Title: The Spirit of Halloween (2026)
Actor(s) You Know: Meghan Ory (Once Upon a Time [Red Riding Hood], various Hallmark movies), Kevin McGarry (various Hallmark movies/shows)
Plot:
Everly hates Halloween, so is visited by three spirits to discover the true meaning of Halloween that she's actually in love with her best friend from childhood, Beau.
Trope(s):
Royalty
Alternate reality
Small town ✔
Fake relationship
Family business getting sold/going bankrupt
Enemies-to-lovers
Best friends-to-lovers ✔
Second chance ✔
Stranded
Meet Cute:
n/a; they're friends from childhood
Rundown:
Dead parents
Montage(s)
Christmas-related name(s)
Animals
Returns to hometown
Is Santa a character?
Secretly or overtly?
Cookie baking
Tree decorating
Somebody hates Christmas Halloween ✔
Christmas festival in a small town
A literal competition
Child plays matchmaker
All work, no romance/life ✔
Kiss before the end of the movie
Interrupted kiss
Flashback to childhood ✔
The leads literally run into each other
Gratuitous shirtless scene
Big Secret
Wacky misunderstanding
Just. Talk. To. Each. Other. ✔
Someone pushing the leads together
Real family = chaos / bad families = cold and not chaotic
Learns the meaning of Christmas Halloween ✔
Stranded by snowstorm
Hot chocolate
Ice skating
D-list celebrity
Enemy-to-friend storyline
The love interest is an ex
Career change
Lying to each other
Tries to apologize, but keeps getting cut off
Christmas pageant
End with a flash-forward
Did I actually like/root for the heroine? How do the lead(s) annoy me?
No, I did not. She's not, like, super bad. Just annoying. The ultimate takeaway of the movie is that she doesn't really let people in, and she's an idiot for not seeing how into her Beau was, but the movie doesn't do a good job of explaining how she came to be how she is. Which is ironic, seeing how it's literally a Christmas Carol adaptation and there's a whole "Halloween Past" section that's meant explicitly for this.
Is it in any way not completely generic?
Nope! Completely predictable. Everly did have a great cat, though.
Is the BFF actually the best? Do they need their own movie?
Not really. The BFF in this case--or the closest thing to one, I guess--is Tracy, the assistant at Everly's bridal shop, who keeps pushing to do Halloween costumes for people despite the fact that it's a bridal salon. Like, even if they did more than just bridal gowns (which may have been the case), the place was still too upscale-seeming to be a place where people would go for Halloween costumes. Anyway, there was a little bit of drama with her own relationship that didn't entirely make sense. I'm slightly confused by it, but not to the extent that I need an entire movie about her.
How is the romantic alternative wrong for the heroine?
Sadly, no other options. Well, I guess there's Rex, Everly's long-term boyfriend who she finds making out with her best friend at the Halloween party (hence her hatred of Halloween).
Thoughts/Other Notes:
A frustrating watch, honestly. The ghosts are purportedly there to help Everly improve her life and she rightly pushes back against the idea of this meaning that she needs to find a boyfriend; the "Marley" in the scenario is her former boss/mentor Anna, who basically says "You don't want to end up like me," but we're not given any real details on what "like me" means. The flashbacks deal entirely with her relationship with Beau; having a scene in there when she worked for Anna would've helped immensely. We know that Everly is a workaholic who doesn't trust Tracy with more responsibility, but it doesn't make her a bad person; certainly nowhere near the level of Ebenezer Scrooge (or the various Scrooge stand-ins I've seen in Christmas Carol updates over the years, and here I am thinking specifically of Ebony Scrooge in A Diva's Christmas Carol, which is a classic). And not all of her issues can be traced to what happened with her ex.
It did have some amusing elements, though.
Rating:
🧀🧀
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