SCOOBY DOO AND THE WITCH'S GHOST (1999)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

GHOST was the second of four DTV movies generally credited by fans with revitalizing the Scooby Doo franchise. This film also holds in common the same director as the first film in the series, SCOOBY DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND, and two of ZOMBIE's writers collaborated on the GHOST script.

ZOMBIE's advertising tagline applies just as well to GHOST: "This time, the monsters are REAL!" ZOMBIE imagined Mystery Inc. as having gone their separate ways because they got bored with uncovering monsters that turned out to be masquerading humans. GHOST doesn't say much of anything about the Scoobies having any new orientation due to their encounter with real zombies and cat-people in the first film. In fact, the opening sequence shows them simply unmasking another fake menace, this one in a museum, with the usual mixture of goofy antics and clever resolve.

At said museum, the young heroes-- who seem to be in their early twenties this time-- meet a famous horror writer, Ben Ravenscroft, whose books are beloved by Velma. Ben invites the gang to a tourist-oriented celebration in his hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts, and the youths accept the invitation. Once there, the Scoobies learn that the town's biggest claim to fame is that their Puritan ancestors executed a notorious witch, Sarah Ravenscroft, ancestor to writer Ravenscroft. The big celebration includes a popular rock act, the vampirically-costumed Hex Girls, who went on to make further appearances in the Scoobyverse. 

Then Sarah Ravenscroft apparently rises from the dead to menace the town, as well as terrifying the perpetual cowards Shaggy and Scooby. Ben argues that the real Sarah was a good Wiccan practitioner of healing magic, and that this can't be the same person. Indeed, "Sarah" is a fake, easily exposed by the Scoobies. So GHOST seems to be returning to the status quo of the majority of the TV shows.

However, while the gang is investigating the fake witch, they unwittingly accomplish the task Ben hoped they would: uncovering the lost spellbook of Sarah Ravenscroft. The horror-writer then reveals that he's a horror in his own right: a warlock who uses the spellbook to bring back his witchy ancestor from death. Ben hopes to use the witch to take control of the world, but the real Sarah doesn't want to share power. Eventually, with the help of one of the Hex Girls, the Scoobies are able to send Sarah Ravenscroft back into limbo along with Ben, and all is right with the world.

GHOST is an okay watch, but it lacks any of the atmosphere of ZOMBIE, and the characterization is weak. Ben's motive to rule the world is extremely lame, and although ZOMBIE gave Velma reason to modify her skepticism, here she seems to accept witches and spells a bit too easily. Fred and Daphne follow up on some of the intimations of possible romance bruited about in ZOMBIE, but there's not much progress to this subplot. Only the dialogue about the nature of the Wiccan faith-- which included both good and bad practitioners, even if Sarah was destructive-- lifts the script to the level of fair mythicity.