Every year, I try to make sure I review some family friendly Halloween movies in addition to the scary slasher-fest films. This year has given us a few decent sequels with Under Wraps 2 and Hocus Pocus 2 but the originals, like Spirit Halloween The Movie, haven’t been as good. Netflix’s The Curse of Bridge Hollow has the potential to be the next big family Halloween movie. Let’s see if it lives up to it.

The Gordon family - Howard (Marlon Wayans), Emily (Kelly Rowland), and Sydney (Priah Ferguson) - are moving from Brooklyn to Bridge Hollow. Since it is Halloween, all of the houses are decorated. Each with it’s own theme. But Howard isn’t a fan of Halloween so there will be no decorations or celebrations of any type at the Gordon house. When some classmates tell Sydney about the history of their old house, she searches the attic for anything cool or haunted. She comes across an old jack-o-lantern and, during an argument with her father, lights it. This awakens the ancient spirit of the town, Stingy Jack. In order to stay in Bridge Hollow after midnight, Stingy Jack has to find another soul to send to hell.

Bridge Hollow is chock full of comedic geniuses. Obviously, there’s Marlon Wayans but there’s also Rob Riggle as the next door neighbor, Lauren Lapkus as the mayor, and John Michael Higgins as the high school principal. And while Priah Ferguson doesn’t have the history that her co-stars do, she has amazing comedic timing. This should have been a shoo-in for a cult classic. But there are a few downfalls.

For the most part, Bridge Hollow is funny and entertaining. However, it also takes a running joke and runs it straight into the ground. Howard, Sydney’s dad, is a science teacher. As a result, he is into science hard core. To the point that at least once in every scene, he says “Pop Quiz…” followed by asking Sydney some science-related question that is supposed to get them out of a sticky situation. It was cute at first but after the fourth “Pop Quiz,” it got tedious. The same goes for Emily’s, Sydney’s mom, baked goods. She is trying to open a bakery featuring vegan, gluten free pastries. But all of her food is terrible. To the point that her own family won’t even pretend to like it. Why would they let her waste money trying to start a business that they know will immediately fail? Why do they let her open a stand at the town festival to sell food to the locals when absolutely everyone says the food in inedible?

If you are able to overlook the minor quips in the script, it is a fun movie. I can’t wait to see where Ferguson’s career takes her. She has a bright future as a comedic actor but I think she could handle more dramatic roles if she wanted. Anyway, Bridge Hollow may not be the “watch every year” cult classic that I hoped it would be. At least I didn’t feel like I wasted my time watching it.

If all of the characters are jerks to each other, it’s OK for them to fall in love, right? Right?

Natalie (Anni Krueger) is a Jill of all Trades, doing a millions jobs at once. When she finds out that her cousin, Olivia (Nia Vardalos), has to cancel the opening of her new Italian restaurant because she is stuck in Italy, Natalie takes it upon herself to open the restaurant for Christmas. If she can only get chef Stefano (Gilles Marini) on board…

Well, that was definitely a movie. It’s established early on that Natalie can’t cook. Like to disastrous ends. She had to warm up some lasagna in the oven and burned it. (Setting off smoke alarms is a trend in the movie.) I’m not sure why she thought she could run a restaurant, much less do a first night opening. “I love my cousin” doesn’t really excuse taking over her business and spending her money (unless Natalie was spending her own money? Considering she was only doing small tasks for everyone, I’m not sure that she was making that much.) without her approval. That’s right - Olivia didn’t know that Natalie was doing all of this. She told Natalie that she was going to have to close the restaurant. Full stop. In my books, this makes Natalie kind of a jerk. Don’t screw with other people’s businesses. Especially if you don’t know what you are doing.

Then we move onto Stefano the chef. He told some poor lovesick teenager, Tyler (Andrew Brodeur), that love is logical and gave him a list of what he likes in a woman. Tyler was carrying this note around when the object of his affection, BeeBee (Emma Myers), finds it and calls HIM a jerk! No! Tyler was only looking to a grown-ass man for advice and that man sucks! On top of that, Stefano is just overly arrogant.

After that, it’s just back and forth jerky behavior between Natalie and Stefano. He shames her for burning the lasagna, she trashes his kitchen making Christmas cookies but doesn’t bother to clean up afterwards, he berates her in front of basically the whole town at the Christmas party for trashing his kitchen (she deserved the yelling but not in front of the people who are supposed to be their customers in a few days), she makes random decisions about the restaurant (will it open…won’t it open…) without talking to him first…the list really does keep going.

Don’t watch A Taste of Christmas. It’s apparent that no one actually likes each other, even though they have to kiss at the end. And it’s even a creepy kiss with the whole restaurant watching them and applauding. Only Olivia has the sense to ask “Why are we watching?!” Yes, Olivia. Why are we watching?