With Halloween fast approaching, many are looking to step into the spirit through festive movies, which are in no short supply on Netflix. In fact, they just released a couple of their own seasonal originals, though one in particular caught my attention.
“Hubie Halloween,” directed by Steven Brill and produced by Happy Madison Productions, is a comedy film that follows Hubie Dubois, played by Adam Sandler, on his yearly tradition of protecting the town of Salem on Halloween.
However, Hubie’s efforts to keep the city safe are met with opposition not only from the townspeople, but additional hurdles this Halloween: an eerie new neighbor and an escaped convict.
Allow me to clarify  before you get the impression that Hubie is just another underrated main character. Hubie is first introduced to us on his bike ride to work, during which local kids bombard him with eggs that he catches in his trusty thermos.
He then proceeds to eat these eggs and regurgitate them back onto the concrete in a matter of seconds. Hubie is the butt of all jokes, he is constantly being put down and laughed at despite seeming like a genuinely nice guy. Hubie, unfortunately, is an Adam Sandler character at it’s finest.
While the main development in the movie seems to be solving the disappearance of citizens in the Halloween celebrations, the real arc of it all follows Hubie working to build up his bravery. Bravery to stand up to the people who bully him, but especially to tell Violet Valentine, town sweetheart, how he really feels about her.
I would love to say that this movie deserves the “Top 10” spot it currently holds on Netflix, but unfortunately, I can’t in good conscience do that. It is packed start to finish with crude, violent jokes that are often made at the expense of another and feature characters that play into potentially damaging stereotypes. Yes, even in a Halloween movie a woman’s one desire is to find her perfect mate, even if he’s played by Adam Sandler.
It seems like I’ve been unusually cruel to Adam Sandler, I know, but it comes from someone who has grown up with his movies. At this point, to me, his movies are judged not for their actual quality, but their ridiculousness.
So from that perspective, this film was fantastic. Between the unique clothing choices of certain characters and surprising plot points, not five minutes went by without me silently questioning: “What the heck?”
However, if I were judging the movie at face value, which is probably more useful for everyone, this film is severely lacking compared with the other media in the “Top 10.”
The humor is at a middle-school level that many no longer have the patience for at the college-age.And while there is a feel-good aspect to the film in the end, it’s not one that balances out the first hour and a half of relentless bullying and torment of the protagonist.
In my categorization of movies, I believe there are two different types of movies. First, you have movies that are artfully made with a serious plot that affects you deeply ― these I would consider “good movies.” Then there are “bad movies.” Picture obnoxious characters, generally light-hearted and overall humorous.
Yet there can be poorly made “good movies,” that are bad, and well done “bad movies” that are good. This is the category in which I believe “Hubie Halloween” falls.
Will it be nominated for best picture at the Oscars next year? No. But I don’t think that’s what the goal of the film was. I think the producers were trying to make the audience laugh, not change the world.
Also, I can recognize that I am not the intended audience. It’s targeted more for the kids who are unsure if they’re too old to be trick-or-treating, and to them, I think it would be funny.
So, would I recommend this to remedy your spooky season flick fix? It depends. If you’re looking for a couple of chuckles and a peaceful night’s sleep, I say go for it. But, if you’re searching for a haunting thrill to keep you up at night in fear or thought, I’d keep searching, because that’s not something “Hubie Halloween” can provide.