Netflix’s Hubie Halloween – A Fun and Spooky Time

In December of 2019 (wait…that was only less than a year ago?), Adam Sandler proclaimed that if the Oscars snubbed him for his brilliant performance in Uncut Gems, then he would make the “worst movie ever.” Fortunately or not, Sandler did not follow through with his promise. Instead, he made another disposable yet good-natured Netflix comedy right in time for Halloween, Hubie Halloween.

Hubie Halloween is a semi return to form for Sandler to his extremely rocky run of Netflix comedies. For a guy who relishes in hanging out with his buddies while seemingly filming movies on the side, the film is a surprisingly poignant if uneven Halloween comedy about the virtues of bravery and being kind no matter what the cost is. Hubie Dubois – or “Pubie Dubois” according to Ray Liotta and the majority of the townspeople of Salem – is Sandler firing on all cylinders in his prototypical goofy man-child form. The character seems to be a mashup of his characters from The Waterboy, Happy Gilmore, and Billy Madison all rolled into one. As a result, one could say that Hubie Halloween is the defining connective tissue of the vast and expansive Sandler-verse.

Hubie is bullied by adults and elementary kids alike, always has a thermos in hand, and has given himself the “official” title of the Halloween safety volunteer in his town of Salem, Massachusetts. Forever the laughing stock and butt of the joke, Hubie lives for Halloween but is ironically a gigantic scaredy-cat. When an escaped mental patient arrives in Salem just in time for Halloween, it is up to Hubie to unfurl the many disappearances while grappling with the sentiment that nobody truly cares what he has to say.

Hubie Halloween‘s stand-out performance goes to Steve Buscemi as Walter Lambert, Hubie’s next-door neighbour, who may or may not transform to a hairy werewolf on a full moon’s night. The other is Hubie’s mother, Mrs. Dubois, played by the off-kilter June Squibb, who is fond of implicitly sexual graphic t-shirts such as “Boner Doner” and “Kayaking Makes Me Wet.” The usual Sandler gang is also very apparent here. James is a mullet-wearing, sunglasses-on-all-the-time Salem police officer. He is divorced from Hubie’s crush Violet Valentine (Bowen). Rob Schneider and Ben Stiller show up for a few short and hilarious scenes one-off scenes. Like Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems last year, another world-famous basketball player even shows up for a brief cameo. (My money is on a Charles Barkley cameo in Sandler’s next film.)

What Hubie Halloween lacks in story progression and plotting, it makes up for in its absurd gags and spooky production design. The film’s production and art team deserves praise for the fact that they walked the perfect line between classic small-town commercial Halloween decor and creepy minimalist Halloween sets. Viewers’ enjoyment of the film will entirely depend one thinks of Sandler and Co’s. gross-out humour. The jokes are quite hit-or-miss, but Sandler and comedic bodily harm fit each other well like candy and trick-or-treating.

At the end of the day, Hubie Halloween, for the most part, performs its job to the best of its ability. It’s a film that harkens back to Sandler’s previous work from when he was at the top of his game, albeit in a less memorable and more disposable way. It’s an easily digestible watch with not much under the surface – but it knows that, and during these times, that’s not such a bad thing

still courtesy of Netflix

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Corbin Stewart

Big Star Wars Nerd. Love all kinds of movies, but my favorites are sci-fi, indies, and superhero films. I created SplittingEdge Reviews with my friend Dakota, because we love expressing our views on the different kind of music and films that are out there. You can give me a follow on Twitter: @CorbinStewart12 or Instagram: corbin_stewart
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