A depressed teenage girl is locked in an old haunted theater over night where she learns some key lessons from some actors who never left.
Some Spoilers Ahead
1. Unable To Come Out Of Your Shell
Lexi Underwood plays Elle, a self-made introvert whose old lost friendship has made her disappear into herself. She’s given up on everything that once made her happy. She sullenly makes her way through life, going to class, coming home, staring into her phone or her school work. While Underwood’s performance is at times a bit over-done to hammer the point home, being 18 years old, playing just a few years younger, she nails the pain and heartache of being truly unable to open up in front of others. We all know how it feels to simply not want to speak in front of the class or even exchange small talk with a parent. Elle continues to sink into herself until she hits her lowest point so far during a field trip to the local theater. When asked to help perform a scene with another student, she sees the laughs and stares of the other kids, most notably her former best friend, and she runs off claiming she has to use the bathroom. She ends up falling asleep on an old couch in a lower level of the theater. Seeing her continuously sink into her feelings makes makes us as uncomfortable as she is.
2. A Haunting Score
Early in the episode, right after Elle is locked in the old theater after falling asleep, the score picks up a very eerie tone. Composer Carlos Rafael Rivera pulls from some clear influences, and while all familiar, it does stand on its own as something new. As Elle attempts to leave through the front doors, only to find them locked, she begins to hear and see things that are odd, but could be explained away. The score picks up at this point and calls back to some great scores like Jerry Goldsmith’s beautiful and very scary Poltergeist. There are pieces throughout the episode, as it moves between creepy and genuinely funny/silly, that feel at home in things like Tales From the Crypt. Towards the end of the episode as the ramps up the action against the demonic “The Critic,” the music does lean into generic dramatic action, but when it hits it does its job of setting each scene beautifully. Rivera does the music the score for every episode, but this is the one that really stood out to me.
3. Generations Can Teach Each Other New Things
While the presentation is a bit hammy, the idea of Elle being able to unintentionally teach these old ghosts things about themselves, as they intentionally try to make her a better actress, or at the very least give her the ability to open up and become more like she used to be. The ghosts and Elle teach each other to let go of the past and to move on, repairing the problem that got them there in the first place. These are nice lessons to aim at kids and tweens, and it mainly works throughout, even if there is very little that is subtle about its presentation.
4. This Place is a Scream
The episode is equal parts funny and honestly spooky. While the main ghosts are purposefully Haunted Mansion level goofy, the demonic skull creature is a well done fright that should creep out most kids. The effect works incredibly well in the final act. Elle begins to figure out before her spirited pals that the “Critic” may actually be another actress that they had a falling out with. They all believed she had escaped the theater prior to the fire that killed the rest of them, but it seems that she also perished on her way out and her pain and anger transformed her into this horrifying skull monster. It’s a giant CGI creation, but it has an interesting design that seems to have wispy hair floating/hanging off of it, and this really creepy sheet over its entirety. Probably a reference to both the old idea of sheet-ed ghosts, and the curtain on a stage. It works in its design, but does get a little wacky when its throwing stuff around the theater. It also feels like another reference to Poltergeist.
Continued belowAs for our main ghost characters, they are both sad – in that they died in a horrific manner, but they are also living out their afterlife just as they did when they were alive. They only have each other so a lot of the bits are them bickering over their talent and how much of a diva they are. Both in presentation and characteristics, they feel like they walked out of a more child friendly version of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners. The humor is there, but there is something unsettling about seeing these blue people walking around acting like they did in life. It’s almost more uncanny than if they were truly frightening looking and there to scare you. The two most notable characters are Ben Gleib’s Oscar, a sort of silent film era version of Clark Gable and Kate Baldwin’s Vivian, a throwback to young Bette Davis and any number of characters portrayed by comedic genius Madeline Kahn. The four ghosts are all old Hollywood archetypes. It’s fun and are broad stroke enough for parents to appreciate the bit, and kids get what they are going for.
5. The Ghosts of the Past
When the episode is sad, it is sad. It focuses on friendships lost, the pain of being forgotten, and a life left behind. Elle is stuck in a rut having lost this extremely close friendship and the ghosts are stuck in limbo, unable to complete the play they were rehearsing the night they died, unable to move on. The ghosts have also helped create the creature known as the critic, until it isn’t. So, the pain, anger, and shame of past decisions has put every character in the current predicament. It is a good level of sad, and the resolutions are satisfying.
