Stream It Or Skip It: 'Haul Out The Halloween' on the Hallmark Channel: A Hilarious Comedy About Neighbors Who Go All Out for the Holidays
Haul Out The Halloween on the Hallmark Channel is a hilarious comedy that brings back the residents of Evergreen Lane, the most festive street in America, as they gear up for the spooky season. The film stars Lacey Chabert, Wes Brown, and Stephen Tobolowsky as neighbors who take their holiday spirit a little too far. But is it worth your time?
Stream It Or Skip It?
Stream It!
The Gist:
Emily (Chabert) and Jared (Brown), now newly married, live on a street where holiday decor is a tradition and a competition. Among the many neighbors in their HOA, there are spies and nosy nellies who try to one up each other when it comes to decorating. This season, a new couple, Luna and Marvin Balmer, are turning Evergreen Lane into Everscream Lane with their lawn full of skeletons and gravestones. Jared, the head of the homeowner’s association, is appalled. This neighborhood only does Christmas, not Halloween, and it’s written in the bylaws! But soon, Emily and Jared learn that the anti-Halloween crusade was implemented because Emily’s grandmother was obsessed with Halloween, and after her death, they felt it was too painful a reminder to celebrate. When Emily realizes this, she changes the rule, vowing to use Halloween as a celebration of her grandmother’s life.
Emily, as chair of the Evergreen Lane events committee, tells all the residents that Halloween decor is now required, every house must have a lawn display, and there will be contests in the week leading up to Halloween: pumpkin decorating, baking competitions, and a costume contest. Tensions arise not only because of everyone’s competitive streak but also because Jared learns that his mom has been secretly seeing their neighbor Ned, and Emily realizes that Evergreen’s quest to be so festive has created an exclusive, alienating community rather than a welcoming one. With all of that going on, they use the holiday and the spirit of Gram-Gram to turn Halloween into a festive party for everyone.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?
Haul Out The Halloween is the latest in the Haul Out series. For more festive holiday action, check out Haul Out The Holly and Haul Out The Holly: Lit Up.
Our Take:
Like its predecessors, Haul Out The Halloween’s greatest strength is its truly funny, fast-paced script. The neighborly banter is witty, full of pop culture references, and lighthearted personal jabs that make the Evergreen Lane community feel like a community you’d want to hang out with. Tobolowsky and Melissa Peterman stand out as the most opinionated and quippy of the bunch, but you have to love new neighbors Marvin and Luna, who are the slightly morbid types who love to creep people out but are real softies at heart.
We’ve raved about Haul Out The Holly and Haul Out The Holly: Lit Up when they were released, and we’re happy to report that Haul Out The Halloween is every bit as good as those films that came before, perhaps because it focuses almost entirely on being a comedy, more than anything else. The references planted throughout the film run the gamut; keep an eye out for Pamela and her daughter dressed as the twins from The Shining, Jared dressed as ‘Chaddy Krueger,’ an amalgam of Freddy Krueger and Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger, and, if you’re familiar with the Swig soda chain, prepare to laugh at the neighbors who chug massive ‘Swigalicious’ sodas.
Parting Shot:
Emily and Jared dance with each other while wearing a couples costume under a portrait of Gram-Gram, the woman who imbued them with the spirit of Halloween in the first place.
Performance Worth Watching:
Stephen Tobolowsky, who plays Ned, is one of several genuinely funny, quirky characters living on Evergreen Lane. His performance as a ‘Bard Card’-holding Shakespeare obsessive with a fixation on crullers is laugh-out-loud funny at times.
Memorable Dialogue:
‘This is Evergreen Lane, not the Globe Theater, and our HOA president would never allow this level of theatrics!’ say Pamela, the most irritable resident of the cul-de-sac, after listening to her neighbors nerd out over their love of Shakespeare. (Cut to Jared, the HOA president, arriving to the meeting in full costume, emerging from a theatrical plume of smoke.)
Our Call:
Stream It! Haul Out The Halloween is great fun, and we’re hoping the franchise doesn’t end with this one.
