I know this didn’t just come out, but it was new to me. Mostly because I knew it was RL Stine related, and for me that always elicits thoughts of Goosebumps. Nothing wrong with Goosebumps at all, but I am not the target audience for those books.

This movie surprised me in many ways. First off, it was well done and mature in the story and how it was told. I wasn’t expecting that. We start off in a B. Dalton (and I gotta say that got me excited right off the bat… because bookstore!) with a teen worker who is closing but wants to be walked home by a boy she likes (?). Nothing wrong with this setup. Until we have a moment where she steps out of the shop and we see the place is empty. Every other shop is locked up and dark. Why is she still there and so slow at closing up? Or rather how did everyone else get out so fast? But not everyone is gone, because a killer in a skull mask shows up and begins chasing her. It’s a valiant chase and she almost eludes the killer. But then she succumbs. Luckily a cop shows up to shoot the villain in the forehead. He falls on top of her, dead, as she bleeds out dying as well.

And that’s just the pre-credit sequence! Because now we get credits. But the villain is dead. Right? Well not exactly. There are two sister cities here: Sunnyvale and Shady Side. Personifications of good and bad. The uptight residents of Sunnyvale look down perpetually on everyone in Shady Side. I will say that this aspect feels very YA oriented. Not much nuance to that idea.

But where this movie picks up and shines is when we find out that the killer in the skull mask isn’t dead. Well, he is, but also isn’t. I jumped ahead a bit as there was a car accident that caused a previously Shady Side student who is now a Sunnyvale resident to become tainted by a legendary witch who was executed in the area over 300 years ago. And the witch had cursed the area. In the ensuing years, a seemingly random “decent” person goes bad and engages in a killing spree. So that explains the skull mask killer. It was just another victim of the curse. Sam is the girl who had a vision of the witch and became tainted by it.

But after becoming tainted by it, the witch is after Sam. Well, sending her undead and unkillable minions after her. And there is some consistency issues here. Because the Skull Mask killer was rather indiscriminate at the start of the movie. But then he comes back with a singular focus to get Sam. Even going past easy kills to chase her.

Our intrepid group of 5 (Sam and her girlfriend Deena, Simon, Kate, and Deena’s younger brother Josh) are trying to figure things out. They realize the killer is going after Sam specifically. But then Ruby Lane shows up and although she is after Sam as well, she tries to take out Simon first. Because he has some of Sam’s blood on his shirt.

As they devise a plan to try and put an end to the killers (by setting their school on fire), the friends quickly realize they are in over their heads.

This movie did a great job of keeping me entertained. I was surprised at how much I liked it. And, huge spoiler alert coming now… There was a point where I actually thought “This movie is going to end with everyone dying!” And I kinda really dug that idea. It obviously didn’t pan out quite that way. But more on that when we get to the sequel… errr, prequel?

The first part of this series is the most recent, with part two going back 16 years and then part three going back a further 312 years!

I’m giving this 9 stars because I did really like this. More than I expected to for sure. But I think it was a really good American style horror movie.