The Curse of Bridge Hollow

After lampooning horror films in the Scary Movie series, Marlon Wayans offers a spooky family comedy that's only sporadically funny and not all that spooky.

If anyone were to take the movie super-seriously, the idea that it’s bad for a dad to explain away fears by applying science feels almost offensively dumb. Only Rob Riggle, playing an extreme fan of The Walking Dead, seems to have gotten the memo to be funny. No kid will leave confused by any aspects of the plot except, perhaps, how a digital ouija board app on an iPad can be fully trusted. Daughter Sydney (Stranger Things’ Priah Ferguson) is the main character here, though, making friends with the school’s local paranormal club and accidentally unleashing Stingy Jack from a cursed turnip. It’s also a town that goes all out for Halloween, with elaborate themed yards and houses. In the vein of the Goosebumps movies, Hubie Halloween, Ernest Scared Stupid, and Boo!

A film that provides some light horror comedy fun though is cursed by its own conventions, · The story follows Howard ( ...

A film like this could certainly catch on for those looking for some counterprogramming to the more gore-centered experience of recent horror like [Hellraiser](https://collider.com/hellraiser-lessens-the-terror-of-the-cenobites-mythology-over-menace/) or [Smile](https://collider.com/smile-horror-transmissible-curses/). [creative works that dip their toe into horror while still working for kids](https://collider.com/wendell-and-wild-review-jordan-peele-keegan-michael-key-henry-selick/) though this is not a film that will be remembered as one. This chaotic conclusion ups the stakes sufficiently enough to get you to sit up just a bit though in a manner that increasingly feels like a mishmash of all that preceded it. [Marlon Wayans](https://collider.com/tag/marlon-wayans/)), who is moving with his family from Brooklyn to the small and seemingly safe town of Bridge Hollow for a change of scenery, despite his daughter Sydney ( [Priah Ferguson](https://collider.com/stranger-things-erica-sinclair-underrated-character/)) remaining strongly opposed to the move. [The Happytime Murders](https://collider.com/happytime-murders-review/) and this ends up running into many of the same structural problems despite being much tamer in its tone. The young actress does give it her all and, as a result, you can see parts of that same spark starting to illuminate the otherwise drab direction the rest of the film takes us on.

Halloween is already spooky enough. Now, imagine if those "harmless" holiday decorations suddenly came to life. Hopefully, that doesn't happen to you this ...

As a member of Destiny's Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time, Kelly eventually dabbled in acting in addition to singing. Known for his comedic roles in movies like 21 Jump Street, The Hangover, and Talladega Nights, Riggle plays the Gordon family's new neighbor who goes all out for Halloween with his decorations. Now, with the help of her dad, she's determined to resolve her mistake. The actor and comedian plays Sydney's father, Howard and let's just say that this Halloween-loathing dad probably has every reason to dislike the holiday after this wild adventure. Hopefully, that doesn't happen to you this Halloween, but that's reality for the cast of Netflix's The Curse of Bridge Hollow. After unknowingly releasing an ancient, evil spirit on October 31, it causes decorations to come alive and wreak havoc upon the townspeople.

The décor is tired of being neglected this Halloween season. A restless spirit with malintent uses any and every Halloween decoration and animatronic in.

It feels like a story and script that would benefit from a tighter additional pass, which is frustrating since there are also plenty of compelling ideas in the movie that are left a mystery and not overexplained. Nocebo wags these tired archetypes in the audience’s face, but what’s encouraging about the film is that there’s a level of authenticity here that comes from Filipino screenwriter, Garrett Shanley. It’s no coincidence that Christine’s job centers around the exploitation of children and Felix is a marketing strategist who only views people in terms of dollar signs. It’s difficult not to be charmed by a family-friendly Halloween movie that instills the importance of Halloween while embracing it on a massive scale. A lot of Nocebo’s success relies upon not only if audiences buy into this central relationship, but if the payoff of where this all goes is actually worth the effort. Nocebo is technically a fantasy horror movie, but so much of its material examines the survival of capitalism through the exploitation–and vilification–of overseas workers, which in this case narrows in on Filipino culture. It’s through the peripheral characters and the wholesome family bonding that the target demographic is at its most pointed. Parenthood–whether it’s the stresses that surround this responsibility or the idea that someone else doesn’t deserve it–is subject matter that frequently finds itself at the center of the horror genre. On that note, Wadlow’s latest is the season’s most endearing gateway Halloween film. Bridge Hollow is at its most entertaining when it’s theming set pieces around whatever current Halloween décor is on the attack, and luckily that’s pretty often. Howard and Sydney race through town for answers on how to break the curse while Stingy Jack races to thwart them. The décor is tired of being neglected this Halloween season.