Very disappointed :(

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Hired to investigate a supposedly-haunted abandoned schoolhouse, a group of paranormal investigators find the school is far more dangerous than they bargained for and must try to find the cause of the paranormal incidents to get out alive.This turned out to be quite the effective and entertaining parody effort while falling slightly short as a true stand-alone effort. Aping the TV show to it's fullest extent, right down to the set-up of the group and their relationships to each other, the continual use of finding bad guys in masks as the prime culprit and the same goofy humor throughout, even managing to bring a dog into the fray as a partner makes this one feel like a true homage yet it still manages to go in it's own separate path as the group manages to find an actual case of demons and satanic madness in their latest assignment, which proves far too much for them to handle and causing the middle section to be enormously entertaining with a series of sequences really amping up the terror and tension throughout. The sight of seeing them succumb to the actual torments and tortures inflicted upon them by the ghastly, creepy-looking demons and ghouls makes for some additional fun than expected due to the playing off the homage angle earlier and seeing the walls drip with blood-splatter, the group finally engaging in sleazier antics than usual and the entire actuality of the demonic origins of their protagonists is just endless fun due to incorporating this into the film. That said, without all that knowledge beforehand this does tend to follow the motions in just about every one of these haunted house investigation movies with the team not completely sold on the enterprise being what they think it is, they eventually get proved wrong when it turns out to be for real and must overcome the experience for the first time. It does grow a little thin to see it resorting to these clichés to keep going, but that's the way it goes here with this type of plot. It also really easily betrays it's low-budget roots quite often with a series of lame shots of the demons or really weak-looking special effects, but the rest of the movie is so fun it really overcomes that.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, drug use and violence-against-animals.

The single greatest missed opportunity in the history of man. What should have been a groovy five star romp, turned out to be nothing more than a half-baked wannabe Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Saturday Morning Mystery is brainless, practically bloodless, and without a sense of humor...or horror for that matter. The film, if you can even call it that, is sure to disappoint every fan of every genre as it brings literally nothing to the table. Turning Scooby Doo into a horror film is the single most brilliant idea I never had. This is why I am so angry at the filmmakers responsible for this blunder, because it deserved better. I could have wiped my butt with film stock and produced a better final product than this trash.

So yeah, Hollywood has made a mess out of Scooby Doo. Honestly...and I'm just keeping it 100, the damned Scooby Doo cartoon wasn't that great to begin with. Let's get it out of the way first; yes, this is a Scooby Doo homage/parody. The names have been changed and the archetypes updated but the influence is 100% Scooby Doo. Ironically, the Scooby character, the dog ( I can't recall it's name) is almost an after thought in the movie...and I'm pretty sure this was done intentionally. The focus is what and how would the Mystery Team from Scooby Doo actually act if the cartoon was a reality. In other words, why would they see the bizarre things they see, why would they come to some of their outlandish conclusions, why and how would the old gag involving everyone chasing the fiend through multiple doors work??? Clever stuff. The cast is eccentric and marvelous. They flesh themselves out through character acting and very little to no back story. The cinematography is ideal for the slasher movie breathing down the necks of our characters and slyly sets up tension and creates a slow burning doom that may or may not be awaiting our protagonists. The score is very well done but the sound effects are some of the best I've heard in some time. If you do check this great little flick out, listen for those sound effects...they're remarkable. There are a few small problems however... It might be a bit too long as some have suggested, but my theory is the movie kicks gears towards the end and it sort of guts any emotional investment we might have been brewing. It goes from a sort of edgy comedy to a survival/slasher movie much like "Behind the Mask : The Rise of Leslie Vernon" and I felt the same way as a viewer of that great little movie as I did with this one. Very interesting collection of talent involved with this one...I'll be following what they do in the future.

As a horror film Saturday Morning Mystery is nothing special. It's not particularly scary or innovative in the 'who, what and how'. The bit that IS innovative is the use of an ersatz version of the gang from Scooby Doo... and that is the film's only real talking point. It lives or dies by how well that is pulled off. Sadly it's a mixed bag of nuts. The first half is great, I enjoyed seeing the real-life version of the characters I watched as a kid... worrying over having no real source of income, having to deal with the police, uncovering criminals whose motives are a bit nastier than 'old man Geezer trying to keep kids away from his gold'. They run into a few quirky characters (what's up with the couple in the diner?) and a haunted house with a bad history. So yeah, the setup is fun. Naturally, I favored the 'Velma' character Nancy. She's brave, perky and smart just like she oughtta be. To my mind the movie took a turn for the worse when the obligatory 'Shaggy'-induced drug sequence goes down. It took me a moment to realize what was going on and somehow it just didn't sit well. It felt forced... or something. After that, and the equally obligatory 'Fred' and 'Daphne' sex scene it felt like the writers had shot their wad. The trick of the movie is that it tries to go where Scooby Doo never went... where, as a kid, I always wanted it to go, by giving the kids some REAL monsters to uncover. Unfortunately this is where it pretty much completely drops the Scooby Doo setup and goes straight into 'coeds meet rabid hillbilly' territory. There are no surprises or interesting moments from this point on that haven't been seen in dozens of other fright flicks. I have a larger issue with horror films in general that throw up their hands when it's time to get scary and resort to just chopping up the cast rather than coming up with more creative ways to say 'BOO!'. Death and dismemberment are nasty but a lot can be said for more subtle character-based scares as well. The monsters in Saturday Morning Mystery just are not worthy of their adversaries. For one thing they bear no resemblance to the ersatz spooks the cartoon gang had to thwart... which is fine, but they're not a particularly interesting pack of ghouls in any other way either. They're just there to sneak around in the background and then leap out and kill. Not surprisingly the kids on their own are much more fun to watch. There is a confused attempt to do the signature 'hallway chase scene' that was often in the old cartoons... but if it was meant to be funny it wasn't.Really, if it weren't for the first 45 minutes or so of this movie it wouldn't even be worth a discussion because it would be just another slasher flick.