Boo! A Madea Halloween

For those so-called devoted Tyler Perry fans out there wondering why it took so long to bring back their favorite sassy gun-toting grandma after a two-plus year absence from the big screen can feel some relief that America’s acerbically gray-haired Queen of Quirkiness has arrived for her latest holiday-themed shtick (following the humbug dud known as 2013’s “A Madea’s Christmas”) in the generically goofy-minded comedy horror Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween. Woefully witless and as appetizing as a box of stale Junior Mints the terribly contrived Boo! A Madea Halloween is a nightmarish experience and it has nothing to do with the nature of the ghosts-and-goblins seasonal spirit either. Indeed, Boo! A Madea Halloween screams of being a cruel trick for the mis-treat-ment of Perry enthusiasts eagerly willing to embrace this piece of throwaway holiday hokum.

Perry, whose brief sabbatical leave from film-making has mainly been devoted to stepping up his various television projects, elects to go drag once again as he dusts off his frothy old ladies garb and grayish wig to bring his acid-tongued Madea to life in yet another embarrassing and exhausting platform in sheer ridiculousness. The majority of Perry’s fare, whether mired in silliness or seriousness, usually has a Christian-based foundation to accompany the robust “slap-you-upside-the-head” brashness that pushes across Perry’s signature penchant for urban wayward wackiness. From a cinematic perspective the Madea-oriented movie franchise has been Perry’s most consistent and financially artistic enterprise for the specialized audiences that get a raucous kick out of his over-the-top shenanigans.

Naturally, Boo! A Madea Halloween is yet another convenient excuse for Perry to reintroduce the Southern slapstick garrulous granny to another shameless round of farcical mayhem where the straight shooter oldster recycles the same old gimmick–threatening to hush the mouths of the pesky juveniles tha...