Plot

Cassie (Emily Osment) is a 13-year-old goth girl who just moved to a new neighborhood and school. She loves playing tricks on the popular kids and her little brother, Max (Alex Winzenread). On the way to the library, she finds a mysterious Halloween store down an alleyway and goes inside. She ends up finding a little book called The Evil Thing the owner suggested her for reading. She ignores the warning at the front page "DO NOT READ ALOUD" and reads it aloud to her little brother, Max, later that night. The Evil Thing, brought to life by Max's thoughts, captures him and Priscilla (Brittany Curran), one of the popular girls in school. It is up to Cassie and Sean (Cody Linley) to save them. At first, they try to defeat The Evil Thing on their own, but fail. Cassie then thinks about the owner of the shop, where she got the book, to ask for help. As it turns out, the owner planted the book on her so she could get the real taste of her evil deeds and left them only a riddle for help: "Two heads are better than one. That's the way to get the bloody job done." Sean brilliantly makes remarks that solve the riddle. Together, they formulate that if they get blood from a roast that Cassie's mother made and throw it on the Evil Thing it will be forced to suck up the blood and in doing so will devour itself. By using Sean's CD of monster sound-effects as a "mating call", they accidentally drop the blood nearby recently-freed Max who must conquer his fears and save the day. After the monster is destroyed, Max, Sean and Cassie save Priscilla who angrily calls Cassie a witch when Sean rejects Priscilla in favor of Cassie and after she leaves they save the pizza guy who offers free pizza in return for his release. After eating the free pizza, they burn the book and rid themselves of The Evil Thing... or not? After coming home, their parents find the book singed in the fireplace. The father mockingly reads it aloud, until the point he finishes off the story, when suddenly the lights go out. Cassie awakes and realizes it's not over yet...