“William Goldman reports that when Peter Sellers was asked if he’d do anything in his life differently, he responded with "I would do everything exactly the same except I wouldn't see The Magus." His advice should be ignored by anyone with 90-odd minutes to spare for a luscious, acid-trip sixties progenitor of Shutter Island crossed with Mamma Mia.”

“Perhaps only a seasoned yet relatively unknown Pixar artist, with no feature film directing experience but a wealth of personal memories, could make a Disney film about a pasta eating competition in 1950s Italy into a charming childhood homage, rather than an exercise in eye rolling.”

“Based on the RL Stine teen horror books beloved by a generation, the film version is expertly tailored to the taste of audiences seeking 90s comfort without 90s values, with a liberal measure (in all senses of the word) of small-town lesbian angst and ethnic diversity alongside the traditional blood-spattered cheerleading outfits and hordes of the undead.”

“Despite the tonal imbalance of heavier themes with the film's predictably fluffy aspects, and its formulaic reliance on saucer-eyed sidekicks and utterly unmemorable songs, the sheer novelty of a Disney movie wading into two of the most cancellable topics of the present decade.”