Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

Watch Movies TV -***DISCLAIMER*** The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion (or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay. 4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional live-Tweet session of the movie I'm watching! Yeah, I watched a Halloween-themed film in July...I wish it was October.

Goosebumps 2:  Haunted Halloween – 3 out of 5

Despite not being into the book series, I found I really enjoyed the Goosebumps film and found it to be a very fun ride.  Due to this, I welcomed the sequel; Goosebumps 2:  Haunted Halloween, with open arms and was ready for another adventure that had that right blend of Halloween extravaganza and comedy.  This second story is definitely enjoyable in its own right but doesn’t quite have the same magic that the first one exhibited.

There's only one being that can take out giant gummy bears...someone
get Steve from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

While cleaning out an abandoned house, Sonny (Jeremy Ray Taylor) and his best friend Sam (Caleel Harris), discover an old manuscript.  After opening the book, a ventriloquist dummy appears and is later revealed to be a magical being who calls himself Slappy (Mick Wingert).  With the help of his sister Sarah (Madison Iseman), the trio learns that the book was an unfinished story from author R. L. Stine (Jack Black) and that Slappy is using his dark magic to create monsters and is out to take over the town.  Now it’s up to them to stop the dummy and get all the monsters back into Stine’s book.

Come on, the kid in the middle took on a killer clown.  This should be
no problem.

Cameo time!

I won’t go as far to say Goosebumps 2 is a bad movie because it is not.  The essential spirit of the first film and the overall core of what the property stands for is here.  The story presented is a mostly harmless horror affair that is never scary but never really crossing the line into silly either.  It’s a good-hearted jaunt in the world of Halloween and all the things that go bump in the night and delivers some decent laughs as it progresses.  The cast is great, the special effects are terrific and the overall experience is rather enjoyable but it just doesn’t have the same flair and flash that the first film featured.

Way to ruin the wholesome and beloved imagine of ventriloquist dummies
and making them creepy.

Chris Parnell is in the film and that man is a treasure.

There’s no escaping that Haunted Halloween feels a touch generic and like a sequel for a sequel’s sake. For example, there’s the notable absence of the R. L. Stine character for a majority of the movie.  While I won’t argue that Jack Black was the key to the success of the first film (because so much of it worked so well in concert together) he was a very active ingredient and delegating him to a mere cameo towards the end of the film gave the movie a slightly cheapened feel.  Hell, Black didn’t even reprise his role of Slappy and the dummy was instead voiced by Mick Wingert.  While Wingert does a spot-on Black, there’s this overwhelming feeling that this one was just kinda thrown together and given just a partial blessing of what came before.  The film is still fun but it lacks the central heart that the first film contains and it ended up making this feel like it was more of a Direct-to-Video sequel and less of a continuing the franchise sequel.

It could have been worse, I guess.  There could have been no Jack Black
in the film and that would have been devastating.

This reference alone kinda made the film.

Goosebumps 2:  Haunted Halloween can feel a tad generic on the surface but despite this I still found it a very enjoyable experience.  It definitely has the atmosphere of a Goosebumps book, the cast is very entertaining and it’s a very amusing story.  I accept that it’s not as well-crafted and as amazing as the first film but I honestly wasn’t expecting that it would be.  Honestly, this sequel could have been much worse and far more generic but, for what it is, it is a fun follow-up and one that keeps the candle burning bright enough that I’d welcome a third film.