Goosebumps 2 Haunted Halloween follows an overworked single mom, Kathy, and her two children. Sarah is struggling to find inspiration to finish her college essay and is dealing with a cheating boyfriend. Sam is a science enthusiast, who is trying to reproduce Nicholas Tesla lighting experiment, while dealing with school bullies. Best friends, Sonny and Sam, have an after-school business called The Junk Bros. They are called by someone who wants them to clean junk from the abandoned Stein house. They come across a mysterious area behind the fireplace and find a hidden treasure trunk. Inside a locked book, they find Slappy the dummy, and unknowingly bring him to life. The boys bring Slappy home with them, but the book is stolen by local bully Tommy Madigan. Slappy helps keep the bullies away, punishes Sarah’s boyfriend and helps with Sam’s science project. When Sam and Sarah realize Slappy isn’t exactly the friendly doll that they originally thought they try to put Slappy back to sleep and keep him away from their family unsuccessfully. In an attempt to build a new family on Halloween, Slappy brings all things Halloween to life. The children reach out to RL Stein to help save the day.
As someone who really liked the original, I felt like this was a sequel that lacked the fun and creativity of its predecessor. If your family watched the original or the made for Disney Halloween movies then this movie shouldn’t be scary and will be seen as funny and light-hearted. There were minimal jump scares and the special effects were the best part. My favourite being the larger than life-sized gummy bears. I also loved the neighbour, played by Ken Jeong, who was a holiday enthusiast. He was a single man who had the most decorated house on the block for Halloween and then immediately switched to Christmas on November 1st. This movie was very predictable but watchable. I think it would be better suited for a DVD or on-demand movie night at home instead of movie night at the theatre.
