Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is a 2018 American horror comedy film that's the sequel to Goosebumps (2015). It was theatrically released in the Netherlands on October 11, 2018, by Universal Pictures, and in the United States on October 12, 2018, by Columbia Pictures. The producers of the first film, Deborah Forte and Neal H. Moritz have returned in this one.
The film was originally going to be titled, Goosebumps HorrorLand, but later, many sources stated that the film was retitled Goosebumps: Slappy's Revenge. Instagram posts by the film's director, Ari Sandel, suggested that the film would be called Goosebumps: Slappy Halloween, which R.L. Stine corroborated on Twitter. However, Stine retracted the tweet regarding the title change. On April 23, 2018, a teaser for the film was posted on Instagram; in the video, the film was referred to as Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween. The official trailer was released on June 11, 2018, revealing the full title to be Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.
Although it's a sequel, the film does not continue with the characters in the first movie, and this time it's a group of completely new ones.
Home releases of the film refer to the project simply as Goosebumps 2. The subtitle is still included in the Netflix version, however.
Plot[]
Years after the events of the previous movie, in the town of Wardenclyffe, New York, a teenage girl named Sarah Quinn (played by Madison Iseman) is writing an essay so she can get into Columbia University. Her boyfriend, Tyler Mitchell (Bryce Cass), sneaks through the window to surprise her, only for her mother, Kathy (Wendi McLendon-Covey), and her brother, Sonny (Jeremy Ray Taylor), to catch them. Kathy kicks Tyler out and sends her kids to bed.
The next morning, a boy named Sam Carter (Caleel Harris) is dropped off by his father whose going out of town. Later, Kathy and the kids head to the drug store before Kathy drops them off at school, on the way, they see their neighbor Mr. Chu (Ken Jeong) getting his house decorated for Halloween.
After school, Sonny and Sam do their after school job called the Junk Bros. They are called by someone who wants them to clean the junk from an abandoned house, when they arrive, they find a secret switch on top of the fireplace, after pushing it, they find a trunk and open it thinking there's something valuable inside, but inside the trunk is a locked manuscript, Sonny finds the key and unlocks the book, nothing happens at first, but a few moments later, Slappy the Dummy appears but he's lifeless, the boys find his card in his pocket, and Sonny reads the words Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano. When the boys leave the house with Slappy, deciding to keep him, they are encountered by a school bully named Tommy Madigan (Payton Wich), who takes the book and tries to take Slappy, but Slappy now alive, uses his magic to pull Tommy's pants down, the bullies chase Sonny and Sam on their bikes, luckily, Slappy uses his magic to bring a hose to life and knocking the bullies off their bikes.
At home, Sonny is working on his science project, a miniature size version of Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower, he can't get it to work at first. Slappy then reveals he's alive to Sonny and Sam, but he says he's good and wants to be their brother, Slappy gets their trust by using his magic to do the boy's chores and homework. Meanwhile, Sarah goes to a party to hang out with Tyler, but then leaves the party in tears after she sees Tyler kiss another girl named Jess. That night when everyone is asleep, Slappy modifies Sonny's miniature tower, and he sneaks into Sarah's backpack.
When Sarah is at school the next day, Slappy goes to the auditorium, where Tyler is on a ladder hanging ghosts up, Slappy then uses his magic to break the ladder as revenge for him cheating on Sarah, the fall caused Tyler to break his bones and end up in the hospital. At Sonny's school, he shows off his project, but Slappy's modifications caused the miniature tower to blast a hole in the classroom wall, and Sonny gets in trouble for it.
Sonny, Sarah, and Sam arrive home and find Slappy sitting on Kathy's lap, when she leaves to answer the phone, Slappy talks again, and Sarah tells Slappy that he's been eliminated from the family, Sonny tries to read the words on his card to make him go back to sleep, but that doesn't work. Kathy returns and tells them that Halloween is cancelled for the three of them because that phone call was from the school explaining how Sonny blew a hole in the wall. Upstairs, Sarah hits Slappy with a baseball bat, and locks him in a suitcase, the kids drive to a swamp and through the suitcase in the water. On the way home, Slappy somehow escapes and jumps on in front of Sarah's car, pounding on the glass almost breaking it, Sarah then slams the breaks throwing Slappy off the car, but Sonny exclaims that things got much worse.
Halloween night has come and the kids are trick or treating, and back at Sonny's house, Sarah finds an article online about the events that happened at Madison, Delaware back in 2015, they then Google R.L. Stine (Jack Black) after the article about Madison mentions him, they find an article that says Stine lived in Wardenclyffe from 1975 to 1985, where he wrote an unpublished Goosebumps book called Haunted Halloween, Sonny and Sam realize that book they found is Haunted Halloween, Sarah finds an add for a R.L. Stine fan club run by Robert Shivers, Sarah tries to call Shivers, but she leaves a message, they then go look for Tommy to get the book back. Stine gets the message and prepares to leave to Wardenclyffe.
Slappy goes to the local drug store, and he says the spell to bring the Halloween costumes to life, such as three ghostly witches, a purple zombie, a vampire, an alien, a swamp monster, the grim reaper, a blue troll, a dead pirate, a female cyborg, a button-eyed scarecrow, the Red Vixen, and Goosebumps themed costumes based on Will Blake from The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, the Abominable Snowman from The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, and Prince Khor-Ru from Return of the Mummy. An employee at the pharmacy named Walter (Chris Parnell) catches them, and an Ogre mask flies on Walter's face, turning him into a hunchbacked Ogre, who becomes Slappy's right-hand man, and they march out of the drug store.
The three kids find Tommy, who says the book is at his house, the witches then drop from the sky and swoop up Tommy and the bullies in the sky. They arrive at Tommy's house, Sonny and Sam break in while Sarah watches. Luckily, Tommy's grandmother is asleep on the couch. Back at the Wardenclyffe tower, Slappy and Walter decide to make the tower their lair, and Slappy says the spell to bring the tower to life, after the tower comes to life, it causes all the Halloween decorations across town to come to life.
When Sonny and Sam get the book, Sam tries to get some gummy bears in the candy bowl, but a zombie hand in the bowl grabs Sam, he yanks it off, but the gummy bears that spilled everywhere came to life, grew, and began attacking Sonny and Sam. Kathy calls in the middle of it, and says she's on her way home. When one gummy bear tries to suffocate Sonny, he drops the book opening it, causing the gummy bear on his head to get sucked in. The ones that attacked Sam fuse into one giant gummy bear. Luckily, Sonny opens the book, sucking in all the gummy bears. They leave the house and the kids suck a skeleton bride and groom in the book.
Stine hurriedly grabs his typewriter and black paper before driving towards Wardenclyffe on his wagoner. On her way home, Kathy encounters a Headless Horseman, but is quite impressed with it. As the kids arrive at Mr. Chu's house, they find an array of Halloween monsters- including all of Mr. Chu's bedsheet ghosts, skeletons, and mummies- attacking trick-or-treaters and their parents. The kids notice that Kathy is trapped in webbing caused by the giant spider decoration that Mr. Chu had on his roof. While Sarah goes to help Kathy, Sonny and Sam retrieve a ladder while also dealing with their animated Jack-O'-Lanterns. However, a bedsheet ghost steals the book and the giant spider carries Kathy to the Wardenclyffe tower. Mr. Chu gets the kids inside his house as they are surrounded by monsters, and they tell him what's going on.
To Mr. Chu, living a Goosebumps story sounded like great news, and he is excited that the kids must finish the story. To help them get across town, he helps make some costumes as disguises in order for them to blend into the monster invasion. Sarah is dressed like a witch costume, Sonny is dressed like a Pumpkin Head, and Sam is dressed like a skeleton. Before they leave, Sarah takes Mr. Chu's leather bound copy of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, pretending it's the manuscript. The kids head to the Wardenclyffe tower, and a Pumpkin-headed tree monster who was guarding the tower falls for their disguises. Around the same time, Stine arrives in Wardenclyffe and sees the destruction that the monsters are causing. He has a brief encounter with Hap and Chip, but Stine kicks them like footballs before driving away from Witches and skeletons.
At the tower, the kids encounter Slappy and Walter, where they discover that Slappy has turned Kathy into a dummy. Walter gives Slappy the manuscript, and the dummy proceeds to write his own ending by burning the book. Sarah managed to get the book back, but the spider began trying to knock it out of her hands. Sonny and Sam turn up the tower to a high level, causing electricity shoot up everywhere, Sarah tells Slappy to turn her mom back to normal if she gives him the book.
However, the book she gives Slappy is the decoy, giving her time to kick Slappy in the electric fence, causing Slappy to get blasted into the sky. Sarah opens the book sucking the spider, witches, flying pumpkins, and all the other monsters into the Haunted Halloween manuscript. Kathy turns back into a human, and the Ogre Mask is removed from Walter's face. Stine shows up after the monsters were locked away and, as they leave, tells the kids that Kathy and Walter won't remember what happened. Tommy lands on the ground after bring taken by the Witches, and is glad to see Sam and Sonny. Before Stine leaves, Sarah asks Stine for writing advice. Stine tells Sarah that the first rule is to write what you knows and says he believes in her after being able to finish a story he was unable to complete for 30 years.
Some time later, Kathy and Walter start dating, Sonny wins the science fair where the principle (played by the real R.L. Stine) awards him, in December, Mr. Chu has his house decorated for Christmas, and Sarah gets an email saying she got in to Columbia University, the family celebrates.
Back in Stine's cabin, he finishes a new book, but Slappy appears after he survived that blast, during the time he was gone, Slappy wrote a book of his own where Stine is the main character, Slappy then opens the manuscript and sucks Stine in the book, saying it was his turn to see what it's like being trapped in a Goosebumps book.
As the credits finish rolling, Slappy's voice can be heard shouting: "Slappy Halloween!" before breaking into laughter.
Cast[]
- Madison Iseman as Sarah Quinn
- Caleel Harris as Sam Carter
- Jeremy Ray Taylor as Sonny Quinn
- Wendi McLendon-Covey as Kathy Quinn
- Ken Jeong as Mr. Chu
- Chris Parnell as Walter
- Jack Black as R.L. Stine (uncredited)
- Mick Wingert as the voice of Slappy the Dummy
- Bryce Cass as Tyler Mitchell
- Peyton Wich as Tommy Madigan
- Kendrick Cross as Mr. Carter
- Shari Headley as Mrs. Carter
- Courtney Lauren Cummings as Jess
- Jessi Goei as Maya
- Katharine C. Lumpkin as Red Vixen (credited as "Monster Bride")
- Kent Wagner as an undead pirate
- Marsha Shackelford as a female cyborg
- Barry W. Jerald Jr. as a gray alien
- Sherri Millican as a banshee
- Scott Millican as a red-haired ghoul
- Joseph N. Hardin as a vampire
- Alex T. Hill as a scarecrow
- Benjamin Bladon as Prince Khor-Ru (credited as "Royal Mummy")
- Iyani Gwendolyn, Cheniqua Litchmore, and Hali J. Ross as Calaca ladies
- Cody Jenkins and Joe Marri as goblins
- Mary Tricia Froedge, Robert Hunt, Martin Skyler, Grace Toso, Calvin Wickham, and Taylor Williams as mummies