Hello, Spongey here.
It’s time for this year’s main Halloween scene by scene review. It’s a bit early due to the 2nd round of random Halloween episodes taking over as my main event. That said, I got an overdue and hopefully wild one for us year.
After last year, we are going back to more kid friendly spooks with this one. Back in 2020, I covered Shadow Zone: Undead Express. It was based on a book from a 90’s kids book series that was kinda sorta a Goosebumps cash in. I’m still unsure about that but whatever.
I couldn’t read the book but the movie was just okay. It had its moment but it was mostly just kind of dull and stretched out. Since then I’ve learned that these aired on Showtime, that’s something. It’s still wild that they even exist. It’s an obscure series, yet it got two movies. Yep, they made another one a year later in 1997 and that’s what we’re here to cover.
Now, not only did I read the book this time but I read another from the series, “Scream Around the Campfire”. That one was solid, you can find my review on Goodreads. As for this book, I’ll save my thoughts for end of this. I will compare it to this movie and you’ll be able to tell what I think from that, but I’ll go into detail at the end.
For now, we’ll see how the movie fares on both levels. Can you adapt a short middle grade book without stretching out this time? Our director is the same as last time, Stephen Williams but we’ve got new writers with Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens. They’re a package deal, being married, and have quite a bit of work, ranging from episodes of Batman TAS and Mighty Ducks, to Aliens Ate My Homework and it’s sequel, based on the Bruce Coville books.
Oh now that I’m interested. Also, they loved adapting books that make a pun on “Dog ate my homework” huh. They’re actually authors themselves, and one of their books has a critic quote form Stephen King. Dang. Anyway, let’s see if they can make some magic here.
This, is Shadow Zone: My Teacher Ate Homework
The movie opens with a glorious short 90’s CGI intro. Great start. We properly begin at a school where the light start going out., Then this random guy shows up and says “I love the young!”. I’m scared. This is the discount Cryptkeeper from the last one, being more elbratoe.
Here he’s played by McKenzie Gray aka the devil in that one Haunting Hour episode. Because of course. He’s certainly enjoying himself at least. He introduces us to things and then we get into the actual story with our protagonist Jesse Hackett.
He has a dream where his teacher is a giant and looms over his room to trap him and belittle him for being late. This kid has issues. The roof is gone and we see the sky in an effect they did to make more work for themselves given this isn’t in the book.
Jesse wakes up and we see things are busy in the morning, and that he has to deal with his dad’s obvious ADR. Seriously, the audio quality on him dips and it sounds like a poorly dubbed kung fu movie. His parents are busy so he has to do things like get his bratty younger sister ready for school. I at least have mild sympathy for him so far.
Jesse meets up with his friend Cody, whose acting is not the best. He’s trying too hard to be cool it seems and I don’t think he can pull it off. They get to school but of course they deal with some bullies. The main one is played by Skipper from Goosebumps Attack of the Mutant. Oh come on, I can’t escape it!
Also yeah, this guy is a bully, sure.
He escapes and he’s ready to turn in an assignment. But whoops he did a different one and doesn’t have today’s ready so he hopes he isn’t called on. This small detail is from the book which gives me hope on the rest being loyal. We properly meet Mrs. Fink, played by Shelley Duvall. The way she plays it as a bit odd but fine.
She’s the strict kind of teacher but mostly on Jesse as he’s that kind of kid. She discovers the truth but he swears he did the thing, just brought in the wrong one. She may not fully buy it as she gives him an extra thing on top of the previous work which is a bit much.
Jesse takes it a step further and talks to his friend about her being pure evil. He’s heard stories about her gassing puppies. Yeesh. That bit was in the book too. So far this is more faithful than some big budget YA adaptations. Naturally, she pops up behind him as he talks about this.
She doesn’t make a thing of it though and just walks away. He and Cody want to go to get stuff and the latter’s sister is gonna take them. She is named Geneva and she’s the new age type and says stuff like “it’s in the stars” and puts on atmospheric sounds in the car. I kind of love her.
On the way they stop to look a mysterious store that wasn’t there yesterday. Oh this always ends well. It’s the kind of stuff Geneva likes and his a creepy vibe to it. The owner gives us another notable change as it’s he here, but it was a she in the book. We spend too long going around the place until Jesse goes in the back and finds a creep doll.
It weirdly reminds him of Mrs Fink and he thinks of getting it. The owner guy yells at him and says it is not for sale. This is a good sign to not get it. Jesse doesn’t listen and neither does the guy who gives in after 5 seconds. Geez even the Haunted Mask Shopkeeper didn’t give up this easily.
Then he says the doll called to him and laughs easily. Okay. Jesse goes home and right away gets unhinged as he messes with the Fink doll. Like, he acts out a thing and it makes it clear he still has issues.
The next day at school, Mrs. Fink shows up with her arm in a sling, having sprained it. She says it happened on the way to school, so she got that sling super quickly. This means extra time on their projects since she can’t grade quite yet. That’s lucky but at home Jesse discovers that the Fink doll is messed up from his roughhousing with it.
Yep, we’ve got voodoo. He’s able to brush it off as a coincidence at first. He still doesn’t want his sister Annabel playing with it. It’s not spelled the same way but I don’t want someone with that name messing with dolls either.
The next day, Jesse goes to school just in time to see Fink get hit by a football some kids are playing with. We see a bit of blood trickling which is surprising. It’s implied to have been caused by the sister bashing the doll around the stairs. Not sure how that equates to being hit with a football but either way that kid who threw it is being sued to death.
This means getting a sub named Mrs. Macro and we’ll ignore the teacher named after a fetish for a bit. Jesse brought the doll to school and Skipper the bully sees it and of course mocks him. He is saved by the doll biting him. Yes.
His friend says Jesse is “nutting up”. 90’s kids and their slang written by adults. At home we get a drawn out scene of creepy things happening until the finally shows itself. The doll is not only a voodoo doll but it also alive on its own. I can’t say I’ve seen that before.
It means we get effects used to make the doll move and talk. They’re not bad for what this is I guess, this kind of thing is a bit hard to do especially on the budget they likely had. Jesse runs to get Cody but when he brings him over, the doll is still.
The parents on the down low in this so this fills in for the “you gotta believe me” scene. Eventually Cody leaves and Jesse puts the doll away with it just not doing anything now. Granted, the parents showed up. A bit later, Annabel finds the doll and patches it up a bit.
Jesse gets mad anyway to be a dick. The dad pops up to both stop the yelling and show off his improved ADR. Meanwhile Cody talks to his sister about the doll thing, thinking there may be something to it. The book was all in first person so we didn’t get anything like this, it’s interesting.
It just kind of stops though as we move on to school the next day. Jesse brings up the doll to apologize for being a bit weird but despite the previous scene, Cody is a dick about it. This bit was in the book but the addition of the last scene just taints it a bit.
Fink walks by and we see that her arm has gotten better, she said it needed some tender loving care, which Annebel also said. Then she opens Jesse’s locker to check something and the doll attacks her. It looks silly to say the least.
She just gets pushed down but it is enough to knock her out and send her back to the hospital. Cody saw so he’s along for the ride now whew. They try to go back to the creepy store to return it but shock of all shockers, the store is gone.
“We’ve been through worse together”
If you’ve seen worse than an evil doll, I gotta see your past adventures.They walk away and then we see the owner guy laughing evilly. Okay. Jesse goes home and the doll pops up to say that he wanted her. She says his hate for Mrs. Fink was the “key to my life” and that they are linked. She will become more real over time and he will be her servant.
These evil dolls and their slavery.
Also, that’s the detail we get and it is confusing. You can break down the questions yourself. After a scene with Cody, Jesse walks in on the doll playing cards. It is a glorious image. He throws the doll out, which is smart. He didn’t do this in the book, this is where things finally diverge.
She pops back up of course, but he tried. She attacks when he thinks it’s safe and it is the best fight scene ever.
“You tried to get rid of me!”
“Do you blame me?”
“Every day”
Pfft, that was funny.
Mom overhears this and Jesse just covers it up and doesn’t try to convince them of the evil doll as he’s self aware. Man he is smart. Now the doll makes Jesse do chores. Oh the horror! We’re back on track with the book now.
Jesse goes over to Cody’s place to discuss the matter. They talk to Geneva and she agrees to help. It’s nice that she’s useful despite her quirks. The doll I think mentioned a life force, as they talk about how this is affecting the real Mrs. Fink as she could die as the doll becomes more alive. She will do the research while Jesse goes goes home.
He continues to do work as the doll suggests, and eventually his parents raise his allowance. Man this doll surely is ruining his life. Actually this is an interesting angle but more on that later. Then we some POV shots, followed by Mom taking fall, as it seems like the doll pushed her. Okay maybe she is evil.
The fall was bad enough that mom will stay at the hospital overnight. At home, the doll kinda acts is it was an accident but she doesn’t full deny it either. He can’t hit the doll because it will hurt Fink too. Now that’s a good reasoning, I like it.
In the book it was just a sprain, so they amped it up to win that Oscar. Speaking of departing from the source, we get a scene of Geneva on her own as she hits up the library and speaks with the librarian Sol, played by Margot Kidder. Yes, really. This gives us another Haunting Hour actor and wait, didn’t her episode also involve voodoo dolls? Weird.
Sol is a wacky one and she had some odd/fun delivery. We aren’t told anything too new, just a bit more of what already knew is going on. Elsewhere, Jesse checks up on Fink in the hospital. She’s alive but is pleading for help in a distressing way.
He goes home, where dad says he’ll have to work full time at the restaurant they have while mom is in the hospital. I don’t have much to say beyond that I enjoy this side of the story. But back to the doll as Geneva shows up with her plan.
They put Fink Doll in a dollhouse, than put an amulet on it which stops her. It’s a thing Geneva got which wards off evil spirits. Sure. In the book this was leading to a bigger and more elaborate plan but here we just have this for now. Also the doll freaking out is funny, I don’t know if it was meant to be.
A bit later, Geneva calls she possibly found a spell that can get rid of their problem. They have to do it during the hour before midnight, and Jesse must have “pure intent”. Alright this is the plan from the book, we’re back on track. They need some stuff from Mrs. Fink which will involve doing some B&E, woo hoo. This is from the book too, it was something.
So now get the stealthy breaking into the teacher’s house scene. There’s not much to say beyond Cody moaning about doing this and barking like a dog. I won’t give context for that. He gets the stuff and they leave.
Everything’s almost ready…but they need to wait for the full moon, which is tomorrow. This was in the book and in both cases, this is padding. In the meantime, Fink Doll pleads with Jesse, putting on a sad routine. She offers to do his homework since has the mind of Fink I guess. Jesse, being super smart, falls for it and of course instead of doing it…she eats it.
…I guess the title is accurate but not really. I know “My doll that is sucking the life force from my teacher ate my homework” isn’t as catchy but come on. This was the case in the book, it’s a lie! The doll burping made me laugh though.
The next day at school, Jesse tells Mrs. Macro about how he couldn’t his homework due to life stress, leaving out the doll part. She understands and Jesse says it’s a refreshing change from Fink. But it turns out he never really told her the main reasons why he gets behind since he feels she wouldn’t understand due to being a bit strict.
You see where that’s going. I like the angle but more on that at the end. That night, the doll calls to Annabel and makes her take off the charm thing. Jesse hears some stuff and when he checks, his sister is gone. Curse the doll and her hypnotism powers she now randomly has!
Jesse’s worried now, so he and Cody get together to do this spell. I guess they don’t need the doll with them as they get down and do this ritual. It goes on for a while, and I bet all the Christian moms are having a stroke. The doll’s face appears in the fire circle they made, telling Jesse she is the best part of him, and that she didn’t hurt mom.
Because of the work he’s doing, people respect him more and his life is somewhat improving. I like this since she does have a point and does play on the idea of the doll not being all bad. Her preying on Jesse like this works even if the doll is clearly not good. I mean, slave driving kids is not the way the make them improve.
And also she wants to get rid of Annabel by making her walk off the nearby pier. That’s kind of bad. So he decides to finish the ritual and toss the doll into her fire, which gives us more funny doll reactions. Jesse rescues Annebel and then the real Fink pops up alive and well.
And that’s it, the doll is dead and everything is peachy. Not a bad climax per say but a bit weak. Fink doesn’t remember much. Jesse says the students missed her, cute. Fink has this old teddy bear with her for reasons and lets Annebel have it in a rather saccharine moment.
Everyone gets ready to go, but Fink says she got it at a mysterious little shop. And sure enough, the bear winks. What a twist. It’s functional and it is from the book at least. And that’s it, we cut back to the reaper. I feel we didn’t close the arc strongly enough first.
He makes a couple cracks and says he hopes to see us soon. This is the last one so nope.
“I’ll have a room waiting for you…in the Shadow Zone”
Give me a number and I’ll be sure to show up. Roll credits. Well, that was an ending. Also there’s 50 logos at the end of the credits. As an aside, one of producers was Thomas W Lynch, creator of a lot of the non sitcom Nick live action shows like Alex Mack and Allen Strange. Neat.
Final Thoughts:
Gotta say, this was fairly decent and a step up from Undead Express. Although that is mostly due to the book, which was pretty solid. Let’s talk about on its own first.
The production is a bit odd here. The effects are cheesy but not bad for the budget they have, even if it can be goofy. The direction is weird, as there’s mostly shot fine with a few neat bits but the actors are weird. Most are fine but some are either not that good or just made to be a bit weird in their inflections. It does take away from it but also adds some fun to it.
The story is generally decent, having a solid idea behind it. We have a shitty kid who actually does improve, as we see why he’s like this and how he learns that the teacher isn’t so bad. I did feel for him and the mild class stuff did work. The logic of doll was a bit odd but I like it plays into the thematic stuff.
There’s a decent spooky feel to it as far as these kid horror movies go. There’s a nice attempt here to combine the goofy horror with more of an interesting story. Undead Express tried to do the same but it just didn’t take, feeling mostly dull. This can be stretched out but it has more going so it was far more interesting.
It has drawbacks and this is where the book comes in. This was a shockingly faithful adaptation, sticking to the story beat for beat. There aren’t too many wacky changes which can make it a tad boring like how Deadtime Stories can be. But it has enough spice to how it presents the story.
Generally the notable changes involve removing stuff which does hurt it. The book goes deeper in the times I mentioned. There’s more of a thing about the doll taking advantage of Jesse’s hatred of Fink as well as how she made her feel bad and the doll used this too. It’s a bit weird but effective. We even see how she is mostly well liked by others.
I get there’s only so much time but there are some dull stretches and moments you could have cut to make room. It doesn’t quite clean up any flaws the book and mostly sticks to it with some bits being lesser. In my review I linked up there, I went more into how good the book was at the themes and while that stands here, it’s not as strong.
The arc doesn’t feel as complete. Fink’s rougher bits are toned down which is fine but there we did see her realizing she has her bad moments. Both sides had something to learn, which is so rare in these. It’s simpler here which is a detriment.
But thankfully it’s not a disaster. When it comes sticking to the plot and themes of the source, it fares better than a lot of big budget movies. Ain’t that sad.
With all that said, I did like this movie. It can be wonky, it’s missing some stuff from the book would have made it stronger as a story and it can be dull but as a whole, it’s fine. There’s some goofy fun to be had and the story works well with enough the themes. The book is better but the movie is a decent effort.
I’d suggest the book but I’d recommend the movie on its own, as long as you don’t expect anything too great. As lighter fare goes, you could do much worse. Congrats on improving these movies, it makes me wish we had more. Ah well. Not the best thing ever, but not too bad.
It’s a Halloween miracle! That said, that’s about it.
Rating: Decent
Happy Early Halloween. Come in next week for for the random Halloween episodes thing as well as this year’s crop of episodes. As for the next month’s scene by scene review, I’ll keep up with going back to the theme month’s I did ten years ago. And given the last one I did in November 2012, we’re finally going back to the well of Adam Sandler.
See ya.
A Taste of Spongey 
Pingback: 2022 Blog Post Retrospective | A Taste of Spongey