Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween


Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is a fun, somewhat horror comedy directed by Ari Sandel, and it stars Jeremy Ray Taylor, Madison Iseman, and Caleel Harris as three kids who accidently get entangled in Slappy’s plans to unleash a permanent Halloween on the world, and must work together to save the city they live in. The film ends up being a fun fantasy tale that doesn’t exactly lean on the scary side, so kids will not be particularly spooked throughout this movie, unless they fear talking puppets (I do). Something I enjoyed about this film was the pacing and run time. It doesn’t take long for the movie to set itself in gear and it doesn’t overstay its welcome, so kids and parents alike will not become bored watching this. The young actors, while decent enough, come off wooden and uninspired. They don’t add much to the experience and don’t give you any real reason to care for them. They try to rope a college essay story to Iseman’s character to give you a sense of connection with her and make her relatable, but kids aren’t going to understand the struggle of writing a college essay, so it just comes across meaningless, especially since it appears at the opening, and doesn’t make a reappearance until the very end. While the kids come off dull, the mother and next-door neighbor, played by Wendi McLendon-Covey and Ken Jeong absolutely steal the show with some well-timed comedy and legitimately funny moments. Anytime they were on screen I found myself engaged because I was expecting to laugh, and laugh I did.
            Aside from the main plot, there isn’t a lot of substance to be had in this movie. The kids don’t really go through much of a struggle, and there isn’t much going on aside from the chaos caused by Slappy. Speaking of Slappy, he’s okay in this film. There’s nothing great about him, but there isn’t much to complain about, either. He’s not particularly an effective antagonist, he’s simply just there to move the story along. The effects used were effective, however, they do dip in quality from time to time in a noticeable way. Thankfully, they didn’t rely too much on them. While the movie seems to fall flat in comparison to the first one, it is still a fun flick to take the kids to. And don’t worry if your kids or you haven’t caught the first film, as you don’t really have to watch it to understand what is going on here. This film has some funny moments that kids will enjoy, particularly a scene revolving gummy bears, and it has some nice cameos and Easter eggs that fans of the horror genre will appreciate. This won’t be the best thing that you will catch this year, but there are far worse ways to spend 90 minutes. A solid fantasy horror comedy all around, I’m going to give Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween a 6.5/10.

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