When Good Ghouls Go Bad is a 2001 Fox Family television film directed by Patrick Read Johnson, commissioned for the network's 13 Nights of Halloween program block.
Danny dislikes his new life in Walker Falls, and it seems nobody likes him, especially the football coach Mike Kankel and his son, Ryan, the school's biggest bully.
When walking home from school, Ryan and his pal, Leo push him into the cemetery and tell him that Walker Falls does not celebrate Halloween because of the legend of a curse.
When a competition was held for all the eighth graders to design a sculpture of their personal hero, Curtis kept his project covered during the day, then came to school at night to work by the light of captured fireflies.
He opened the door and found Curtis's charred skeleton and a message in the ashes, allegedly saying that if the town ever celebrated another Halloween, he would come back and destroy them all.
That night, James is planning to announce his "Halloween Spooktacular" idea to raise funds to re-open Walker Chocolates at the town meeting.
At the meeting, Mayor Churney announces James, who is surprised to find the people of Walker Falls shudder at just the mention of Halloween and even try to avoid saying it.
To bring the conversation back on track, his secretary passes out samples of chocolate, and James almost wins them over, but when he reveals his Spooktacular plans, the townspeople are terrified and run out of the building.
The zombies begin capturing all the townsfolk and gathering them to the creepy old Victorian style house chanting the phrase "Statue."
Kankel's group then ran off when the janitor arrived and he accidentally turned on the kiln while cleaning the class, not realizing Curtis was in it.
Pops then grabs his son's ear and drags him out to "give him a whooping he won't forget for the rest of his years."
Danny and Dayna share a kiss, while James and Taylor hold hands as they watch the dancing zombies fade into the night.
By the end, the German investors that spoke to James earlier love the concept of Halloween and decide to support him into reopening the family chocolate factory within two weeks.
The film was commissioned by Fox Family for the network's "31 Nights of Halloween" program block, and was directed by Patrick Read Johnson.
[citation needed] Derrick Carter from For the Love of Celluloid gave the film a C+ and wrote: "[When Good Ghouls Go Bad] is a decent Halloween flick that will entertain children and offer them a little more risky material that's usually associated with R.L.
If you're looking for a decent family flick to watch at home and want to see Christopher Lloyd as a charismatic zombie, Good Ghouls should satisfy on both accounts.
"[1] Richard Scheib from Moria.co gave it two and a half stars, stating: "The majority of children's made-for-television genre movies are completely forgettable – the Disney Channel churns them out by the barrow load.
"[2] When Good Ghouls Go Bad won on Australian Guild of Screen Composers award for Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie.