'Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween' Is Such a Letdown

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween follows a high school senior named Sarah Quinn (Madison Iseman) who is struggling to write her application essay to Columbia University (which has been the school of many famous writers).  But when her younger brother Sonny (Jeremy Taylor) and his best friend Sam (Caleel Harris) stumble upon an unpublished Goosebumps manuscript and unwittingly unleash the evil Slappy the Dummy on Halloween, Sarah must set aside her writing and help Sonny and Sam stop Slappy from taking over the town.

Albeit cheesy, 2015’s Goosebumps, the film adaptation of the popular children’s book series of the same name by R.L. Stine, is a lot of fun.  On the other hand, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is a disappointing follow-up.  Although it’s shown in theaters, its quality is nothing better than those cheap, direct-to-video sequels to blockbuster movies.

Actually, I didn’t really need it to be excellent.  It just had to at least remind me of the feeling of enjoyment I had from reading Goosebumps books as a kid, and I would have been satisfied.  But it failed to accomplish even just that.

Technically, it’s a direct sequel to the original movie, and it’s supposedly set in the same universe.  However, the connection is virtually nonexistent.  It features a different set of main characters, and its plot doesn’t pick up what the first movie left off.  Jack Black did reprise his role as the fictional R.L. Stine (and the real R.L. Stine had a cameo), but his screen time was so brief and his presence had no actual contribution to the story that he might as well have had a mere cameo (he might have been busy working on another children’s Halloween movie that he didn’t have enough time to have a meaningful role here).

Moreover, instead of focusing on Goosebumps material that hadn’t been explored in the first movie – like Monster Blood – it just made do with the monsters that had already been prominently featured before (e.g. Slappy, the Abominable Snowman, Werewolf of Fever Swamp, the Haunted Mask, Pumpkin Head, etc.).  In fact, it looked like it had fewer monsters.

That being said, in the standpoint of being a spooky movie for kids, it’s just okay, I guess.  There can be some enjoyment in it in that sense.  It’s serviceable.  But for Goosebumps fans, it’s a massive letdown.

It made nearly thrice its budget in the box office though, so it looks like there’s going to be another one.  If ever, I hope it will be a return to form.