‘Goosebumps 2’ satisfying scary fun
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween Rated: PG for scary creature action and images, some thematic elements, rude humor and language. Running time: 90 minutes. out of 4
You can tell “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” had some compromises going on behind the scenes.
Jack Black’s return is little more than a “The Muppet Movie” cameo — he shows up so abruptly, late in the movie, that the other actors seem disoriented. The visuals are uneven; a fiery jack-o-lantern attack looks as if it was created using a couple cans of hairspray and a match.
But beyond some network television-quality production values, the sequel to the 2015 film is completely satisfactory family entertainment. It’s hard to imagine anyone putting “Goosebumps 2” on their end-of-year worst movie list. And not just because it’s hard to imagine anyone even remembering this film beyond next Tuesday.
“Goosebumps” begins, promisingly, with a pair of oddball friends ( Jeremy Ray Taylor and Caleel Harris), who are starting a junk business. They find a manuscript by “Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine, and Slappy the ventroliquist dummy from the first film.
The former discovery brings decorations and costumes to life on Halloween, and the latter provides a sort of play-by-play broadcast to the mayhem, despite futile and entertaining attempts to destroy the puppet.
This is all you need to know about “Goosebumps 2”: The ventriloquist’s dummy, not any human character, is the largest image on the movie poster. And after watching the film, this seems like the right move. Slappy was the best thing about the first “Goosebumps,” and he’s wisely elevated to star of the sequel.
More of an amusing annoyance than a scary character, he sets a nice tone for the PG-rated film. Last month’s “The House With a Clock in Its Walls,” another spooky family film that benefitted from Black’s full attention, was dark and menacing enough to
induce nightmares. “Goosebumps 2” buttresses any scary visuals with nonsense and laughs.
The young leading actors are smart and resourceful outcasts in the mold of “Super 8”/“Stranger Things”/“It,”" and all get a huge boost from Wendi McLendon-Covey, as the kids’ multiple shifts-working mom. She’s more weary here than “The Goldbergs” smothering maternal figure Beverly. But the actress is no less winning, as a mother who is frustrated with her children but loving and genuinely funny. McLendonCovey is a wonderful and versatile performer – one could imagine her playing any of the main characters in a remake of “Alice.” (Including, and perhaps especially, Mel.)
The biggest “Goosebumps 2” complaint is the lack of true spectacle. The story is fine but predictable, with kids creating overambitious science projects that blow up the lab, while attracting bullies who always know where to find them on the way home. Once the Halloween world comes to life, the likeable characters seem to disappear in favor of relentless sight gags and effects-laden action.
Black voices Slappy, but is physically absent during the first two-thirds of the movie, leaving a cinematic and narrative void. When he finally appears as author Stine the scenes are jarring — the actor seems to talk a little faster, as if making up for lost time. Or maybe they only had him on the set for a day and a half.
But if “Goosebumps 2” was a movie of behind-thescenes negotiations, the filmmakers did the best to make a film that’s at least worth the matinee price. Go with modest expectations and a kid who can’t wait to see the film, and you’ll have a pretty good time.