10. Twitches Too (2007)
The second and final film (as of October 2020) of the Twitches Television Universe is meager offerings in both chills and chuckles. It's not as funny as the predecessor nor as magical, which is ironic since more magic is likely performed in this film than the first. Alas, quantity is not equative to quality. The movie finds reunited sisters, Cameron and Alex battling once again against The Darkness to save their kingdom from its all-consuming ho-hum CGI terror. The stakes are raised slightly by the added factor that their father may, in fact, be alive. While the Mowery twins still display incredible chemistry with Tamera showing particular prowess in physical comedy, the recasting of the character of Ileana for whatever reason it was done negatively impacts what was one of the first film's most workable comedic elements and pair of side characters. When it comes down to it, Coventry is a rather boring fictitious land that hardly feels worth saving. The more we see of it, the blander it feels, and so our entire investment lies solely in the survival and triumph of our leads, but the goals they are after aren't as investable to us. The film also follows the tired pattern of introducing unnecessary love interests for each of the sisters. While not the worst or the best, Twitches Too just feels like an altogether missed opportunity to expand on what was a promising idea in the first film. It spends more time hashing out cliches than giving us something truly magical to twitch onto. The magic of the Mowery sisters may not be enough to save it, but we certainly appreciate their efforts in trying.
9. Halloweentown High (2004)
An indication that the series was headed into a different kind of territory one that became more aligned with the values and content expectations from the popular children's television channel today, Halloweentown High is neither a hit nor miss, but a respectable toss at the dartboard of children's entertainment. Marnie in the film is a high-schooler, older, wiser and yet still as free-spirited as ever. Vying for better opportunities for civility between the two different realms, Marnie comes up with the idea to host a group of Halloweentown students to come and spend some time in the Mortal World. The rest of the film involves a clash of cultures between the humans and Halloweentown adolescents who are forced to come together and stop a group of ancient knights from wreaking havoc on both worlds. The film admittedly provides the least spooks of the three films in the franchise, and no I am not acknowledging the rude abomination that is Return to Halloweentown (2006). Its primary focus is on deriving humor from the zany antics of the Halloweentown tweens as they try to get acclimated to the Mortal World. Debbie Reynolds performance is just as strong as her previous ones, and she gets to exercise some serious comedic chops as a substitute teacher at the high school. The plot fails at giving Sophie anything remotely interesting to do, reducing her to a background character status which is shameful given how integral she is to the plot of the predecessors. The same can be said for the incredibly talented, Judith Hoag, whose portrayal of Gwen begins to become inconsistent starting with this film, though that is a complete fault of the writers and not the actress herself. Halloweentown is still an enjoyable entry into the franchise, even at its worse, it is better than many of the films that Disney Channel has released since.
8. Under Wraps (1997)
Though often cited as the first Disney Channel Original Movie, this film is admittedly the one I am least familiar with on the list. I watched it maybe once or twice growing up and was, fortunately, able to access it on VOD as a refresher since it is curiously not available on Disney+. The film tells the tale of three pre-teens accidentally awakening and ultimately befriending an ancient mummy from a sarcophagus found in a recently deceased neighbor's basement. Under Wraps isn't as creepy or clever as its successors. Much of its charm derives from the comical camaraderie between its three young leads as they wrangle the muttering mummy and try to keep him in line. The movie suffers because it lacks the sense of distinctive atmosphere beautifully executed in other DCOM films. The Mummy is the source of humor and friendship in this, which is touching at times, but it seriously reduces the creep factor, especially when the villains turn out to be a boorish group of thugs that want to sell the mummy for money. The juxtaposition of a mummy bumbling around suburbia is very one-note, and the arc of the main protagonist is nowhere near as compelling as those of other DCOM films like Marnie, Francis or even Pete, all of whom are much more emotionally investable protagonists from other films that are featured in this list. Still, the film is delightful for what it is and did help pave the way for the more polished entries in the Disney Channel cannon to follow.
7. Twitches (2005)
This is one of the notable DCOM Halloween films that is more centered on the magic of Halloween rather than the more frightening or otherwise unsettling aspects of it. That being said, the mass of Darkness that acts as the film's main antagonist was spooky as all hell as a child. Based on a popular book series, the film stars Tia and Tamera Mowery as twin witches who were separated at birth to protect them from an evil force that wished to destroy them and their magical homeland. The twins meet as adults and after learning of their magical origins, come together to save their kingdom from destruction. The film mimics the character dynamic the sisters shared on their long-running sitcom "Sister Sister", and in fact, their characters hardly detract from their personalities established on that show. This is a shame as it deprives them of being able to explore much new acting ground, but I doubt we were complaining about character development during elementary school. Alright, maybe just me. The film is more light-hearted than it's predecessors and was a sign that Disney wanted to shift to more "family-friendly" programming. With darkness being the primary evil being fought against, the film itself is quite brightly lit and features a broad color scheme; especially it's costumes. The twins are guided by a fairly cute and funny duo, Karsh and Ileana who help advise the twins on their quest. The charm lies almost completely in the sure-fire chemistry between the two leads, who always know how to play to each other's comedic and dramatic strengths. It's a fun film, but it would have been interesting to see how Disney Channel would have handled the adaptation if they had attempted to do it during their more ambitious Golden Age a few years prior.
6. The Scream Team (2002)
Often forgotten, The Scream Team is almost completely devoid of any and all of the cutesy kitsch-ness that plagues even Disney Channel's most successful cinematic ventures. While it is laced with dark humor throughout, particularly about the concept of death itself as well as the merits of an afterlife, the movie is less squeamish than it's fellow contenders at making its young audience think about death and how it plays into our every day lives. It features Kat Dennings in an early role prior to her eventual fame on the big and small screen alike, as well as veteran comedic legends, Eric Idle, Tommy Davidson, and the always lovely even when shrill, Kathy Najimy as the titular team of ghosts that with the help of two grieving children hunt down a malevolent spirit that is inhibiting innocent souls from passing on, including the children's recently deceased grandfather. It wasn't until recently that I discovered the film was meant to be a backdoor pilot of sorts for a spin-off television series. It is difficult to picture performers like Najimy or Idle committing to such a project, which never came to fruition anyway. The film is still a treat to watch with its appropriately dreary set design that aligns well with the general dark comedy tone of the script, a verifiably scary villain and a lack of patronage that marks even the very best outings in the DCOM cinematic arena.
5. Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)
This film does hold a special almost bias place in my heart simply because it is itself an ode to movies as it is to Halloween itself. The script does not just focus on referencing horror films, but traditional tropes found across Hollywood Movies since the Golden Age of Cinema. In the film, Pete Riley, the assistant manager at his local movie theater is preparing for a huge film premiere event when a series of pranks lead him and others to suspect that someone wants this night to be anything but entertaining. Complications further arise when his younger brother and sister get involved and want to help figure out who the mysterious "phantom" causing all of this trouble is. The film fits comfortably into the whodunnit sub-genre of mystery. It features a touching supporting performance by the late great, Mickey Rooney, who gives an endearing monologue halfway through the film about the magic of the movies. This scene certainly carries extra weight and significance since his passing in 2014. Though it has its silly moments, particularly one involving an excessively show-offy game of gum-ball hockey as well as a blow-up display gone wild, its entertainment value is sustained throughout by the competent performances of its cast, young and old, and its ability to utilize the claustrophobia of both the movie-viewing experience as well as of the work environment at a movie theater itself to illicit effectively executed spooks and scares. During these pandemic days, it is a film that certainly makes me yearn to return to the theater, whether or not they be a Phantom there waiting for me.
4. Mom's Got a Date with a Vampire (2000)
I am not telling you what this film is about because the title is gracious enough to do it for me. One of the classic staples of the Disney Channel Halloween film was to acknowledge and thereby make fun of some of the nonsensical tropes associated with classic monsters from film and literature. This film manages to both spoof vampires while still making them a formidable antagonist for its young leads to be tasked with vanquishing. If vampires detest garlic, then they obviously must avoid Italian food while out on a date. Though the younger cast members have mostly faded into obscurity, the adult cast is led by three impeccably casted recognizable faces to anyone who enjoys beloved 90s and early 2000s sitcoms, Caroline Rhea, Charles Shaughnessy and Robert Carradine of Lizzie McGuire fame. The young characters in this film admittedly bring little to the piece and as an adult now I realize that while I tuned in to invest in these adolescents relentless pursuit to save their mother, I stayed because it was the adults who were more interesting to watch. One wonders if Disney was attempting to appeal more to their parental base in this film. Shaughnessy brings the perfect level of snark and maliciousness to Dmitri, which allows us to be scared of him while also finding him quite absurd. Rhea contrasts perfectly with him in her bubbly, adorably-awkward performance as a divorced woman reclaiming her identity. As an adult, the film may have an added creep-factor level, as Dmitri's determination to possess Rhea's character is carnal and by association, lustful. His behavior towards her is almost Weinstein-esque in its manipulation and false-sincerity, a clear echoing of the horrors that online catfishes would bring to society a little over a decade later. Nonetheless, the film has some memorable sequences, most notably an enthralling climactic showdown at a lakeside mansion, which this suburban town conveniently has located nearby.
3. Don't Look Under the Bed (1999)
This film is just as unsettling now as it was when I first remembered watching it. Disney even stopped airing it for years due to complaints from parents. Its eerie mood is matched by its cinematography which even manages to make daytime sequences appear somewhat disconcerting. The film is about an overly mature 14-year-old who begins to get framed for pranks going on around her small town. She soon discovers, thanks to the help of an eccentric imaginary friend, Larry that she is being framed by the mythic "Boogeyman". The movie's thematic messages resonate even more now than they did when I was a child as its narrative focuses on the struggles and anxieties that are tied with becoming an adult and leaving childish things behind. This is especially true since it features a young character who has survived a serious illness, as I did as a small child. I've often thought about the stress and concern I must have invariably placed on the shoulders of my two older siblings by getting Tuberculosis and Meningitis before the age of two and watching the protagonist struggle with guilt over whether she did all she could to help her ailing brother gives me a unique kind of melancholy, blended with heartfelt gratitude for their love and comfort, even if I can't remember a single moment of it. Leaving childhood too early can have adverse consequences on a person's psychological maturity, maybe not to the degree that you'll start growing obscenely long fingernails and your sclera will turn purple, but still pretty serious repercussions, as the film exemplifies with impressive depth and complexity. It stands the test of time because it is one of the treasured DCOM Film's that refuses to condescend to its youthful audience and instead challenges them to consider what childhood means to them and how much of it they intend to carry over with them into adulthood. They'll always be a boogeyman to fight one way or another, but the film's thrilling and surprisingly emotional finale reminds us that we don't always need to make up allies (imaginary friends) to protect us against these frightening creatures. We can often find real, tactile support amongst us in our friends and families. The film's director, Kenneth Johnson, who also directed Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999) apparently had to defend the film during pre-production against concerns over an innocent kiss that occurs at the end between two characters of different races because it could potentially offend Southern audiences. This is a good reminder that the things we should be frightened of most in our lives don't live under our beds, but amongst us as everyday people.
2. Halloweentown 2: Kalabar's Revenge (2001)
Though you'll see me regale about this film's predecessor in just a bit, the second entry in this franchise is admittedly my favorite one. Unlike other Disney Channel Original Movie sequels which tended to take on a lighter tone than the first as the network began to recalibrate its content, Halloweentown 2 is actually a much darker film. The stakes in the plot are much higher as the villain's plan appears far more likely to succeed than in the first, and the risk to the citizens of both worlds is as dire as can be. Portions of the film are literally shot using bleaker colors, which align with a dastardly spell that has been cast on Halloweentown by a mysterious adversary of Marnie's, our protagonist from the first outing who is now a teenager and formal witch-in-training. If Halloweentown is the movie, you watch before going trick-or-treating, than Halloweentown 2 is the film you watch when you've returned to the house after dark and want to sort through your sugary loot. The only thing really "wrong" with this sequel is that because of the conflict at play in the center of its plot (the gray spell over Halloweentown) which causes all the joy, color and magic of the dimension to be dulled down to mundane normalcy, we don't actually get to spend much time in the town we had come to know and love during the first film. The third film ends up making the same mistake, showing us even less of Halloweentown than the first two films. It's forgivable to some extent, especially considering it is working off a television movie runtime, and it is still a more than worthy entry in the Halloweentown mythos, giving all the characters opportunity to grow in interesting ways and still allowing for plenty of delightful magic to make its way across our television screens. Admittedly, there are feature film sequels that don't deserve to be on the same level as this early 2000s gem, especially Halloween films for that matter.
1. Halloweentown (1998)
Honestly, the hype machine works overtime come October 1st, and this film is one of its primary batteries. Halloweentown is not #1 on this list because of its namesake or even because it has the largest cult following of anything else on this list. Like all the greats, it is #1 because it deserves to be. The film is the story of a precocious adolescent girl, Marnie Piper, who along with her two younger siblings Dylan and Sophie, discovers her maternal side of the family is from an alternate dimension where it is always Halloween and every mythical and magical creature imaginable lives there. When her grandmother, the ethereal Debbie Reynolds as Aggie Cromwell comes to their house for a visit, the three kids sneak onto a magical bus and are transported to their family's native land, though they soon discover that dark forces are at work trying to take it over. It is a film that takes itself and its themes more seriously than it needed to, and for that, it has ingrained itself into the childhoods of millions with no signs of stopping over 20 years later. Halloweentown reminds us that being different isn't just okay, it's to be celebrated and championed. Being normal is indeed vastly overrated, and we come to comprehend this more and more as we grow up, which is why the film continues to resonate with Millenials long after they've grown out of trick-or-treating. It's about family, flaws and all, not the cookie-cutter Leave it to Beaver life we often see depicted on this specific channel particularly. Marnie's tense relationship with her mother is relatable because they don't fix everything by the film's end, but they fix enough to move forward in better shape than they were before. Its set design is hardly on par with anything the Russo Brothers could devise. Still, nobody could care less because images from the big Jack O'Lantern in the town square to the abandoned movie theater and even just the magically appearing bus stop all ineradicably insert themselves into your psyche and remain there for years and years. They are there, much like the film itself, to remind you that just because you grow up doesn't mean you have to lose that special spark that kept you going as a child. That gave you hope on rainy days and chilly nights. This entire year is a rainstorm of epic proportions. It certainly isn't a year that many feel like getting dressed up and festive for. If there was ever a time to need Halloweentown, it is for these times. The ones where our loved ones are there to save us, and we are there to save them. For the night when going out may be more dangerous than it'd normally be on All Hallows Eve and not because of ghouls and goblins, but something far more sinister and real, unfortunately.
It's okay to be scared, to be sad or even angry. I'd highly recommend taking a trip to Halloweentown or into the world of any of the above-mentioned films to help guide you through the strangest Halloween some of us will ever encounter. Let these films cast a spell on you, and if you are anything like me, for however short of time, you'll believe in magic once again. At the very least you'll smile, and that is a result none of us should be taking for granted in 2020 no matter what month it is.
Happy Halloween!
