Growing up, I was never a big fan of fall or Halloween. Although I loved seeing the colors of the leaves change, I didn’t like how cold it started to get. I would still partake in typical ‘fall’ activities, like going to the pumpkin patch, picking apples at an orchard, or going trick or treating, but these were never things that I was dying to check off my to-do list. My schedule stayed so full during the fall with classwork and ballet rehearsals that I didn’t have much free time to relax. Since I was so consumed by school and dance, I never got around to watching Halloween movies at my house or even at sleepovers with my friends.
My friends were dumbfounded when they recently discovered that I’ve never seen a Halloween movie. I explained to them my situation growing up and realized that it was time for me to finally watch a Halloween movie. I am not a big fan of horror movies (if it helps clear anything up, I think Harry Potter movies are scary) so I had no clue as to where I should even start. I asked a handful of my friends for their movie recommendations for a first timer, and the top two answers I got were Halloweentown and Hocus Pocus. Before I chose a winner, I asked my best friend her thoughts on the matter and she chose Halloweentown, so that’s what we ended up watching.
I wasn’t sure what to expect if we’re being honest. I was able to figure out the plot of the movie early on, but some details still shocked me. I had no idea that Kalabar would turn out to be the villain even though I should have seen it coming with all of the clues. I really liked the concept of the movie and how everything was portrayed. I especially loved when Aggie pulled out all of the surprises from her bag to give to the children; it was a sweet moment to witness between her and the kids. I will say that the creatures in this movie would have terrified me as a child, so I’m glad I didn’t watch it back then. I thought the acting was surprisingly good considering the movie was released in 1998. After finally giving into the hype surrounding Halloween movies, I’m really excited to watch the other films in this series and keep up the trend —hopefully the next movies will be just as good as, if not better than, Halloweentown.