Ghoul Fools: A Halloween Adventure

"When the moon is full, and the banshees wail, And the ghosts are about, and your skin grows pale, As the feeling of fear permeates the air, It's Halloween. So beware... beware. Muahahahahaha!"

- Film's opening narration

Ghoul Fools: A Halloween Adventure is a 2024 animated Halloween comedy film written and directed by Brandon Greene. The film stars the voices of Zac Efron, Ashly Burch, Britt McKillip, Christian Slater, Tabitha St. Germain, Chris Elliott, Dane DeHaan, Alyson Stoner, Olivia Olson, Haley Tju, and Jane Lynch. The plot revolves around Jack Marie, while trick-or-treating with his littler sister Hannah, his older cousin Holly, and his friends, encountering a ghost girl named Tippi, the, a witch named Hazel, the , and many other monsters in Fright Town.

The film premiered on Netflix on October 1, 2024, and received positive reviews from critics. A sequel, titled Ghoul Fools: The Revenge of Johnny, was released on September 29, 2026, with much of the original cast returning.

Plot
On Halloween night, Jack Marie, dressed as a pirate, is about to go trick-or-treating with her little sister, Hannah, dressed a witch, and their older cousin, Holly, dressed as a police officer. They are joined by Holly's friends Carrie, dressed as a zombie, and Amy dressed as a clown, and Jack's rival friends Kat, dressed as a black cat, Dylan, in a candy piece costume, and Bill, pretending to be a baseball player driving inside a powerful SUV that can shoot atomic lasers, and Jack's rival Johnny, wearing serial killer costume. Jack gathers his sister and friends to go monster hunting while trick-or-treating much to Holly thinking he's weird because she thinks monsters don't exist. Johnny conceives Holly and her friends to plan a prank to scare Jack and Hannah home. While near a museum in a graveyard, Jack concocts a myth about residents at the museum (the "haunted museum") not feeding candy to monsters surrounding its exterior and being eaten as a result; ever since, candy has to be in the basement every year to prevent the monsters from killing other children in the world. Jack sends Hannah to go in the house and leave some candy. Thinking might Hannah will get lost, Jack decides to go in as well. A frightened Hannah walks in the front door while Johnny locks her inside.

Inside, Jack gets lost and starts to get scared. While trying to find his sister and way out, a friendly ghost suddenly appears in front of Jack and he freaks out. The ghost introduces herself as Tippi. She takes him to her world in the town of Fright Town, a place where monsters live. They run into Hannah and Tippi's witch teacher Hazel and she and Tippi want to show them that monsters are not all bad. Tippi wants to take Jack around at the town and teaches him a trick "Scary equals fun". They meet the ruler of Fright Town the as well as other monsters: Happi, Tippi's older sister, Dez, a zombie, Mr. Skully Funnybone the skeleton, Henry the werewolf, a fuzzy monster that works scaring kids named Peek-A-Boo, a vampire family of parents Count Vlad and Countess Ruby, and son Austin, and the :, , , and  as well as their offsprings (the girls from Ghoul School). Grim, Hazel and Happi are having another annual Halloween party, described by Tippi as the most "spooky phantom fest in the whole realm." Although at first frightened of the monsters, Jack and Hannah eventually warm up to them. Grim warns them about the who scares and actually eats children saying that he's the one they should worry about. Antics include going into haunted houses, going to a scary carnival, teaching little vampires to fly, practicing spells, and Jack and Tippi crashing Grim and Hazel's party.

Later, Jack and Tippi enter a dark house that belongs to the Boogeyman known as Martin, who scares and actually eats children. After Jack tells Martin about Tippi's deception, he decides to put Jack and Tippi on a thriller ride to scare them. The ride frightens the two and they ran to the party. Martin discovers about Jack's cousin and friends and plans to capture them.

Outside of the haunted museum, Holly, her friends, Johnny, Katie, Bert, and Daryl have waited for hours for Jack to get out with Hannah. The typical trick-or-treating time has passed, and Amy calls out Holly after the latter makes fun of her for believing in monsters the way Jack does. Jack and Hannah's mom tells Holly that she doesn't have to agree with her friends, but she shouldn’t stomp on their beliefs and Holly later apologizes to Amy that she has a right to believe what she wants and she respects that. As time went by, Holly, Carrie, Amy, Bert, Daryl, and Katie all become worried about Jack's legends about monsters being true and that him and Hannah's lives are in danger. They demand to go in and get the two, but Johnny, out of nowhere, insists there's no monsters and tells them they all wait for Jack and Hannah longer. However, Johnny's attitude quickly changes, and all four kids enter the house to look for Jack and Hannah.

Near the end of the adventure, Jack tells the monsters about their adventure and about his obsession of monster hunting and fear of monsters which no one believes him. Amy's name rings a bell to Tippi, who scares Amy every other Friday; It is revealed that Jack watches monster movies and it makes him spread rumors that monsters eat kids. Jack, Tippi, Grim, Hazel, and their friends decide to play a prank on Johnny, Holly and her friends in response, which ends with Jack pretending to scare away the monsters. It seem to work until Martin shows up and captures Hannah, Holly, her friends, and Johnny and Jack's friends and locked up their souls. Which leads to Jack and Tippi to confront Martin. Using the flashlight, a monster hunting phone, and the ooze TNT dynamite, Jack creates a makeshift bomb, destroying Martin and releasing the souls of Jack's friends. The kids take the monsters as real and bolt out of the house. Before Jack leaves, Tippi gives him a skeleton key for him and Hannah to go back to Fright Town anytime.

Voice cast

 * Zac Efron as Jack Marie, a 12-year old boy and the main protagonist of the film who has a fear and fascination with monsters and hunting them until he befriends them. He dresses as a pirate.
 * Ashly Burch as Tippi, a tween ghost girl who befriends Jack who shows him how monsters aren't all that bad. She is the deuteragonist of the film.
 * Britt McKillip as Hannah Marie, Jack's supportive younger sister who is the most afraid of monsters but then later realizes monsters don't eat kids. She dresses as a witch.
 * Christian Slater as the, the ruler of Fright Town who collects people's souls whenever they die.
 * Tabitha St. Germain as Hazel, Tippi's teacher and Hannah and Jack's scary godmother who she and Grim host a Halloween party every year.
 * Germain also voices Ruby, Count Vlad's vampire fire.
 * Chris Elliott as Martin, the evil who terrifies children and abducting and eating them. He is the main antagonist of the film.
 * Dane DeHaan as Johnny, Jack's rival who makes fun of him for believing in monsters and Hannah for being afraid of monsters.
 * Alyson Stoner as Holly Marie, Jack and Hannah's older cousin. She dresses as a cop.
 * Olivia Olson as Happi, Tippi's older sister.
 * Haley Tju as Dez, a tween zombie girl who is one of Tippi's friends.
 * Jane Lynch as Jill Marie, Jack and Hannah's mother and Holly's aunt.
 * Greg Eagles as, one of Grim and Hazel's broommates.
 * Brad Garrett as, one of Grim and Hazel's broommates.
 * Alan Tudyk as, one of Grim and Hazel's broommates.
 * Tudyk also voices the, one of Grim and Hazel's broommates.
 * Oded Fehr as, one of Grim and Hazel's broommates.
 * Scott McNeil as Skully Funnybone, a skeleton that hides in people's closets to keep their secrets safe and one of Grim and Hazel's broommates.
 * McNeil also voices Count Vlad, a tall, thin and bald vampire dressed in black.
 * Garry Chalk as Henry, A talkative werewolf who has a huge apatite.
 * Chalk also voices Peek-A-Boo, a huge purple monster who's job is to scare kids.
 * Finn Wolfhard as Austin, Vlad and Ruby's son.
 * Dexter Bell as Bill, the most imaginative of Jack's friends. He dresses as a baseball player wearing a cardboard SUV around his body.
 * Simon Webster as Dylan, the most sweet and naïve of Jack's friends. Dresses as a piece of candy. He has a crush on Katie.
 * as Kat, the most empathic of Jack's friends. She has a crush on Dylan. She dresses as a black cat.
 * Liliana Mumy as Amy, One of Holly's best friends who reveals to believe in ghosts and monsters. She dresses as a clown.
 * as Carrie, one of Holly's best friends. She dresses as a zombie.
 * Susan Blu as Sibella, Count Dracula's daughter.
 * as Elsa Frankenteen, Frankenstein's daughter.
 * Natalie Palamides as Winnie, the Wolfman's daughter.
 * Kaitlyn Robrock as Phantasma, the Phantom's daughter.
 * Kristen Li as Tanis, the Mummy's daughter.
 * as Arrow Terrorweb, a monster hunter on TV and Jack's idol.
 * Nika Futterman as Female skeleton lead singer
 * Rob Riggle as Skeleton Husband
 * Brandon Greene as Skeleton Pizza delivery guy, puppet ghost, old man soul
 * Scott MacDonald as Ghost disguise.

Production
In March 2023, after finishing The Christmas Movie, director Brandon Greene announced that they would produce an animated Halloween Netflix original film alongside paranormal investigator as the film's producer and Ellen DeGeneres as one of the executive producers. Animation services were provided by Bron Studios and. Danny Elfman composed the film's score.

Release
The film was released on October 1, 2024 by Netflix.

Reception
The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Based on 223 reviews, it holds an approval rating of 67% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 7.5/10; the website's critical consensus reads: "Ghoul Fools is an energetic animated horror movie spoof with lovingly crafted visuals and a heartfelt, oddball story." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, it has a score of 74, based on 38 reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel
Main article: Ghoul Fools: The Revenge of Johnny

A sequel titled Ghoul Fools: The Revenge of Johnny was announced. Original director Brandon Greene dropped out and was replaced by Zak Bagans, who produced the first installment. The film was released on Netflix on September 29, 2026.

Trivia

 * The quote at the very beginning of the scene is a reference to the Looney Tunes Halloween special .
 * Elijah Wood was originally going to voice Jack before being replaced by Zac Efron.
 * Originally, there was going to be another boy with Jack, Tippi, and Hannah, but he was removed in order to simplify the story.
 * Netflix was given permission to use the characters and designs from Universal Studios.
 * It was originally going to be steamed on HBO Max, but due to a merger with Warner Bros. and Discovery it was moved to Netflix.
 * The scene where Johnny, Holly and her friends try and fail to escape the Haunted Museum is a reference to the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Pranks a Lot.