Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is sequel to Goosebumps 2015. Rob Letterman (the first film director) will not return for the sequel, but the first film producer, Deborah Forte and Neal H. Moritz will return. It was released on October 12, 2018 and the twenty-ninth Sony Pictures Animation film.

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In the town of Wardenclyffe, New York, a teenage girl named Sarah Quinn is writing an essay so she can get into Columbia University, her boyfriend Tyler sneaks through the window to surprise her. Unfortunately, her mother Kathy and her brother Sonny catches them and Kathy kicks Tyler out.

Next morning, a boy named Sam Carter 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 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 fire place. 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. Though nothing happens at first. 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 who takes the book and tries to take Slappy. Slappy comes to life and 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 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's tower 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 throw 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. 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 after the article about Madison mentions him and find an article that says Stine lived in Wardenclyffe from 1985 to 1991 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 witches with globe-like heads, a vampire, an alien, a swamp monster, the grim reaper, an undead pirate, blue troll, a female cyborg, the Bride of Frankenstein, and Goosebumps-themed costumes based on Will Blake's werewolf form from The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, the Abominable Snowman from The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, a Scarecrow from The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, and the Mummy of Prince Khor-Ru from Return of the Mummy. An employee at the pharmacy named Walter catches them, and an ogre mask flies on Walter's face, turning him into a hunchbacked ogre who becomes Slappy's right-hand man. Slappy and the monsters 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's ogre form 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 throws a china at Sonny. He drops the book opening it, causing a few gummy bears 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. On her way home, Kathy encounters the Headless Horseman, but is quite impressed with it.

At Mr. Chu's house, all of his Halloween decorations where attacking Trick or treaters and their parents as well as the Witches and bat-winged pumpkins. The kids notice that Kathy is trapped in webbing caused by the giant spider decoration that Mr. Chu had on his roof. A ghost steals the book and the giant spider carries Kathy to the Wardenclyffe tower. Mr. Chu gets the kids inside his house and they tell him what's going on.

To Mr. Chu, living a Goosebumps story sounded like great news and he was excited to finish the unfinished manuscript. But first, he makes Sarah where a witch costume, Sonny a pumpkin costume, and Sam a skeleton costume in order for them to blend into the monster invasion. But 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 Scarecrow who was guarding the tower falls for their disguises. Meanwhile, Stine arrives in Wardenclyffe and sees the destruction that the monsters are causing. He encounters two Lawn Gnomes, but Stine smashes them and avoids the Witches and skeletons in the process.

At the tower, the kids encounter Slappy and Walter where they discover that Slappy has turned Kathy into a dummy. The ghost gives Slappy the manuscript and proceeds to write his own ending and burn the book. Sarah managed to get the book back, but the giant 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, but 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, the Witches, the 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 defeated.

Outside, Stine tells the kids that Kathy and Walter won't remember what happened. Tommy landed 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 to write what she knows.

Some time later, Kathy and Walter start dating, Sonny wins the science fair where Principal Harrison 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. 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.

Castedit | edit source

 * Jeremy Ray Taylor as Sonny Quinn
 * Madison Iseman as Sarah Quinn
 * Jack Black as R.L. Stine
 * Mick Wingert as Slappy the Dummy while Avery Lee Jones provides the puppeteer work for Slappy.
 * Caleel Harris as Sam Carter
 * Wendi McLendon-Covey as Kathy Quinn
 * Chris Parnell as Walter
 * Ken Jeong as Mr. Chu
 * Peyton Wich as Tommy Madigan
 * Shari Headley as Mrs. Carter
 * Courtney Lauren Cummings as Jess
 * Jessi Goei as Maya
 * Bryce Cass as Tyler
 * Kendrick Cross as Mr. Carter
 * Shari Headley as Mrs. Carter
 * Courtney Lauren Cummings as Jess
 * Jessi Goei as Maya
 * R. L. Stine as Principle Harrison
 * Katharine C. Lumpkin as Monster Bride
 * Kent Wagner as Dead Pirate
 * Marsha Shackelford as Female Cyborg
 * Barry W. Jerald Jr. as Alien
 * Sherri Millican as Banshee
 * Scott Millican as Red-Haired Ghoul
 * Joseph N. Hardin as Vampire
 * Alex T. Hill as Scarecrow
 * Benjamin Bladon as Royal Mummy

Productionedit | edit source
Sony announced on September 2, 2015 that a sequel was on it's way, though the first film wasn't due to come out for another month. On April 26, 2016, it was reported that Rob Letterman would return to direct the film, and Darren Lemke would handle the script. On January 17, 2017, Sony announced that the movie would hit theaters on January 26, 2018. On February 7, 2017, Sony announced that they would push back the release date to September 21, 2018. On May 18, 2017, official title for the film was announced as Goosebumps HorrorLand, and it was stated that Jack Black would be respiring his role as R.L. Stine. A teaser image was also released.

On June 12, 2017, R.L. Stine teased Slappy would appear in the film in a tweet on Twitter. On November 2, 2017, it was reported by Variety that Rob Lieber wrote a script for the film. According to the report, Lieber's script did not include Jack Black as R.L. Stine. However, it is said that Black could return if his schedule allows, and there are other scripts being considered that do have Black's character.

Plot details revealed are Jack Black is confirmed to return as voice of Slappy and the film is renamed Goosebumps: Slappy’s Revenge. New cast members include Madison Iseman, Ben O'Brien, Caleel Harris and Jeremy Ray Taylor. Ken Jeong, Chris Parnell and Wendi McLendon-Covey joined the following month. Filming began on March 7, and on April 2018 the title is now renamed Haunted Halloween.

It was initially confirmed by Sony representatives that Avery Lee Jones was voicing Slappy in the film. It was also confirmed that Jack Black will be returning for the film as Stine, and it was later confirmed that voice actor Mick Wingert had replaced Jones as the voice of Slappy.

Receptionedit | edit source
As of October 14, 2018, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween has grossed $16.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $3.7 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $19.9 million, against a production budget of $35 million. In the United States and Canada, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween was released alongside First Man and Bad Times at the El Royale, and was projected to gross $15–21 million from 3,521 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $4.9 million on its first day, including $750,000 from Thursday night previews, up from the $600,000 made by the first film. It went on to debut to $16.2 million (down 31% from the first film's opening), finishing fourth at the box office behind Venom, A Star Is Born and First Man.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 41% based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween offers a handful of treats for very young viewers, but compared to the entertaining original, this sequel is a ding dong to ditch." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, down from the "A" earned by the first film.

Triviaedit | edit source

 * Goosebumps is the seventh Sony Pictures Animation film to become a franchise, following Open Season, Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Alpha and Omega, The Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania.
 * It was originally called Goosebumps: HorrorLand and Goosebumps: Slappy Halloween.
 * This is the first film to have the Columbia Pictures logo appear before the Sony Pictures Animation logo since The Emoji Movie. It was originally going to have the Sony Pictures Animation logo appear before the Columbia Pictures logo, a method previously used on Peter Rabbit, but the opening logo order on this film was swapped.
 * This is the first theatrical Sony Pictures Animation sequel not to have its music score composed by the same composer as its predecessor; Danny Elfman previously composed the music score for the first film, while Dominic Lewis composes the music score for this film.
 * Thus, it is also Dominic Lewis' third music score in a Sony Pictures Animation film after Open Season: Scared Silly (which he previously scored with Rupert Gregson-Williams) and Peter Rabbit (which he scored by himself).
 * This will be the second Sony Pictures Animation sequel to drop its subtitle for its home media release after Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation
 * This is the last film to feature the 2011 Sony Pictures Animation logo