Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween Parent Guide

I am not the target audience for this movie. I am not ten. And I did not see the first Goosebumps movie (2015). In addition, I was relying heavily on the truism that sequels are worse than originals (except for The Empire Strikes Back). So my expectations for this film were set quite low. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween was not what I expected.

The story starts with a family. Sarah and Sonny Quinn (Madison Iseman and Jeremy Ray Taylor) live with their mom, Kathy (Wendi McLendon-Covey), in a sleepy town in New York. Sonny and his best friend Sam (Caleel Harris) run a junk business and they are hired to clean out a dilapidated house with the promise they can keep whatever they find as payment. The boys discover a secret room with a chest and a locked book inside. After they open it a strange ventriloquist dummy, Slappy, appears. Then the fun really begins.

Slappy does his best to befriend the boys and Sarah, helping them as much as he can with his magical powers. But he soon becomes controlling, demanding, and even violent in his efforts to become part of the Quinn family. The kids try to get rid of Slappy, but this only makes him angrier and determined to seek revenge against them. To this end Slappy combines his powers with the local Tesla plant to make all of Halloween come to life - the decorations, the costumes, even the candy. Some of it’s adorable, and some of it’s a little spooky as we see pumpkins, gnomes, scarecrows, a headless horseman, and gummy bears as living creatures. I do mean that it’s spooky for children - I was fine. In what becomes a relatively predictable climax and denouement we see the Quinn siblings and Sam fight off and defeat the Halloween monsters and save each other and their town.

Heading into the theater I expected to spend 90 minutes rolling my eyes while I tried to grin and bear it for the duration. What I got was a mildly spooky Halloween film that had me laughing out loud and put me in the seasonal mood. The cast was great with secondary roles being filled with first rate comedians Ken Jeong and Chris Parnell. And the script was authentic as possible given the far-fetched plot. The child actors were believable and enjoyable to watch and Madison Iseman again proves she can handle the outrageous (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) without straining credulity too far.

This is a nice introduction into the horror genre for kids. There were spooky, suspenseful moments, and lots of creepy editing and music, but nothing that older children couldn’t handle. But for younger or sensitive children (which mine are both) I’d probably save this one for a few years. Mostly because I don’t want to spend the rest of October waking up in the night to soothe my daughters after their nightmares.