Like any of the aforementioned forerunners to this film it is heavily laden with a macabre sense of humour rather than being genuinely scary.
In fact the title sequence of this film is done like a comic book and that is very apt because the whole thing has a sort of comic-book feel, despite the graphic novel of the stories (originally meant to be a 4 issue run) wasn't published till after the film was made.
Also, like any of these films some parts inevitably work better than others and I would say that the beginning and end of the film is considerably better than the middle section. Still it is put together slickly, with a nice fun but frightening Halloween feel, good cinematography with a definite leaning into Tim Burton territory and features its fair share of semi-famous faces, no doubt enjoying themselves immensely.
If you are a hardcore horror fan looking to be scared I wouldn't suggest it but this sort of film works perfectly as an introduction to horror or just something to crank out every Halloween for a bit of a sick dark laugh.
7 out of 10 poisoned pumpkins
Points from the Wife 7 out of 10