Review: The Loud House “Ghosted!”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Lori (Catherine Taber) is preparing for an important golf tournament when spooky stuff starts happening on the green. She heads to the library for some answers, only to get buried under a pile of haunted books. She calls Clyde (Andre Robinson) for help, and asks that he, and her brother Lincoln (Asher Bishop) be discreet while they hunt for ghosts on campus. Then we’re off to the races on this mashup of Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, and somewhat unexpected, Casper the Friendly Ghost. It’s a positive ghost story with some fun additions of golf, goths, and genuine humor.

Our Take

I’d been meaning to check out The Loud House, and what better time to do it than during the Halloween special? Animation does this fall holiday in style, and it’s always interesting to see which angle or classic tale of horror they’ll pull from. “Ghosted” seems to pull from a variety of popular picks, but I think it manages to put its own spin on a classic haunted storyline.

The episode opens with Lori practicing golf alone at night to prepare for the upcoming Petosky Open, when she notices a ball already placed on the tee. Chased to the library and then the club house, this supernatural presence seems to be supernaturally annoying, which you would think as the oldest of 11, Lori would be immune to by now.

She attempts to secure her room from spirits (bonus points for the plums in the mini-fridge visual joke and “Birdie” pennant) but nearly alerts her teammates to her spectral unease by smashing up her alarm clock. After Clyde and Lincoln (the Clincon McCloud Operation, as they’ve branded themselves) banish the ghost, Lori unfortunately finds out that the spirit is a known entity, Shanks. The specter has been helping the Fairway U golf team as a caddy ever since he was alive, and now as he caddies from beyond the pale.

I was impressed by this episode’s ability to work in references to a ton of classic Halloween tales, in addition to the Bill Murray combo of both Ghostbusters and Caddyshack, two tales that would otherwise have only the famed comedic actor in common. I also got a chuckle from library scenes, especially the “Ahh! It’s a nonfiction!” moment. After the spirit translator can only summon a promo for the ghost hunting show that sells it, Lincoln tries a different tack: simply telling the ghost to buzz off. And…it works? As Clyde interjects, “The ghost responds to shame and guilt, just like me!” I feel ya, buddy. Ghost successfully banished, Lori compliments the boys and sends them on their way while enjoying a nice pocket cookie.

Upon discovering her mistake, Lori has to call them again to try to help her get the ghost back, but unfortunately, “We’re in the ghost busting business, not the ghost friending business!” Luckily, when you have nine other sisters, one of them is bound to be goth, and Lucy (Jessica DiCiccio) is that sister. With the help of her friends and some information from an old yearbook, they attempt to summon benevolent golf ghost Shanks back to campus. Meanwhile, Lucy’s vampire friend (there’s always at least one in the goth group) Boris has been recruited onto the cheerleading squad, which is the kind of goth/jock solidarity we love to see.

In an attempt to smooth things over with Shanks, Lori heads to the “Eternal Greens” cemetery, solo. The adorable groundhog we’ve seen a few times in the episode takes on a delightfully Pet Semetary slant after she asks where to find Shank’s grave. A round of golf in the graveyard results in an uneasy alliance with the spirit, but Lori still isn’t convinced that he’ll return. Thankfully, he shows up in her hour of greatest need: a tournament winning shot out of a sand trap. The episode closes with everyone happy, except for Lucy and the other goths, but that’s the way they like it.

While I usually prefer a Scooby Doo-style reveal rather than an actual supernatural explanation, I’ll let this one slide since the storyline is sweet, and manages to squeeze in a reference from The Craft in addition to everything I’ve listed previously.

Overall, a solid Halloween special for the show. Genuinely funny, leaning into some of the “dark academia” vibes without going too dark, and interesting enough that even viewers who know nothing about golf (me) can enjoy. After seeing what this show has to offer for spooky season, I’ll definitely be tuning back in for more.