“Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween”: It’s Hard to Get Past the Dummy

In Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween if the family had done the one thing the dummy asked the movie would have been over quickly and would have made a sweet and memorable Halloween short.

All the little wooden dude with the annoying voice wanted was to be loved and accepted as the black sheep of the family. Not an impossible request, and considering his magical powers, one with huge upside. Add some Seussian rhymes and it becomes the heart warming The Ventriloquist Dummy Who Stole Halloween or maybe even The Un-Nightmare Before the Thanksgiving and Christmas Season. It would be a hit with both the horror and religious audiences.

Instead Goosebumps 2 becomes a family versus evil anti-family picture guaranteed to produce rejection nightmares of family abandonment in the bully leaning bad seed children of the audience.

In all, G2 is a mildly scary slightly funny family pic that has the inevitable Jack Black cameo and a wildly delightful Beverly Goldberg impersonation from Wendi Mclendon-Covey. The moment her Kathy becomes demonic is G2’s highlight and best practical effect.

All the usual creatures from the first Bumps appear minus the evil animus. Still, this is one evil book that shouldn’t have been open.