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Dave's (John Palladino) relationship with his somewhat eccentric father (Brian Cox) has been a bit troubled over the years, but Dave wants to mend things, and one way to do that he figures to build a boardgame version of dad's favourite street game when he was a kid, Skelly, out of wood. Thing is, not long after Dave has finished the Skelly board, dad dies unexpectedly, and now he feels rather than investing all the time into building the board he should have just spent it with his old man - so no wonder he's been overcome with grief.

Meanwhile, his son Jonah (Judah Abner Paul) has problems all of his own, he and his friends want to set up a really spooky haunted house for Halloween, and not one of the typical ones with all the same attractions set up by adults to get their hands on a bit of money, but one dreamed up by kids for kids, super-scary and rather relentless. Problem is, they're all kids, from tweens to early teens, and while they have all these great ideas, they're seriously lacking in means and also practical experience as how to put them up. So far, Jonah's granddad has always helped them, but now that he is no more ...

Now Halloween has never really been Dave's thing, but suddenly he realizes helping his son and friends to set up a haunted house could actually bring him closer to his father and help him overcome his grief. However, it takes more than macabre ideas and sheer ambition to make a good haunted house ...

Since these days, Jonah has grown to be an adult (and is now played by Jacob Saxton), with a family of his own, and he has put all his adventures concerning the haunted house down in a book, to bond with his own family and reconcile him with his estranged father ...

Now one thing's for sure, Skelly is quite a bit of a tearjerker and ultimately a feel-good movie, and as such it's by no means kitsch-free. But then again, a film about a man going all macabre for his son's sake and to overcome grief really can't be all bad, and this movie's far from it. And while all the inspirational stuff in Skelly seems a tiny bit forced, it's really the details that go into creating a perfect haunted house that make the film, and the walk-through that's pretty much the third act of the film, sure shows that the director's horror savvy and understands the mechanics of a scare as well as the fun of it all. In all, yeah, it is a tearjerker - but one that's lots of fun all the same.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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