Chair de poule 2 : Les Fantômes d'Halloween

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.

I quite enjoyed Goosebumps (2015) it was silly larger than life fun based on books I certainly enjoyed as a child. I did however not expect a sequel!

Led by two very entertaining kids, flanked by the always likeable Wendi McLendon-Covey and less so Ken Jeong the movies cast is a solid one.

SFX? Ropey in places but the movie is on a big scale, monsters of all shapes and sizes so the cgi is rife.

Plot? Highly generic stuff but passable enough to kill 90 minutes with.

So where do the real issues lay? Well the tone seems rather different, this doesn't feel like a loyal Goosebumps sequel it feels like something you'd watch on a Saturday morning with your kids. It feels like Kenan & Kel Halloween special, the horror is pretty much non-existent and instead is a full on goofy family comedy. That really damaged the film for me, sure I didn't expect actual horror but a degree of threat like the first movie would have been nice and not a full on children's movie. Absolutely no parental supervision needed for this one!

I enjoyed all the wacky monsters, I liked how bright and colorful the whole thing was and how the two leads managed to be likeable despite my hatred for kids. Haunted Halloween isn't bad, it's just very disappointing and if this is the direction they're going in then I'm not fussed for any more films.

The Good:

Looks great for the most part

Cast do a decent job

Great monsters

The Bad:

CGI fails in places

Saturday morning tone did nothing for me

Not as good as the first one,but still a fun movie with a decent cast.. perfect for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and for the kids.

I decided to watch "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween" because I did actually thoroughly enjoy the previous "Goosebumps" movie from 2015. And based on that movie, then I actually had high hopes for "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween".

While "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween" definitely was a visually pleasing movie, then it was just a very unnecessary sequel. Why? Well, because it was essentially the exact same as the 2015 movie, just changed the scenery, the monsters, and the characters. But the essence of the storyline and the outcome was the exact same thing. So that felt very anti-climatic and very much like a slap to the face with a cold, dead fish.

If you haven't already seen the 2015 "Goosebumps" movie then this sequel will be a good movie to watch. However, if you already did see the 2015 one, then there virtually is no need to watch "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween". I am not kidding.

The CGI department definitely did not fail to deliver, because the CGI in the movie were quite good, just as they were in the previous movie. And that is actually the selling point to "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween", sad to say.

This is very much a sequel in the very definition of a sequel. So it was soup being boiled on watered down broth.