The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Its refusal to behave is the point.”
The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.
Back to trending 
Halloweentown
TV Movie · Fantasy · Comedy · 1998
On her 13th birthday, Marnie learns she's a witch, discovers a secret portal, and is transported to Halloweentown — a magical place where ghosts and ghouls, witches and werewolves live apart from the human world. But she soon finds herself battling wicked warlocks, evil curses, and endless surprises.
Movie details
Halloweentown
1998 TV Movie · Fantasy · Comedy 1h 24m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.5 / 10
24.6K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
83 %
Tomatometer
TMDB
6.8 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
On her 13th birthday, Marnie learns she's a witch, discovers a secret portal, and is transported to Halloweentown — a magical place where ghosts and ghouls, witches and werewolves live apart from the human world. But she soon finds herself battling wicked warlocks, evil curses, and endless surprises.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Halloweentown?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
The School for Good and Evil
Fantasy · 2022
Best friends Sophie and Agatha navigate an enchanted school for young heroes and villains — and find themselves on opposing sides of the battle between good and evil.
The Canterville Ghost
Animation · 2023
An American family moves in to the Canterville Chase, a London mansion that has been haunted by ghost Sir Simon De Canterville for 300 years.
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
Animation · 1979
Winterbolt is trying to make the North Pole his evil wonderland, and it is up to Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and others to stop him.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch
TV Movie · 1996
A girl, sent by her parents to live with her two eccentric aunts, finds out on her sixteenth birthday that she is a witch.
Monster Family
Animation · 2017
The Wishbone family are far from happy. In an attempt to reconnect as a family, they plan a fun night out. However, the plan backfires when they are cursed and all turned into Monsters.
Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge
Adventure · 2001
The Cromwell clan lives in the real world, except for their grandmother who lives in Halloweentown, a place where monsters go to escape reality. But now the son of the Cromwells' old enemy Kalabar has a plan to use the grandmother's book to turn Halloweentown into a grey dreary version of the real world while transforming the denizens of the real world into monsters.
Girl vs. Monster
Family · 2012
Skylar finds out that her parents are monster hunters after she accidentally releases some monsters from a secret containment chamber; so she and her techno friends must recapture all the monsters and also save her mom and dad from these monsters who are out for revenge.
Hotel Transylvania 2
Animation · 2015
When the old-old-old-fashioned vampire Vlad arrives at the hotel for an impromptu family get-together, Hotel Transylvania is in for a collision of supernatural old-school and modern day cool.
Halloweentown High
Adventure · 2004
Marnie puts her magic on the line to get several Halloweentown teenagers transferred to her high school in the mortal world. But soon, Marnie and her new friends are in trouble and out of luck when the evil Knight Of The Iron Dagger appears. He's determined to destroy all things magical, and it's up to Marnie to save her high school, the human world and her magic.
Upside-Down Magic
Fantasy · 2020
Nory and her best friend Reina enter the Sage Academy for Magical Studies, where Nory’s unconventional powers land her in a class for those with wonky, or “upside-down,” magic. Undaunted, Nory sets out to prove that that upside-down magic can be just as powerful as right-side-up.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Duwayne Dunham
Written by
Paul Bernbaum · Ali Marie Matheson · Jon Cooksey
Debbie Reynolds
Agatha 'Aggie' Cromwell
Kimberly J. Brown
Marnie Piper
Judith Hoag
Gwen Cromwell Piper
Joey Zimmerman
Dylan Piper Cromwell
Phillip Van Dyke
Luke
Emily Roeske
Sophie Piper Cromwell
Robin Thomas
Kalabar
Court is in session
Put Halloweentown on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“Oddness is not depth.”
A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.