Moribeth Quinn doesn’t fit in. So when her parents drop her off at summer camp, Mori expects the worst—lonely days, awkward conversations, and no friends in sight. She’s wrong, quickly bonding with two girls, Emma and Henrietta. But their new friendship comes with a challenge: a creepy dare from the camp bully—sneak into a nearby cemetery at night and lie in old coffins to prove who’s the bravest.
It’s supposed to be a joke. It isn’t.
When Mori climbs into one of the coffins, she’s transported to a strange and dangerous world filled with eerie ghosts, magical warriors, and terrifying monsters. Trapped in this dark fantasy realm, she must find her friends, survive the horrors that stalk the land, and face the terrifying Viscera Queen who rules it. But escape won’t be easy.
To make it home, Mori must confront her fears, stand up to the bully who started it all, and discover the courage she never knew she had.
Overall, this was a rather fun, kid-friendly genre effort. The enjoyable setup, offering a solid background of her home life, which makes the camp session and eventual attempt at fitting in and finding friends there come across rather well, so that there's a nice bit of sympathy to be had leading into the camp interactions. These are just as much fun, playing on the summer-camp stylings that are quite expected in what's going on, with her getting to meet the new friends there as well as meeting up with the bully member of the campers and being forced to go through the hazing ritual that's designed to torment others, but turns into a test for her to test her courage. This is a solid touch that is quite appealing for younger readers to be a fine teaching moment about realizing fears are normal, but they can be overcome if necessary.
The second half here, focusing on her journey into this secondary world after being magically transported after staying in the coffin, is a lot of fun as well. The creativity of the different beings in this fantasy realm, featuring witches and ghouls of various designs that are a bit borderline in terms of being kid-friendly, but definitely fit within the context of the story, so they add a nice touch to things as it goes along. It adds just enough of a darker edge for it to dip its toe into the genre with a fantasy feel, and these are both used to fine effect by keeping the journey itself thrilling in concept yet easy-going in execution to be a perfect fit for the younger readers. This does come off with a slightly overlong feel for something designed for younger readers, as it can drag with the same formula used for a lot of the encounters, but it's not detrimental or impacting on the film at all.
4.5/5
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