PERIL AT PRICE MANOR

A trio of preteens find friendship while combating comically grotesque tentacled blob monsters.

Halle Thompson, a scary movie devotee, is excited to deliver flowers from her mother’s shop to imposing, isolated Price Manor, home of famous fright film director Maximus Price. His children, Paisley and Argyle, are preparing for an ordinary day, flanked by a coterie of servants in their grandiose abode. But the house seems eerily quiet. When the twins finally locate their staff, they discover that all the adults are possessed by squidlike creatures who affix themselves to people’s faces and effectively zombify them. Halle, approaching through a thick mist, finds a similar scene on the mansion’s lawn. The three kids meet and swiftly join forces to combat the mysterious foes in a series of outlandish situations. Halle’s vast knowledge of horror tropes combines with the idiosyncratic skill sets of the long-cloistered Price offspring, and between a roller-skating disco, sousaphone practice, and a horrifying foray into a stinky cheese cellar, they tackle the tickly nemeses and prove themselves resourceful and brave in the process. Playing lightly on the tropes of classic B-movie horror, Parnum’s imaginative and satisfying debut is packed with high-spirited hijinks. Characters are implied White.

Playful energy propels a laugh-out-loud scary story that doesn’t tread too far into truly terrifying territory.