NYCC Recap: Michael Jackson’s Halloween Looks Like A Mess For CBS

Dear God…

We won’t publish the review as the producers and cast of Michael Jackson’s Halloween, slated to premiere on October 27th @ 8 pm ET/PT, on CBS, have noted that this isn’t a finished product. Unfortunately, I don’t think a couple of more weeks is going to save this thing.

Four out of the five acts in the story of how two teenagers stumble onto Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was shown and quite frankly, it looks horrid. The CG-character models look like they were produced in 1995 with incongruent mouth movements, missing frames, and plasticky-looking characters that dance and prance to Michael Jackson’s catalog. The plot is almost just as horrid, as it features Christine Branski voicing the role of what appears to be a gothic take on Latoya Jackson who is haunting Neverland Ranch. Vincent (Lucas Till) and Kiersey Clemons (voicing the role of Victoria) show up and learn about some sort of a long-standing conflict between this crazy bitch and all of the things that are living in Michael’s house, like a spider army, dancing pumpkins, and a Brad Garrett-voiced “Bubbles” that is so out of sorts that I really wanted to go lie-down afterward with a headache.

Yes, we get some Michael Jackson homages laden throughout the special, and the panel that happened after the screening featured the guys that were probably the one lone-highlight of the entire thing, that being Michael Jackson’s proteges Rich and Tone Talauega who were rather entertaining during the light discussion, especially when it came down to other dance students and such in the audience asking questions. Rich even was nice enough to give us a bit of a dance class before the panel concluded!

Hate to do this because Rich and Tone seemed like nice guys, but Michael Jackson’s Halloween needs about another year in makeup before it can be considered as anything close to contemporary.