Generally, Hulu’s Halloween releases aren’t great. But I decided to take a look at Hold Your Breath anyway.

Oklahoma, 1933 - Margaret (Sarah Paulson) has been left alone with her children, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), as her husband travels east. However, life is not going well. There hasn’t been rain in months, giant dust storms frequent the area, and Maragret’s mental health is deteriorating. When Margaret begins to believe that a malicious presence in the dust storms is threatening her small family, she does what she must to protect them.

Hold Your Breath is a very slow movie. This works well in psychological thrillers where there is an amazing payoff. Unfortunately, we don’t get that payoff here. Instead of getting a big bad, things just kinda fizzle out at the end. I don’t know about anyone else but I was left wanting more. Preferably for Rose to step up to protect her deaf younger sister. We get a little bit of that but not nearly enough. Though the movie does leave a little bit open for a sequel if Hulu decides one should happen. I hope they don’t.

Rating: C-

Even though the novel came out in 2016, I had never heard of My Best Friend’s Exorcism before. It sounded like it might be cute and funny. I got a little more than that.

Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) are best friends. They are sophomores at the local Catholic high school with their other friends, Glee (Cathy Ang) and Margaret (Rachel Ogechi Kanu). When the group decides to have a girls’ weekend at a lake house owned by Margaret’s family, it is crashed by Margaret’s obnoxious boyfriend, Wallace (Clayton Royal Johnson). Wallace gives them all acid tabs and suggests they go skinny dipping. At the lake, the girls argue. Abby and Gretchen head back to the house but they come across a creepy abandoned house instead. As they investigate the house, the girls get separated. Abby, thinking that Gretchen is behind her, runs out of the house. However, Gretchen has been taken by something evil. Can Abby save her best friend or will the demon kill everyone?

Usually, when horror movies are set in the 1980s, there are some vague references but you don’t necessarily get full-on 80s nostalgia. In My Best Friend’s Exorcism, Abby and Gretchen have all sorts of 80s posters on their walls and they talk about marrying Boy George (who didn’t come out as gay until 1995). Even the super religious Lemon Brothers performing at the local mall was a throwback. (Yes! We had concerts and shows at malls!) I’m assuming all of this came out of the novel by Grady Hendrix. If so, good job Grady!

I did quite enjoy the movie. The fact that Abby refused to give up on Gretchen, despite the fact that Gretchen was being a straight up asshole to everything was awesome. No one else realized that Gretchen was acting odd but Abby saw it and did something. I even liked how different Abby and Gretchen’s families were. Gretchen’s was the “perfect” Catholic family while Abby’s was a bit neglectful. (Welcome to the 80s!) Even adding in Glee and Margaret as friends that also sort of backstabbed each other was a nice touch. But I think my favorite part may have been Christian Lemon’s (Christopher Lowell) exorcism. It actually had me laughing.

So, yeah, go check out My Best Friend’s Exorcism. It’s a light playful romp. Sure, there are a few scary parts and there is quite a bit of puke but there isn’t any gore. So, like a little Exorcist mixed with maybe a little Heathers mixed in? Demon possession that is bad for the possessed but is worse for the people around her. Just like the 80s!