We decided to see this movie after reading quite a number of good reviews about it.
The show started off with a boy, named Norman sitting in the living room watching tv with his grandmother, only to be revealed later that the grandmother was actually not alive. It then progressed to highlight how Norman was able to see other deceased lifeforms and how the townpeople and his peers viewed and treated him in a negative way. I guess young kids were cruel in that way and it was easy to identify with that. Yet the innocence and acceptance of differences in young kids was also protrayed in that Norman managed to find a friend in another boy who was deemed weird and bullied by the schoolmates, namely because he was plump.
The story then developed with Norman's uncle, also able to see dead people, informing Norman of the witch's curse and that Norman will be required to take up the duty of ensuring that the witch does not revive the dead by reading a story at the witch's grave. The dead were actually people in the past who had prosecuted and resulted in her execution. It was also revealed that the ghosts were around because they had wishes that were unfulfiled. Comically, the uncle passed away soon after, leaving the reluctant Norman on his quest to stop the witch's curse.
Unfortunately, Norman did not manage to read the story in time and the seven zombies were revived. He was to find out later that he read the story at the wrong place. As such, due to the fear the people had of the zombies, the town people were mobilised to "destroy" the zombies, creating mayhem and humourous scenes of limbs flying around, those of the zombies, thus illustrating the ugliness of humans and creating the image that humans were actually more evil than the zombies.
At the same time, Norman was trying to find a solution to reverse the curse and slowly, together with his sister, his friend and his friend's brother, he unravelled the details about the witch's death, only to find out that the witch was actually just a small girl just like himself. He first chastised the seven zombies then the town people for their present actions and seeked to do something different to remove the witch's curse. Risking his life, he related his similar personal experiences with the small girl and invoked her positive memories as well. He managed to convince her to give up her revenge as vengeance was no solution and that it only seeked to make a person more bitter and more miserable, a subtle moral cleverly infused into the story. As such, the witch's curse was lifted and Norman was seen as the town's hero.
Though it was a kid's movie, it had scary parts as befitting of the title and it also had life's lessons weaved into the story plot, which hopefully appealled to the more mature audience and it was something that I liked very much. Thus, this was one of those few movies which I felt lived up to the reviews and I was not disappointed though I had higher expectations of it. My dear liked it as well and it satisfied her appetite for a movie and a break in her hectic mundane work life.
