Chris Rock once cited "A Madea Halloween" as one of his top five favorite films in one of his shows, never mind that the film didn't exist at the time. However, Madea creator Tyler Perry was inspired by the concept and filmed the ninth Madea film in less than a week. Madea, her brother, Joe, and her nephew, Brian, (all played by Tyler Perry) star in Boo! A Madea Halloween.
The movie opens with a local frat house preparing for their annual Halloween party when some of the boys catch sight of Brian's daughter, Tiffany, (Diamond White) walking home from school with friends. They invite the girls to the party, and they flirt a bit before they’re interrupted by Brian. Usually the most sedate member of the Simmons clan, Brian channels his Aunt Madea when he reprimands Tiffany and mocks a long-haired member of the frat house, calling him "Thor," among other things. When he demands that Tiffany let him drive her home, she refuses and walks. When Tiffany gets home, it becomes apparent how bad things between her and Brian are. She mocks her father to his face, talks back and refuses to spend the night at her mother’s when Brian explains that he’s going out of town for the night.
To keep his daughter away from the frat party, Brian invites Madea over to keep an eye on her, and she, in turn, brings along Joe, Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis) and Hattie (Patrice Lovely). Infuriated, Tiffany cooks up a story about the ghost of "Mr. Wilson," a man who murdered his family one Halloween and left their bodies in the attic. He only comes out at midnight and never goes into the bedrooms, so it would be best for her chaperons to get to bed early. While Madea and her friends are distracted, Tiffany, of course, slips out. Madea figures out very quickly that Tiffany is gone, and she, Hattie and Aunt Bam head to the frat house down the street where they get into fights, get into dance battles, and get high respectively before getting thrown out.
One has not lived until they've seen Hattie (right) twerk.
Incensed and getting desperate, Madea ends up calling the police to report that an underage girl is possibly missing. This results in the frat party being shut down. The frat house's president, who'd been spending most of the evening with Tiffany, decides to get his revenge for the ruined party by expanding on the "Mr. Wilson" story Tiffany had been laughing with him about earlier. With the help of some of the nerdier frat boys, they hack into Brian's house's lights, TVs, even the plumbing to terrorize the elders. Some also break into the house dressed as clowns. Others, dressed as zombies, chase them all the way to a church.
The church is where the film turns around. One of the party’s attendees was the preacher’s daughter, and she admits to Madea that she overheard the frat boys’ plans to get back at Madea by scaring her. Then, they cook up a plan to punish both Tiffany and the frat boys. The attempt to punish Tiffany, however, turns into a heart to heart between father and daughter. The frat boys’ punishment is much more in keeping with the lighthearted tone of the film.
Boo! A Madea Halloween is…a Madea movie. No one’s really expecting Oscar-worthy drama. For fans of the franchise though, the film is enjoyable and has several laugh out loud moments. My personal favorite is when Madea is “saved” only to decide, minutes later, to take her unholy revenge on the frat boys who did her wrong. When the pastor reminds her that she’d just been saved, Madea tells him, “Sometimes getting saved is like getting a bad perm.” Then, she drops her voice into Tyler Perry’s natural tenor and adds, “It just don’t take!”
I laughed so hard I embarrassed myself.
