Directed by Jeff Wadlow, written by Todd Berger and Robert Rugan, and based on a story by John R. Morey and Todd Berger, “The Curse of Bridge Hollow” follows Howard Gordon (Marlon Wayans), his wife Emily (Kelly Rowland), and their daughter Sydney (Priah Ferguson) as they move from Brooklyn to a town called Bridge Hollow. And since they move in on Halloween, the town is decked out to the teeth with all sorts of horror-themed decorations and paraphernalia. Now Howard hates Halloween, Sydney is angry about leaving Brooklyn, and it seems Emily is the only one who is somewhat positive about the change. There is also bad blood between Howard and Sydney, as she does not want to become the person her father wants her to be. But when the spirit of Stingy Jack descends on the town to haunt it, they are forced to overcome their differences and defeat this personification of evil.
Major Spoilers Ahead
What’s up with all the signs for Stingy Jack?
When Mayor Tammy (Lauren Lapkus) meets with the Gordons, Emily asks her about the town’s obsession with Stingy Jack. So she explains – with a visual aid provided by her intricately designed sweater – that, according to an Irish legend, an evil person called Stingy Jack was hanged to death by the people of Bridge Hollow. But the Devil took pity on Jack and gave him a pumpkin lantern in which the flames were made of the fires of hell. And every Halloween, Jack returns to Bridge Hollow to exact revenge on the descendants of the villagers who wronged him. Why should this concern the Gordons? Well, while visiting Bridge Hollow Cemetery, Sydney meets three children: Mario (Myles Vincent Perez) Ramona (Abi Monterey) and Jamie (Holly J. Barrett). The Gordons are said to have moved into the house of Mrs. Hawthorne, that is, the Spiritualist who defeated Stingy Jack.
This information obviously piques Sydney’s interest, and assuming Madame Hawthorne’s spirit lives in her house, she uses the Ouija Board app to contact her. An unknown entity leads her to a chest containing a lantern in the shape of a pumpkin head. While having a tiff with her dad for quitting the science team, Sydney lights the lantern, awakening Stingy Jack’s spirit and allowing his magic to spread to all of the inanimate Halloween decorations and bring them to life. . Sydney obviously wants to follow what all this spooky activity is about, while Howard is inclined to think of it as hands-on magic tricks conjured up by the townspeople. In doing so, the main conflict of “The Curse of Bridge Hollow” is established: a believer versus a non-believer in the supernatural. And the conflict that runs alongside it is that Sydney wants to be her own person while Howard wants her to become the person he couldn’t.
Madame Hawthorne’s spell is the only thing that can stop Stingy Jack.
To learn more about Hawthorne and the Curse of Bridge Hollow, Sydney and Howard travel to the Shady Appletree Nursing Home, where Madame Hawthorne’s granddaughter Victoria (Helen Slayton-Hughes) resides. And the first thing Victoria says is that this lantern is not a pumpkin but a turnip. When Sydney asks her to tell them more, she says that a long time ago, on a dark and stormy night, mystics from all over the world came to this house to meet Josephine Hawthorne. They used his grimoire (a book of spells) to conjure Stingy Jack’s spirit and end his violent annual visits to Bridge Hollow. However, Jack had other plans. He wanted every night to be Halloween, and he could achieve that by replacing his soul in “the eternal” with someone else’s. Jack apparently wanted Josephine’s soul for this. But since she trapped him in her lantern, her plan failed. He now has a second chance to plunge Bridge Hollow into eternal Halloween as his lantern has been re-lit.
So, in order to beat Stingy Jack again, Sydney and Howard seek out Hawthorne’s grimoire, cast the spell, and trap Jack’s spirit in his lantern. They are forced to take a very convoluted but action-packed route – filled with brilliant use of SFX, VFX and stunts – to Principal Floyd (John Michael Higgins), who is the grimoire’s current owner and lives on Elm Street. Yes, “The Curse of Bridge Hollow” nods to “The Walking Dead,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Killer Clowns From Space,” “Army of Darkness,” “Enter the Dragon,” and more. . But it’s very skillfully done and the film doesn’t dwell on it too long. If you can catch the reference, good for you. If you can’t, the movie keeps moving forward. Going back to the story, Howard and the kids find Hawthorne’s grimoire in Floyd’s house. But when they are attacked by the football-themed skeletons outside, the page of the book containing the spell is burned, thus forcing them to go to Hawthorne’s grave to awaken his spirit and ask him to repeat the spell. fate for them.
‘The Curse of Bridge Hollow’ ending explained: How did Howard and Sydney defeat Stingy Jack?
While Howard and the kids extract Hawthorne’s spell, animated Halloween decorations head to the town fair to bring the Stingy Jack statue to life. Howard and Sydney discover that Jack will now find his lantern and then send a soul to the afterlife so he can begin his reign over Bridge Hollow. Since the lantern is in the Gordon/Hawthorne house, where Emily is all alone and unaware of everything that is going on, Howard and Sydney realize that she is going to become Jack’s victim. So they take the mayor’s pumpkin-themed car (since it and the rest of the residents are busy battling the animated decorations) and rush to Emily’s rescue. And just as Jack is about to throw Emily into the void, Howard casts the spell with all the conviction he can muster and ends this creepy nightmare. The film ends with Howard and Sydney locking away Jack’s lantern for good, only to find the attic filled with several more trunks that are likely full of Hawthorne’s secrets.
Howard and Sydney’s battle against Stingy Jack can simply be seen as a fight between good and evil and how good will always defeat evil at the end of the day. But it’s also about strangers who walk into a city with old customs and instantly break them because they’re unaware of the repercussions of doing so. While a horror movie like “Midsommar” brutally punishes its protagonists for doing the exact same thing, “The Curse of Bridge Hollow” allows its protagonists to right their wrongs because it wants to provide people with a kid-friendly experience. . If this was a serious movie about a black family inheriting secrets from a white spiritualist (who has a distant granddaughter), it would have had a lot of historical overtones about race and generational trauma. Maybe it’s in the DNA of this film. However, since its subject matter is quite light, this interpretation may be limited to a family swindled into buying a cheap house due to its haunted history. And last but not least, he’s a staunch believer in facts and science forced to question its reality by the supernatural.
I don’t think “The Curse of Bridge Hollow” does a brilliant job of addressing the themes that are very evident in its script. Jack’s choice of victim seems very odd as Emily had little or nothing to do with the Lantern. Sydney would have been the most obvious choice because she was the one who turned it on. Also, Emily’s career change from lawyer to vegan baker doesn’t sit well with me. Seems like there’s a commentary about the town’s estrangement from modern civilization, which has led to their rise in supernatural beliefs and petty feuds with the nearby town, which inadvertently fuels the supernatural. But all this is mentioned or observed in passing. And, of course, Howard’s conversion from a non-believer to a believer seems far too “simple” because the narrative is rigged to outweigh fact by fiction. But, despite all these problems, the film is very enjoyable. It has some of the most amazing special effects, visual effects, stunts, action direction, and acting I’ve seen in a horror comedy in a long time. Marlon Wayans and Priah Ferguson are clearly having a blast. For me, that’s reason enough to watch this Netflix movie.
“The Curse of Bridge Hollow” is a 2022 comedy-drama film directed by Jeff Wadlow.
