R.L. Stine's the Haunting Hour (TV Series) My Sister the Witch (2011) User Reviews

Okay acting but fake-looking episode

[SusieSalmonLikeTheFish · 7/10 · 11 February 2015]

This definitely wasn't one of my favorite episodes of The Haunting Hour, it was just too predictable and fake. The acting wasn't all that great or the soundtrack, and the plot was pretty lame and the few effects were really bad.

So, Pete is right excited that his older sister Alice is coming home from boarding school (apparently his loving parents couldn't afford to send him to a good school, too). His geeky friend Reggie has a crush on Alice and is over for the night to see her, too... but when Alice comes home, she's got a black cat as a pet, she's got a bunch of "evil Satanic sorcery items" (made-in-Taiwan eBay items, I have the same stuff and it's all Dollarama-grade Halloween junk, really fake-looking). Pete and Reggie begin to suspect she's a witch (I guess goth or emo never crossed their minds) and Pete decides to catch her in her witchy acts and burn all her eBay witch-style items.

So, uh, this episode was like a really bad Harry Potter rip-off in a lot of ways, and it doesn't deliver on many levels. Alice the witch is constantly talking to a witch friend named Ened or something like that, and it's not very convincing. Never mind the fact that her mom and dad don't even wonder why their daughter has a pet cat named Babba-Yaga or why she has a black pouch of candles and vials (if I were her mom and dad I'd be suspecting drug-use). The acting wasn't too great, especially from Julian LeBlanc and Mitch Duffield, they sounded like they were reading their lines right off a script, in a monotone voice! The plot wasn't too bad but kind of dorky: my sister the witch. I love The Haunting Hour but this episode is certainly not one of my favorites.

The Witch and Scientist

[hellraiser7 · 8/10 · 4 September 2020]

Warning do not read unless seen episode.

This isn't a favorite but it's a good one I enjoy and I feel a bit of an underrated one that's at least worth a try. I really like how it's formatted, by its nature it's sort of a suspense thriller mystery with a fantasy tone to it; even like how the story is slightly deceptive where it takes certain premade assumptions and at the right moment turns them around.

Really like Jodelle Ferland performance as Alice, of course I remember her as Five from the under the radar sci-fi series "Dark Matter". I really like how when we first see her like Pete were not sure what to make of her at first as Pete notices how secretive and different she seems from before as she's gotten into the mystic arts and has become a witch. This is sort of based on that common fear of how much someone we know whom has come back after a long time but doesn't act or feel like the person you know. At times she seems sinister but then she's not.

It's interesting how we see that Pete is into science making him a scientist. Like any scientist he's trying to figure out what is going on with his sister and what she's up to. He does find some things out and gets a little info about the Wicken faith. For a while it seems like everything is pointing in one direction, we expect but little does he going in the wrong direction. But also, we see his investigation is a bit flawed as he's unfortunately broken a cardinal rule in science. Which is to never draw quick conclusions until all the information and facts are correct.

The truth is discovered when we see Pete is being set up know by the evil force that is targeting not just him but Alice herself. We then see that Alice wasn't a Sith lord but a Jedi, in other words a good Witch, all this time she was trying to help her family from a curse but unfortunately Pete destroyed her defensive tools which may have also destroyed their only salvation.

I also like that we see despite Alice having magical powers she's not perfect she's still a novice at the game. Like in one scene when she opens the doorknob with her magic it flies off really fast which I don't think she meant for it too. From what's going on now both have to work together.

I really like this concept as both are representatives of two different kinds of science, with Alice it's the mystic/arcana arts which is a science of the study of the energy of the nature and universe. Pete it's practical and technical science which is the study of the function, reasoning and logic of nature and the universe.

Here we see how beautiful a combination both sciences can be and how much more powerful they are together. But also, it's touching just seeing both Pete and Alice forming a bond once more, which may 'be different than before but even better.

The only bad thing I felt was Pete didn't have enough of a hand in the final conflict. Would of like it if it got to at least do something to help turn the table in the conflict, like make his volcano explode. And yeah, the suspense could have been heightened a little bit like there could be a nervous situation or two. It also would have been cool if this had a sequel, make it like a buddy cop mystery where both have a supernatural mystery to solve and both once again have to combine their power but also see them bond more, well it's a nice thought anyway.

Will both the Witch and Scientist armed with the powers of both worlds be able to overcome this evil force together, you must wait and see.

Rating: 3 stars