Goosebumps or Bumped off?

Title – Goosebumps 2 : Haunted Halloween
Certificate – PG
Director – Ari Sandel
Writers – Rob Lieber (Screenplay), Rob Lieber & Darren Lemke (Writers), R.L. Stine (based on the Scholastic Goosebumps Books written by)
Cast – Wendi McLendon-Covey (Kathy), Madison Iseman (Sarah), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Sonny)
Plot – Two young friends find a magic book that brings a ventriloquist’s dummy to life.

Never seen the cartoon, never read the books….never seen the first Goosebumps film until about 2hrs before I went to watch this one…and I have to say, I much preferred the first one.

In the first, everything felt new. You had all these books kicking out their antagonists and causing mayhem, yet in 2, you see Halloween come to life before your very eyes thanks to Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy.

The whole film just felt laboured and unnecessary. I can see why they did it, and they do have a lot of material to work off….and I expect that if this has made money, there will be a third one.

It’s not terrible, but it’s not great either. Kids will love it

2/5