Hubie Hal­loween

Jok­ing about the poten­tial of an Oscar nom­i­na­tion for his role as Howard Rat­ner in Uncut Gems, Adam San­dler said if he didn’t get a nod he would have his vengeance via his next movie. ​“If I don’t get it, I’m going to fuck­ing come back and do one again that is so bad on pur­pose just to make you all pay,” he told US shock-jock Howard Stern.

Fast for­ward near­ly a year, and alas, there was no Oscar for the Sand­man – and it remains to be seen if he fol­lows through on his threat. In the mean­time, the wheels on the Net­flix train keep turn­ing, and Sandler’s sixth film pro­duced in part­ner­ship with the stream­ing giant is here to spread a lit­tle sea­son­al cheer.

He stars as Hubert Shu­bert ​“Hubie” DuBois, a mum­bling mous­ta­chioed deli counter employ­ee from Salem, Mass­a­chu­setts, who, despite being a world-class wimp who’s afraid of his own shad­ow, absolute­ly adores Hal­loween. Hav­ing giv­en him­self the title of Offi­cial Vol­un­teer Hal­loween Helper for the town, he patrols the neigh­bour­hood mak­ing sure every­one keeps safe and gives talks to local school chil­dren. His enthu­si­asm sad­ly isn’t infec­tious, and he’s the sub­ject of ridicule from kids and adults alike, but valiant­ly per­sists all the same in his quest to ensure every­one has a hap­py and harm-free Halloween.

This is com­pli­cat­ed by the arrival of a pecu­liar new neigh­bour (Steve Busce­mi, nat­u­ral­ly) and an escapee from a local psy­chi­atric facil­i­ty (Rob Schnei­der, nat­u­ral­ly) who give Hubie cause to be on high alert, all while pin­ing for Vio­let Valen­tine (Julie Bowen, pre­sum­ably named in a nod to her Hap­py Gilmore char­ac­ter) the kind-heart­ed woman he’s loved since high school. Hubie is the butt of everyone’s jokes, but while Sandler’s pre­vi­ous buf­foons have respond­ed to insults with an explo­sion of anger, Hubie seems to take it all in his stride, dodg­ing pro­jec­tiles and ped­alling his bike into cer­tain dan­ger like it’s no big deal.

Of course, there’s a smat­ter­ing of gross-out com­e­dy that has been a sta­ple of the San­dler­verse since it began – and Kevin James is there because Kevin James is always there – but the film has more in com­mon with his wild­ly suc­cess­ful Hotel Tran­syl­va­nia fran­chise than his past Net­flix Orig­i­nals. Aim­ing at a fam­i­ly audi­ence, there’s slap­stick galore and some young co-stars in the form of Noah Schnapp, Paris Berelc, and Sandler’s own daugh­ters, Sadie and Sunny.

As such, the scares are pret­ty mild, more Scoo­by-Doo than A Night­mare on Elm Street, but the film’s sweet sen­ti­ment about anti-bul­ly­ing seems fair­ly uni­ver­sal, and even if it’s aimed more at a younger audi­ence, adults will have fun play­ing ​‘spot the ran­dom guest star’ with notable can­di­dates includ­ing Michael Chik­lis and Lavell Craw­ford. June Squibb also seems to be hav­ing a blast play­ing Hubie’s lov­ing moth­er, who has an inter­est­ing col­lec­tion of sec­ond-hand t‑shirts. Ray Liot­ta wears a rain­bow-coloured wig.

Per­haps the best ele­ment is that it real­ly gives a feel­ing for rela­tion­ships in small towns where every­one knows every­one and who you were in high school can define your whole life. The real scary part? How peo­ple behave when they let their inse­cu­ri­ties run their life!

All this adds up to some harm­less Hal­loween fun with San­dler in famil­iar Dad Mode. If you’re not already a San­dler fan you’ll prob­a­bly quick­ly tire of his antics, but for the fans Hubie Hal­loween is anoth­er slice of affec­tion­ate silli­ness about a neb­bish los­er who comes good in the end.