Marnie — played by Kimberly J. Brown — knows she’s not normal, much to her mother’s (Judith Hoag) chagrin. Marnie’s obsession with witches, monsters, and magic sets her apart. When she and her siblings — Dylan (Joey Zimmerman) and Sophie (Emily Roseke) — follow their grandmother Aggie (Debbie Reynolds) to Halloweentown they find out that in this new dimension everyone and everything is magical. Even Dylan — a non-believer — has a twitch of magic.
I instantly fell in love with the whimsy of Halloweentown. Who wouldn’t want to be whisked away by a flying bus to a town that has a werewolf hairstylist, a dentist for vampires, and a skeleton taxi driver who can’t stop cracking terrible jokes. There’s something so comforting about the bright 90s colours and long velvet, star-studded cloaks. The giant jack-o’-lantern in the centre of town, with its crackling smile, always feels welcoming no matter what age you are.
Young Phillip Van Dyke — who plays Luke, at first a villain but then becomes Marnie’s friend — being one of my first crushes also helped feed the obsession. There is a world where Luke and Marnie are endgame, unfortunately I don’t live in it. With the banter, the way Luke believes in Marnie so completely and the way he looks at her when she isn’t paying attention, he at the very least deserved to be in the third installment. Love interest or not.
Now I have to address the giant pumpkin in the room that is the fourth movie. Personally, I operate as if it was never made, but when I decided to write this article I knew I unfortunately had to revisit it. Not only did they — for absolutely no reason at all — change the actress portraying Marnie to Sara Paxton, but they also completely missed what makes the first three movies so magical; the familial tension that everyone can relate to.
The idea of a magical college seems like a natural next step for the series especially coming off the success of the third installment Halloweentown High (2004). But this new setting not only severed us from our favourites, Aggie and Sophie, but also completely lost the family-focused atmosphere the first two movies spent so much time building.
Rewatching all three movies now I see the series for what it really is: not just a feel good coming of age story, but movies that preach the destruction of the patriarchy. Halloweentown is a place where diversity and harmony is almost constantly under threat by men who are very black and white and think they alone hold power. And who stops them? Three generations of women from an incredibly powerful line of witches that show empathy to every creature and human. Each movie works toward unifying everyone under the belief that love triumphs all. I don’t know about you but I feel like this world could use a few more people who still believe that.
