Review: The Patrick Star Show “The Haunting of Star House”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Patrick hires cheap ghosts to haunt his house. However, he ends up getting just what he paid for.

Our Take:

Patrick’s show is getting a minor change this week, and by that, I do not mean a change of pants. Nickelodeon’s spin-off is shortening the amount of new weekly mini-stories from two to one starting today. Probably to give viewers a chance to breathe from all of the random silliness presented in the show. So what better way to appreciate this occasion than with an episode that’ll make things go bump in the night?

The episode revolves around Patrick’s obsession with ghosts, but there weren’t any ghosts for him to find for his show. Luckily for him, the devious Flying Dutchman runs a business that sends ghosts to haunt people. So Patrick hires some of the Dutchman’s spirits to scare his parents and put some fright into his show. But, unfortunately, Cecil and Bunny were too stupid to be frightened by anything, including the poltergeists.

The Patrick Star Show is no stranger to putting recurring characters from SpongeBob SquarePants into Patrick’s world, and this episode proved to be no different. The Flying Dutchman (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murry) has spent most of the main series scaring the “SquarePants” out of our favorite characters. Now he’s running a ghostly business in the spin-off show. His appearance here was a welcoming return to one of my favorite supporting characters that didn’t feel awkwardly off-putting like Sandy Cheeks in “Pat-a-thon”. Plus, Doyle-Murry’s vocal performance was still top-notch.

As for its plot, it’s a spooky treat that’s more silly than scary, but I couldn’t help but enjoy every minute of it. The only issue I had with the episode was the ghosts hired by the Dutchman. These ghosts happened to be spirits of Italian mobsters, and while they weren’t without some amusing moments, they can come off as stereotypical at times. Other than that, the episode delivered some enjoyable pieces of humor, like Squidward attempting to get newspaper money from Cecil and the ghosts failing to scare Patrick’s parents. But, of course, its comedy wasn’t complete without a gross-out gag involving Patrick exposing his insides after getting his skin ripped off by Squidward. Ew.

Overall, the “Haunting of Star House” episode has enough charm in its ghostly plot to scare its viewers silly. Its random humor worked well for its spooky scenario, and the Flying Dutchman’s presence was a fun addition to the show’s insane cast. However, it would’ve been more fitting if the episode premiered in October instead of during the summer. But since we keep getting some scary movies throughout the summer, it’ll have to do.