Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

"Halloween comes to life."

Director: Ari Sandel Year: 2018 Runtime: 90 min IMDb: ⭐ 6.1
Movie Poster

Synopsis

Be careful what you wish for. With their after school junk business, best friends Sonny and Sam hope to find treasure in other people’s trash. But when cleaning out the old Stine house, they open a locked book that frees a supernatural nightmare – Slappy! Now, with the help of Sonny’s sister Sarah, they’re in a race against time to get the sinister dummy and all the creatures he’s brought to life back into the pages before he unleashes total pandemonium!

Teenager Sarah Quinn lives with her mother, Kathy, and her teenage brother, Sonny, in the town of Wardenclyffe, New York and is writing an essay for her college application while Halloween is just around the corner. Sonny's friend, Sam Carter, is dropped off at their house to be looked after while his parents are away for the next three days. Scavenging for items in an abandoned house formerly owned by R. L. Stine after school, they find an unpublished Goosebumps manuscript and unlock it, resulting in Slappy the Dummy appearing, who is currently inanimate. Leaving the house after obliviously reading the incantation that brings Slappy to life, they are intercepted by bully Tommy Madigan, who steals the manuscript from them. He and his friends attempt to chase the duo home, but are secretly stopped by the now-brought-to-life Slappy. Back home, Slappy reveals his sentience to the duo, but requests that they keep him a secret from the other Quinns. The next day, Slappy tries to assert himself as a member of the family – first by assaulting Sarah's ex-boyfriend, Tyler Mitchell, for recently cheating on her, then causing damaging to one of the classrooms of Sonny's school after sabotaging his science project, a working model of the abandoned Wardenclyffe Tower created by Nikola Tesla. Now aware of Slappy's true nature, the duo and Sarah settle on getting rid of him, only for him to escape when they attempt to do so. As Halloween night arrives, the trio find an article online regarding events that occurred in the Delawarean town of Madison. Through some more research, they realize that the unpublished manuscript is required to stop Slappy. They then attempt to contact R. L. Stine for help, but leave a voicemail when he is unavailable. Meanwhile, Slappy visits a local Fred's and uses his powers to bring various Halloween costumes and decorations to life, some of which are Goosebumps themed. He also brainwashes the store manager, Walter, to his cause using a mask. Slappy soon reactivates the Wardenclyffe Tower and uses it to bring the town's Halloween decor to life. As Sonny and Sam retrieve the manuscript at Tommy's house, during which they discover it can imprison anything Slappy had brought to life, it is unfortunately stolen by his forces, which then abduct Kathy. Mr. Chu, the Quinns' neighbor and an avid Goosebumps fan, assists the trio in disguising themselves to safely navigate the town. They infiltrate the Wardenclyffe Tower and confront Slappy, who has now made Kathy like him. After some conflict, the trio defeat him as Sarah combines the recovered manuscript's power with the energy of the tower's reactor to save the town, with Kathy and Walter also being returned to normal. In the aftermath, Stine arrives, having received the trio's voicemail but only to learn that the threat has been neutralized and congratulates them for their heroism, as well as giving Sarah advice on writing her essay. Afterwards, Kathy and Walter start a relationship as Sarah completes her college application and is accepted. Elsewhere, in Stine’s cabin, Stine is confronted by a surviving Slappy, who entraps his creator in a new Goosebumps story he himself conceived.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

🎄 Holiday Cheer Breakdown

Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

a dog dies
spoiler There's no dog.
there's a dead animal
spoiler Also a stuffed skunk at the end of the film
a horse dies
spoiler A horse statue (carrying a headless man) comes to life, becoming a real horse. Nothing bad happens to it.
there are spiders
spoiler A house-sized spider figure made of balloons comes to life - and is still made of balloons. You'd have to be VERY afraid of spiders to have a problem with this one, I'd say.
there are bugs
spoiler I don't know if spiders count as bugs, but: A house-sized spider figure made of balloons comes to life - and is still made of balloons.
a cat dies
spoiler But there is a stuffed dead cat.
animals were harmed in the making
spoiler American Humane Association monitored all animal action. No animals where harmed.
someone leaves without saying goodbye
Yes
there's child abuse
spoiler They are harmed by slappy but everyone ends up okay.
the abused becomes the abuser
spoiler Arguably slappy.
someone is restrained
Yes
someone is beaten up by a bully
spoiler Harassed and threatened by bullies.
there's pedophilia
spoiler It’s mentioned that an adult man doesn’t have kids but puts on extravagant Halloween displays “for the kids” I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a joke that he is gay or “likes” kids. Both of which are distasteful.
there's torture
Yes
there's body horror
Yes
there's decapitation
spoiler Headless horseman briefly appears.
Someone becomes unconscious
Yes
there are hangings
spoiler No, but a woman hangs from a tree, wrapped in spider silk from a giant balloon spider. She's physically fine, though.
someone falls to their death
spoiler Someone falls from the sky and is dazed but physically okay.
a non-human character dies
Yes
someone cheats
spoiler There's a subplot where the woman lead's boyfriend cheated on her IIRC.
someone is kidnapped
spoiler Not shown on screen, but mom is kidnapped and tied up.
there are jump scares
Yes
trypophobic content is shown
spoiler The balloons personally upset me a bit but they fall under the lumpy type not the hole type.
someone is possessed
Yes
there's ghosts
spoiler Only Halloween-ghost-figures that come to life.
there are mannequins
Yes
there are clowns
spoiler Brief reference to Stephen King's It (shows the balloon coming from the sewer) but is humorous and no actual clown is shown.
someone wets/soils themselves
spoiler Jokes about diapers.
there's incarceration
spoiler People and monsters are locked in books
there's misophonia
Yes
someone has an anxiety attack
Yes
reality is unstable or unhinged
Yes
shaky cam is used
Yes
there's flashing lights or images
Yes
there are sudden loud noises
Yes
there's screaming
Yes
someone is watched without knowing
spoiler Slappy watches people (including a teenage girl) without them knowing, including while they sleep.
the fourth wall is broken
spoiler Defences to Bitcoin, Instagram, etc.
a pregnant person dies
spoiler No one is pregnant.
there's childbirth
spoiler No one is pregnant.
someone has an abortion
spoiler No one is pregnant.
someone miscarries
spoiler No one is pregnant.
there's fat jokes
spoiler No, and that's refreshing, seeing as there's an overweight boy who's bullied - he's bullied for something else, not for his weight. The bullies don't mention his size at all.
someone is misgendered
spoiler A school bully calls two boys "girls" to mock them.
a minority is misrepresented
spoiler Possibly gay people.
there's ableist language or behavior
spoiler Someone buys adult diapers for the nursing home they work at, the cashier comments on them and they act embarrassed/joke about it in a way that implies using adult diapers is something to be ashamed of when so many disabled people need them for a lot of different reasons. There is nothing shameful about wearing adult diapers, wether you are elderly, have incontinece, are paralyzed, have a gastric or bladder issue, or anything else and these jokes only punch down at the disabled and elderly that need them. Slapping dislikes being called “dummy”. Slappy is called “psycho” which is an ableist term.
there are nude scenes
spoiler Someone is pantsed
the ending is sad
spoiler More like a “we’re going to make another sequel” ending.
a car honks or tires screech
Yes
a car crashes
spoiler An evil living ventriloquist puppet throws himself on the hood/windshield of a driving car. He starts hitting the windshield, and it starts cracking. The people in the car panick, and the driver begins to lose control of the car, swerving on the road. After several seconds of this, the person driving the car hits the brakes almost at the same time as the car (really only the front wheels) hits a fallen tree, and the puppet goes flying. The scene, or parts of it, may trigger some who have issues with car accidents.
a person is hit by a car
spoiler An evil living ventriloquist puppet throws himself on the hood/windshield of a driving car. He starts hitting the windshield, and it starts cracking. The people in the car panick, and the driver begins to lose control of the car, swerving on the road. After several seconds of this, the person driving the car hits the brakes almost at the same time as the car (really only the front wheels) hits a fallen tree, and the puppet goes flying. The scene, or parts of it, may trigger some who have issues with car accidents.

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