A movie that gives some mild horror comedy enjoyable although is cursed by its personal conventions, The Curse of Bridge Hole will get far too misplaced in meandering narrative mechanics and by no means takes flight. The Curse of Bridge Hole approaches being an outright parody at moments, calling out lots of the tropes of the horror style, solely to then replicate every of them below the guise of poking enjoyable. Regardless of its greatest efforts, it will not turn into a Halloween cinematic traditional anytime quickly.
The story follows Howard (Marlon Wayans), who’s shifting together with his household from Brooklyn to the small and seemingly protected city of Bridge Hole for a change of surroundings, regardless of his daughter Sydney (Priah Ferguson) remaining strongly against the transfer. This isn’t the one factor that the 2 don’t precisely see eye-to-eye on. Howard is lower than a fan of Halloween as an idea and the various elaborate vacation decorations that his new neighbors have seemingly all put up. Wayans performs the character as being dorkier and out of contact with the hip younger children as crystallized in a single scene the place he can’t work out what their costumes are.
Howard additionally desires his daughter to participate within the science staff, whereas Sydney simply desires to do her personal factor. When the 2 of them uncover a mysterious drive that threatens to devour the city, they’ll should staff as much as piece collectively how they’ll cease it. Alongside the best way, they may encounter numerous decorations come to life, from large spiders to scary clowns that appear to be they’re CGI recreations ripped off of the nonetheless traditional horror comedy Killer Klowns From Outer House. There’s a line that Sydney even shouts the place she identifies them as being “killer clowns,” simply to make this even blunter regardless of it already being abundantly so.
Such a reference is clearly meant to enchantment to a broader horror crowd, however it’s onerous to think about them being all that taken with The Curse of Bridge Hole, save for possibly having a lightweight chuckle at a few moments. The primary precedence nonetheless stays to inform a narrative for a a lot youthful viewers by making an attempt to be extra charming and cute versus really a scary horror movie. After all, there isn’t any world the place a piece like this may really attempt to be really horrifying in order to not alienate these youthful viewers which might be the clear demographic.
The unusual half then turns into that lots of the references will most actually go over the heads of those children and solely make the adults watching want they had been as an alternative watching the unique horror movies it is drawing from. When the characters make their manner down Elm St. or have a largely throwaway change about how The Strolling Lifeless has jumped the shark as a present, there may be solely the slightest glimmer of recognition that by no means feels as enjoyable correctly. None of those moments find yourself having a lot of something really humorous to say about what they’re referencing save for a string of extra self-aware jokes dutifully allotted by a wacky Wayans.
This all operates within the confines of a serviceable but superficial storyline the place the father-daughter duo has to research their manner by way of city to determine the best way to cease the haunting. There are moments that recall one other referential Netflix property, Stranger Issues, which might be sprinkled all through this journey. Sadly, it opts to simply have the fundamentals with none of the deeper darkness and earned humor of that present. A few of this inevitably traces again to it sharing fan favourite Ferguson who, whereas she now will get to have a narrative that’s all her personal, performs a personality that lacks the identical snarky sensibility. The younger actress does give it her all and, in consequence, you possibly can see components of that very same spark beginning to illuminate the in any other case drab route the remainder of the movie takes us on. The closest reference level can be to a movie like the primary Goosebumps, although simply by no means as enjoyable as that in some way managed to be.
The forged is dedicated, despite the fact that don’t have sufficient materials to work with. That is largely unsurprising, in that the movie’s co-writer Todd Berger final labored on The Happytime Murders and this finally ends up working into lots of the similar structural issues regardless of being a lot tamer in its tone. Making issues worse is how The Curse of Bridge Hole shifts into being overly sentimental with out actually incomes it. Whereas comedies can actually have their emotional aspirations, the best way it performs out right here appears like it’s simply going by way of the motions with none coronary heart in it as each father and daughter are extra like inventory characters moderately than absolutely developed ones. There’s additionally a supporting forged of comedic expertise that’s equally wasted on one-note jokes and eventualities that largely go nowhere till we ultimately arrive on the finish.
This chaotic conclusion ups the stakes sufficiently sufficient to get you to take a seat up only a bit although in a way that more and more appears like a mishmash of all that preceded it. The curse of Bridge Hole stays a movie that will be comparatively innocent if it wasn’t so totally uninventive. There’s a excessive likelihood that it’s going to maintain the eye of youthful viewers lengthy sufficient to maintain them entertained for one viewing, however any greater than that will be pushing it. There could be inventive works that dip their toe into horror whereas nonetheless working for youths although this isn’t a movie that might be remembered as one. The truth that it tries to arrange for a sequel of some type, albeit with an admittedly humorous closing line, is actually a daring prediction although stranger issues have occurred on the planet of streaming as there are many follow-ups to in any other case lackluster preliminary outings. A movie like this might actually catch on for these in search of some counterprogramming to the extra gore-centered expertise of current horror like Hellraiser or Smile. The issue is The Curse of Bridge Hole isn’t intelligent sufficient to carve out a distinct segment of its personal and is outlined by the diminishing returns of by-product style riffs from begin to end.
Ranking: C
The Curse of Bridge Hole is now out there on Netflix.
