A genial juvenile adventure that’s equal parts “The Hardy Boys” and “Goosebumps,” “ Monster Summer ” has Mason Thames (the principal child captive in “The Black Phone”) in considerably less-disturbing peril as a Martha’s Vineyard resident who comes to suspect witchery afoot. David Henrie ’s slick exercise in lite supernatural suspense is aimed at younger viewers, though their parents may also be diverted by the cast’s elder members, including Mel Gibson , Lorraine Bracco and Kevin James. It’s a fun movie that lands on the right side of “innocuous,” being pleasantly formulaic rather than simply bland.
Pasttime Pictures is releasing the feature (previously called “The Boys of Summer”) to U.S. theaters on Oct.
4. Aspiring to become a journalist like his late, globe-trotting father, Noah (Thames) has no more pressing desire than to get an article published in the area newspaper. But its unamused editor (James, appearing in just three scenes) only wants material pleasing to tourists and advertisers, so he spurns Noah’s strictly-amateur attempt to break dubious lurid local stories.
It looks like our hero will have to settle for a summer of bicycling around the island with his fellow Little League besties, star athlete Ben (Noah Cottrell), future politician Eugene (Julian Lerner) and tomboy Sammy (Abby James Witherspoon). But a series of mysterious occurrences here and elsewhere in New England — the disappearances of children who later turn up, .