Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Haunted Wedding’ on the Hallmark Channel, About A Ghost-Hunting Couple Trying To Reunite Two Unrequited Spirits After Centuries Apart

The Hallmark Channel’s new romance Haunted Wedding stars Janel Parrish and Dominic Sherwood as a ghost-obsessed couple who book their wedding at a supposedly haunted inn hoping to catch a glimpse at the spirits that roam the grounds. They get more than they bargain for when they realize that they need to reunite the ghosts of a couple who died before they could say “I do.” While there’s a fun premise here, the film doesn’t live up to its potential.

‘The Perfect Couple’ Episode 5 Recap: “Never Gonna Give You Up”

Opening Shot: It was a dark and stormy night. Inside an old house, ghost hunters Brian (Dominic Sherwood) and Jana (Janel Parrish), bodies strapped with equipment, wander through dark rooms, but nothing is turning up. Nothing, that is, except for an engagement ring, because Brian gets down on one knee to propose to Jana.

Will Nate Archibald Be Chuck Bass’ Best Man? Chace Crawford Reveals On ‘WWHL’ If He Was Invited To Ed Westwick’s Wedding

The Gist: Brian and Jana are lovers of the supernatural; spirits, ghosts and all that. Brian runs an antique shop and Jana is a teacher and now, six months after his proposal, they’re finally heading to a haunted inn called Keystone Manor where they’ve planned out their ideal wedding.

There is indeed a spirit that haunts the Keystone, the ghost of a woman who lived there during the 18th century named Angelique DeMornay (Cassandra Potenza) who roams the halls in a wedding dress and mourns the death of her betrothed, a Revolutionary War hero named Malcolm Buchanan. The thing is, Brian is the spitting image of Malcolm, and Angelique becomes hell-bent on preventing Brian and Jana’s wedding from happening because it’s too painful for her to see a man who looks like Malcolm getting married.

CLICK HERE TO GET EMAILS FROM DECIDER

Brian and Jana are the only living people who have ever been able to see and communicate with Angelique, and they do whatever they can to appease her and try to get her closure. Then they learn that Malcolm (also played by Dominic Sherwood) is trapped in this ghostly purgatory too, a former jail that’s now a pub. He and Angelique have never been able to leave their places where they died, so it’s up to Jana and Brian to reunite the spirits of Malcolm and Angelique. If they can do that, perhaps they can cross over together and the two ghosts can finally get their happily ever after.

But all of this comes at the expense of ignoring their own wedding preparations and making themselves crazy trying to get these two crazy ghosts together. As their own big day approaches, Angelique continues to wreak havoc on their wedding plans and Jana and Brian become so consumed with the ghosts that they forget that this weekend was supposed to be all about them. Not to worry, though! This is Hallmark, bb, everyone ends up together in the end – in a half-alive, half-ghost DOUBLE WEDDING.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? With all the ghosts, I’m reminded of the Hallmark movie Love and Jane , in which Alison Sweeney plays a writer haunted by the ghost of Jane Austen who helps her find romance and her voice.

Our Take: As I watched Haunted Wedding , I kept coming back to the thought that this movie feels more like something you would have seen on Nickelodeon in the 1990s than something on the Hallmark Channel. The characters are all big and broad and are forced to deliver hacky lines, the physical comedy feels designed to make kids laugh, and and the paranormal aspect had a real O.G. Goosebumps feel to it. All of this to say that it feels very silly and a little too basic. And while basic and predictable can be fine if the performances elevate the material, in this case, they don’t. While I appreciated Sherwood in his dual roles and feel like he actually showed range as both Malcolm and Brian, and Janel Parrish is fine as Jana, the rest of the movie feels filled with stereotypes and silly characters who don’t act like real people.

I don’t think I understand who it’s for because the tone simply feels confused. As it flashes back to Angelique and Malcolm’s Revolutionary-era love story, there are moments that are very dramatic, while flashing forward to the sometimes goofy, sometimes serious present day where the main characters are so distracted by the ghosts that they completely ignore that they’re supposed to be getting married. While the movie is sweet and silly in a lot of ways, it’s also frustrating and inconsistent and seems unsure which direction to go in. I hate to say this, but I wanted to leave Haunted Wedding at the altar.

Parting Shot: Jana tells Brian she has a surprise for him and she grabs a microphone and sings the Captain and Tenille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” to him on their wedding dance floor.

Performance Worth Watching: As Earl, the hack-y medium/ghost hunter who attempts to help Angelique cross over, Dan De Jaeger appears to be channeling the self-important bravado reminiscent of, say, Orson Welles in The Muppet Movie .

Memorable Dialogue: “A wedding at a haunted manor? Have I told you how crazy that is?” Jana’s bestie Rachel says. Crazy, sure, but sets up the plot pretty nicely.

Our Call: SKIP IT. With a few tweaks and changes, Haunted Wedding could have been such a fun movie, but its disjointed tone and broad characters distract from a promising premise.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction .

For more entertainment news and streaming recommendations, visit decider.com