It's the summer holidays! So the teen hosts of kids' show Friday Download set off on a fun road trip. Unfortunately their Mystery Machine-style van breaks down, stranding Richard (Richard Wisker), Dione (Dione Bromfield), George (George Sear), Shannon (Shannon Flynn) and Bobby (Bobby Lockwood) in a dark and spooky country estate with no option than to seek refuge at a creepy old mansion. They are welcomed by decidedly strange siblings Caleb (Tyger Drew-Honey) and Clara (Louisa Connolly-Burnham) who live alone in what they claim is a haunted mansion. Sure enough, that night the gang are freaked out by all kinds of crazy incidents. When local police prove no help, the friends team up with Frasier (Ethan Lawrence), a young wannabe paranormal investigator to unravel these mysterious happenings.
Seasoned film buffs may find it charming to see the old rock and roll kids stuck in a haunted house formula lingering into the twenty-first century. A feature film spin-off from the CBBC show, Friday Download: The Movie stands as the contemporary equivalent of kitschy Sixties teen fare like The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966) or The Ghost Goes Gear (1966) where teen stars traded banter with ageing horror icons between twisting to cameo pop bands. The formula dates at least as far back as You'll Find Out (1940) where swing band leader Kay Kyser and a couple of lovestruck kids share hi-jinks in a house haunted by the likes of Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. Even so, here one imagines screenwriter Toby Davis had in mind something closer to Scooby-Doo.
The nonsensical plot strings together a bunch of eye-rolling hit and miss gags, musical numbers from tween-friendly guest stars The Vamps and Bars and Melody and mildly spooky scenes. Given most tweens these days have at least a passing familiarity with the jump-scare ridden found footage efforts readily accessible online, it's a moot point whether the target audience will find any of this scary. Yet the spooky sequences exhibit a genuine, impressively surreal imagination and may well rattle very young children. John Henderson, who made the underrated family fantasy Loch Ness (1996) and justly scorned family fantasy Mee-Shee: The Water Giant (2005), invests some otherwise staid hi-jinks with welcome visual pizazz: flashy editing, eye-catching effects and pretty cool Hammer horror by way of Mario Bava cinematography and production design. Much like that other musical horror non-classic: Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967) the bulk of the third act consists of musical numbers as the Friday Download crew stage a benefit concert to help Caleb and Clara save their home. However, Henderson proves more capable at balancing music, comedy and what little plot there is. While it is likely most grownups will find the twee pop music intolerable, one imagines the target audience will be as happy as the excitable onscreen youngsters that flock to see The Vamps onstage.
Each of the principal characters play the one personality trait they have: incredibly dopey Bobby is obsessed with his dog (a la Shaggy?), Dione is prissy and vain, George is relentlessly chirpy, Shannon is a no-nonsense (frankly none too likable) northern lass while Richard just makes goo-goo eyes at pretty posh Clara though their romance goes nowhere. Easily the most accomplished actors in the cast: Tiger Drew-Honey, star of the BBC sitcom Outnumbered, and Louisa Connolly-Burnham waltz away with the movie. Indeed the creepy hosts come across far more engaging than the grumpy, ill-mannered dim-bulb stars of Friday Download. Another flaw in the script renders the principal cast clueless throughout while relegating mystery-solving duties to Frasier, a minor supporting character. Late in the game a curious plot twist turns the entire premise on its head and further muddles whatever halfhearted moral the film was trying to pull off. Moreover the climax arguably embraces a mob mentality reinforcing the idea kids should always judge people on first impressions, mistrust anyone that asks for help and never waste time on charity.
