Eccentric Frank Carlyle ran a horror shop in small-town Steeple Falls, which takes pride in and profit from its Halloween traditions. Frank’s widower grandson Richard grudgingly returns there from Boston with his own kids, bright Ian and bratty Claire, to settle the inheritance. Ian discovers great-grandpa’s house is really haunted, and not just, as legend holds, by historic owner Zachariah Kull, who was burned on the stake.

A group of young professionals decides to play a practical joke on one of their ex-girlfriends who married a rich man who is about to close a major real estate deal. They plan to kidnap her and mess up the deal. Unfortunately, the joke becomes deadly serious.