary
I don’t have much to add that Brian didn’t say already. There were some good moments, like when the undead get blown to slimy bits and reform again, for example, but mostly I was biding my time waiting for it to get over with.