Occasionally you hear about places that attempt to “ban” Halloween for a variety of reasons. With 2024’s The Town Without Halloween, we find a supernatural look at this concept.

Set in the quaint town of Niamiss, Halloween exists as a big deal. However, Mayor Wembly (Sonny Burnette) cancels the holiday and all related affairs.

This decision comes with nefarious desires, as Mayor Wembly wants to find and utilize an ancient artifact for his own ends. Some teens discern the Mayor’s goals and fight to stop him before he dooms the locals.

As I watched Town, I figured it came from a neophyte filmmaker in his early 20s. To my immense surprise, a look at IMDB reveals credits that go all the way back to 2005 and Town represents his sixth feature.

At no point during Town did I get the impression it came from a director with nearly 20 years experience. Everything about this film comes across as the work of a rookie.

One on a tight budget as well. I couldn’t find out how much Town cost, but “27 cents” becomes my guess.

Scarce funds doesn’t doom a movie to failure, of course. The problem with Town is that everything about it looks and feels cheap.

We get actors with no talent. The performances veer from “over the top” and “painfully flat”, with nothing between those poles.

Effects that seem like somebody’s cousin made them in his garage over a weekend - and somebody’s unskilled cousin at that. While I don’t expect ILM-level material, the work here comes across as laughable.

The omnipresent score telegraphs everything, and editing joins scenes in an awkward manner. Shot choices seem perplexing and stiff.

Heck, the titular ban on Halloween barely even plays a real role in the movie. Honestly, it seems like Ennis involved that story element just to give the movie a snappy title, not because the plot needs it.

This concept doesn’t even make sense. The Mayor tells us that the town budget can’t afford the usual festivals and parades, but he also cancels trick or treating and tells homes they can’t put up decorations.

Huh? What does any of that have to do with the town’s finances?

Nothing, but Ennis won’t let logic get in the way of his silly “plot”. Nothing about the Mayor’s scheme actually requires him to cancel Halloween, but Ennis needs to justify that movie title somehow.

Town wants to offer a family-friendly holiday movie that gives us a mix of Goonies and Gremlins. It ends up as a nearly unwatchable mess.

The Town Without Halloween appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not stellar, the image largely seemed adequate.

For the most part, sharpness seemed positive. Darker shots and interiors could lean a little soft, but general delineation became appealing.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. The movie lacked source flaws beyond some artifacts from the source photography.

The palette brought a mix of reds, greens, and oranges much of the time. While they occasionally leaned a little heavy, they usually showed good range.

Blacks seemed decent – albeit a little crushed – and shadows felt acceptable. Nothing here excelled, but the movie generally looked fine.

In a cinematic world where multichannel mixes became the norm decades ago, Town came only with an LPCM stereo track. Not only did the film boast a primitive format, but also quality seemed less than stellar.

With lots of awkward looping, dialogue tended to seem unnatural and a bit stiff. Lines remained intelligible, though.

Effects came across as adequate but awkward foley meant these elements often felt “off”. Music showed nice dimensionality.

The mix offered good stereo spread to music but effects came with less natural integration. Those components popped up in logical spots most of the time but didn’t blend well.

Ultimately, this was a listenable track overall. Nonetheless, a 2024 movie with nothing more than stereo audio loses points.

No extras appear on the disc.

While its low budget holds back aspects of The Town Without Halloween, these scarce funds don’t become its fatal flaw. Instead, a lack of competence both behind and in front of the camera makes this a poorly made and tedious film. The Blu-ray comes with decent picture, awkward audio and no bonus materials. Even if I grade on a curve to compensate for the movie’s “indie” roots, it turns into a genuinely awful experience.