Warning: some spoilers ahead.
As a 90s kid, I have watched most of Disney’s movies, from the little mermaid to Aladdin (including the live action movies from that time too). And there was magic in these movies, magic which piqued the interest of a 10-year-old.
Before the movie started, I assumed would be a sequel, I was pleasantly surprised as it did not follow the trend of remaking the same old movies, but rather the entire movie focused on being in the same paranormal universe as the 2003 movie featuring Eddie Murphy.
Back to 2023, the latest installment in the series focuses on the same concept but in a more modern period with the humor to match the jump scares littered throughout the movie. The movie kept me as a watcher entertained with the small things, and that was not something that I was egg-specting(not a typo).
The movie also has some well-known names such as Owen Wilson as Pastor Kent, Danny DeVito as the professor, Jamie Lee Curtis as the crystal ball lady (Madam Leota), Rosario Dawson as Gabbie & Jared Leto as the big bad Alister Crump. La Keith Stanfield plays the protagonist Ben who you might even remember as L from the not so acclaimed live-action death note adaptation.
Together the cast balances the well-known and less-known characters to give us, the viewers, the perfect balance of new, old, and different. Different good, that is. The story of the movie is not as unique. However, it still strings together different aspects of storytelling by both jumping into Bens’s past and some of the Antagonist’s past to tell an exciting version of the Hero’s journey.
The movie also leads the main character Ben to believe in ghosts in a very organic yet simple way, where seeing is believing. In the beginning, Ben is skeptical of the paranormal, but after the first 10-20 minutes, he is a believer. While that might feel like a long time for a movie with a runtime of just over 2 hours, it’s not.
If you watch this movie as a sequel to the 2003 movie, don’t, as the movie is meant to be seen as a horror comedy for the next generation. If you are watching this movie for the very first time, you won’t be disappointed.
