In my continuing quest for Halloween-type movies that I haven't seen before and might want to, I accepted Netflix's up-front suggestion, which they had pushed quite a bit last year. It has fared a bit better with critics than with general audiences, but hey, I've seen and reviewed less popular on this blog.
At 13, delinquent Kat (Lyric Ross) gets transferred to a Catholic girls' boarding school in her fading former hometown, Rust Bank. There she discovers a captive demon (Phoebe Lamont) who makes her a "hell maiden" able to summon Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele), two disgraced sons of underworld lord Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames). She wants them to bring back her parents (Gary Gatewood and Gabrielle Dennis), whose deaths she had accidentally caused ages ago. The boys stumble on the revitalizing properties of their dad's hair cream. They also learn that two execs (Maxine Peak and David Harewood) could pay them enough money to start their own afterlife amusement park -- provided they use the cream only on the dead councillors who could sway the vote in favor of turning Rust Bank into a prison complex, a motion otherwise unanimously opposed. Let's just say demons aren't so good with promises. But despite Kat's efforts to avoid friendships lest she jinx more people, she can get a fair amount of support from certain students and faculty to save both the town and herself.
The rating is PG-13, perhaps primarily for the whole Faustian bargain theme. That said, it's hardly pro-demon, and even the unflattering depiction of Father Level Bests (James Hong) and the nuns isn't exactly damning, Sister Helley (Angela Bassett) being most helpful. There's also a bit of lethal violence, if mostly against the undead, and a few words you don't expect to hear in an animated feature.
Depending on your bent, you might be more concerned about the presence of trans boy Raúl (Sam Zelaya), the only student at the school using a masculine name. This aspect has no bearing on the plot, tho Raúl as a character certainly does. And if that and the anti-private-prison sentiment didn't tip you off to the political affiliation of the filmmakers, the cast is about as racially diverse as it gets, and the custodian (Igal Naor) has a wheelchair.
As stop-motion animation goes, it looks moderately realistic, apart from a few 2D-animated visions. Don't worry; the walking corpses, no matter what their stage of decay, don't look as hideous as in some SMAs I could cite. (Why the cream works more completely on squished bugs is beyond me.) I got more disgusted at some of the goings-on with Belzer. They're played for laughs, but you need a pretty immature sense of humor for a PG-13 viewer. I shouldn't be surprised that Key and Peale keep striking me more irreverent than funny in ostensible family fare.
Despite a somewhat clunky plot and not much to tickle me, I took adequate interest. Most of the characters, even from below, have a likeable side. I cared about Kat's need for emotional healing. And the story is far from overdone.
Director Henry Selick did better with The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. Still, I don't want those 105 minutes back.
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