Goosebumps 2: Halloween Assombrado

Aspiring writer Sarah Quinn (Madison Iseman) is struggling with her college entry essay. Her boyfriend just wants to have fun. Her nerdy brother Sonny (Jeremy Ray Taylor) annoys her. He and his best friend Sam Carter (Caleel Harris) have started a junk business. They are called to clean out the abandoned childhood home of R.L. Stine (Jack Black). They find Stine's book. Ventriloquist dummy Slappy suddenly appears and Sonny unknowingly brings him back to life. Slappy wants to be a part of his family unleashing chaos during Halloween.

This is pretty good for a TV Goosebumps movie on a kiddie channel. As a theatrical offering, it doesn't have the grandeur or the scares to cross over into adult or teen market. In addition, it's tough to sell parents to take their little kids to a horror movie. It's stuck somewhere in no man's land. It needs to be a little darker and a little more theatrical to get the teens. Jack Black phones in his fifteen minutes and delivers one good joke. The kids are fine but nothing that special. The writing misses a few things. Sarah needs to physically write in the book with a pen to wrap up that aspect of the story. Slappy is interesting and could deliver more sequels. The franchise is unlikely to break out and is probably on a declining trajectory. It's stuck in kiddie horror land.

I really enjoyed this one, it's alot smaller in scale then the first film, which makes it a nice change of pace. But for me it never gets boring. It actually feels more of the shows episode "Night of the Dummy 2" in the 1995-1998 Show which Is available on YouTube. So with all that said, "Let's review "Goosebumps 2:Haunted Halloween".

I like the kids dynamic, they have lots of good moments together. Especially when they are talking about the invention of the lights and electricity from Nicola Tesla, which created for lots of funny moments. And it was equally as fun seeing Slappy in that moment too, as it also gives alot of laughs and fun scenarios with them start to break loose.

They try and take him after they have had enough of him, however Slappy never leaves there sight as he is still appearing out of nowhere. So the gang decide to see what might happen if they do something else, and it keeps going like that. It's interesting because Slappy is still very threatening, and the gang are still having to think of ways to stop him.

The Good thing about this film, is it feels like a longer version of the siries, which is mostly interesting and they pulled it off pretty well whilst still making it interesting enough and I was entertained with what was going on. And the film had great characters that bounced of each other very well, as they did have lots of onscreen presence and very good chemistry.

The history was brought into the film well, with Nicola Tesla inventing the lights. And the gang seeing the energy source. I really liked the lights shining out into the town, it was a great scene. And Jack Black also turns out to be around that area where he then helps the gang out to defeat Slappy.

For me, this film is simple but effective. It needed more Jack Black as he always is great, but seeing other characters in the Goosebumps world is always an intreging idea and concept. I also which they developed the characters a bit more, however this film was Good enough and did it's job perfectly well.

Would I recommend this film?

Yes absolutely, a shorter scaled film that's entertaining, this is the right film for you-6.5/10.

Stand alone, this could make up as a pretty good children's halloween movie, it even has some morals kids would normally get in a kid's movie. BUT The first Goosebumps movie was enjoyable for almost all audiences despite some jokes being to childish and I expected so much

I think the actors did a good job but the characters that they had to give life to were just poorly imagined and too flat.

Also, Jack Black's appearance although we would have wanted more was clearly unnecessary and was treated as a narration or explanation if you haven't watched the first movie. It would have been better without him if they were just going to let him do that.

I revisited this yesterday with my nephew n daughter. This one is a stand alone sequel n apart from Jack Black in a tiny role, none of the cast from the previous film returns here.

This time two young boys gets hold of an unpublished n unfinished Goosebumps book titled Haunted Halloween. How the book is kept in the dilapidated n abandoned house is never explained. They also find Slappy n brings it to life by speaking magic words found in the dummy's pocket. So a lil confusion here. Slappy is found aft opening the book but he comes alive aft the magic words. Also Slappy brings all the Halloween monsters to life including the Werewolf n Snowman, albeit in a tiny role n that too without opening any book.

The original Goosebumps movie took me by surprise when it came out in 2015. It had fun likable characters and a great villain in Slappy the evil dummy.

Fast forward 3 years and here's the sequel. 99% of the cast from the original is missing and the new characters aren't as interesting. They're serviceable but kind of forgettable. The story is also not as well paced as the original and is too fast for its own good coming in as a little too short. It needed about another 10 minutes or so in its last act.

But I can't hate it because it's still a lot of fun. Once again Slappy steals the show and there's some surprisingly creepy scenes involving him early on in the movie. The other Goosebumps monsters are fun too and the halloween setting puts a smile on my face. I also really dug the musical score by Dominic Lewis.

If you have kids I highly recommend taking them to this one. Although there might be a few scenes too scary for the younger ones it's the perfect horror movie for them to watch during the Halloween season.

Buy a ticket, some popcorn and a soda and have fun.