I recently discovered that all of the Disney Channel Original Movies of my childhood are on Disney+, and I have to be honest, I haven’t done one productive thing since. I watched Brink! last week and ended up liking it better than I did as a kid, so with that thinking, I had to give Smart House a re-watch. If time and life experience could warm me up to my least favorite, what would it do to the best DCOM of all time? (Not counting the High School Musical or Cheetah Girls series, of course. Musicals are in a league of their own).

As it turns out, time and life experience do not improve Smart House.

What occurs in this movie is pulled straight out of a horror story, and I’m not here to victim blame, but if a finger must be pointed at someone, let’s aim it toward the people who don’t leave while they still have time. Enter Ben Cooper and family.

It must be noted that Ben is a middle school student who wins an all-expenses paid smart home for his family in a contest on the internet. Do you want to know what I was doing in middle school? Learning that there is no such thing as free lunch. If I was presented with a free home, my Scooby senses would be on high alert, but I guess Ben wasn’t paying attention during that lesson.