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Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

This is a fun, last-minute Halloween movie for the whole family.

Goosebumps 2 was very enjoyable and a fun movie to watch. This movie is obviously geared toward the younger audience, but the whole family would enjoy their time watching this movie together.

The special effects in this movie was definitely the most entertaining part and the movie’s best quality. The inanimate objects kept coming to life in this movie, and the transformation was incredible to watch. For a kid’s movie, the special effects really surprised me!

This movie would definitely be a fun, sorta-scary movie to go take the kids, or anyone that isn’t a fan of horror films, but still wants a little Halloween scare! Along with it’s  scary storyline, the plot of this movie also includes a cute side story about the family.

PLOT: Goosebumps 2 is just another Goosebumps story, specifically Haunted Halloween. It’s about a family- a son, Sonny (played by Jeremy Ray Taylor), his friend, Sam (played by Caleel Harris), and an older sister, Sarah (played by Madison Iseman). Sam and Sonny work a “job” where they go clean-up unwanted junk from houses. They get a job to clean up a house that happens to be R.L. Stein’s house.

SLIGHT SPOILER (NOT REALLY): They find a ventriloquist dummy named Slappy and use a spell to accidentally bring him to life. Slappy has the power to bring anything to life that he wants to and has a lot of special powers. He just wants to be part of the family and to be Sonny and Sarah’s brother. But that’s kind of weird right, so after some freaky stuff Slappy pulls in attempts to please Sarah and Sonny, they try to get rid of him.

ACTUAL SPOILER: So, obviously, you can’t get rid of Slappy, so he turns against the family and turns evil instead. He decides to bring all of the Halloween costumes and Halloween toys in a store to life. Thus creating the storyline of the book “Goosebumps: A Haunted Halloween,” a book that R.L. Stein wrote, but didn’t finish. The rest of the movie is about the kids trying to make their own ending to the book and them trying to stop all of the Halloween chaos. SPOILER OVER

ALL-STAR CAST: The three kids: Sonny, Sarah, and Sam were all really cute and did well. But Sony Pictures had to but some big-wig names in the movie to let the older crowd be prompted to see this with the family.

WENDI McLENDON-COVEY as Kathy, the mother: It was almost hard to recognize her without the classic Goldberg mom hair. She had a pretty big role in this movie, being the typical, clueless mom that doesn’t believe her kids when they say there’s a doll that’s alive. She’s funny as always, well as much as the part allowed her to be, but she seems to be the highest-paid cast member, so Goosebumps was definitely looking for a big name.

KEN JEONG as Mr.Chu, the next-door neighbor: Jeong plays the geeky, over-the-top next-door neighbor from the main family. He’s a Halloween fanatic, which causes some problems, but he is ultimately the one who prompts the kids the end the story. He’s funny as always and this role was more than likely specifically written for Jeong.

JACK BLACK as R.L. Stein: Surprisingly, Jack Black is not even credited if you look up the movie on IMDB. I would have thought that the movie would have advertised the presence of Jack Black in the movie more in the previews, considering he is an extremely well known actor for all generations. He played the author of the story, obviously, and had a fairly large role, especially toward the end of the movie. It wasn’t a funny role for him, more on the serious side, but Jack Black still put his own twist on this well-known author.

If you enjoy the Goosebumps book series, you will love this movie. It’s a cute last-minute Halloween film to go watch with the family in the days before of after Halloween night. I was eagerly waiting for “goosebumps” by Travis Scott to play in this seemingly modern-day movie, which never came, but oh well. I enjoyed myself at this movie and I think any movie-goer would as well.

RATING: 68%

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Halloween

The previews were not wrong when they said “This isn’t just a good horror movie, it’s a good movie.” I was pleasantly surprised with the balance between the story plot and horror.

A lot of horror movies are all horror all the time, and that get in the way of the story. It has become fairly difficult for an extremely scary movie to actually be considered a “good film” because the plot has become blurred in between the reckless horror scenes. This film really tells a story while still being undoubtedly scary.

WARNING: This movie is Rated-R for nudity, gore, and language, although the woman in front of me obviously did not seem to care as she brought her two 4-year-old children. This movie is NOT for children!!

This movie is a sequel to the first Halloween movie that was released in 1978. In the previous Halloween movie -40 years ago in real life and in the plot- Michael Myers is a deranged  serial killer, who started killing by stabbing his older sister to death when he was only 6 years-old. A little later in his life, Michael goes on to kill anyone he sees-or it seems that way, and of course– in that creepy mask. He kills many of Laurie Strode’s, played by Jamie Lee Curtis in both movies, friends and peers, but Michael fails in killing her before getting detained to a mental institution.

In this movie, it starts out with Michael being locked up by a chain and detained in about a couple square foot worth of space. He has not spoken a word since he has been detained. Two investigators, Aaron and Dana, go to speak with Michael at the institution, but he did not speak to them.

We get to see the aftermath of Laurie’s life after the trauma Michael put her through. She has tons of guns at her house, she has five locks on her door, security cameras in every room, a self-made shooting range in her back yard, and has created a secret underground basement. When she had a daughter, Karen-played by Judy Greer, Karen was taken away by CPS because Laurie had forced her to become prepared for a Michael situation by shooting guns, locking her in rooms, etc. Laurie’s life-time goal is to kill Michael Myers.

We are getting a side story this whole time about Allyson, Laurie’s granddaughter played by Andi Matichak, and her life in high school with her friends. Laurie’s whole family thinks she is crazy after being traumatized after 40 years.

SPOILER (kind of not really) On Halloween of 2018, Michael Myers takes control of one of the mental institution busses and escapes. He goes on the hunt for the investigators and to take his mask back. He kills basically everyone he encounters. Before he gets his mask, he’s already killed a total of 6 people in gory, gross ways. He then goes out into the night for Halloween– and just looks like he is normal and in a costume for Halloween with his mask.

He kills everyone, literally almost everyone in this movie. He kills all of Allyson’s friends, her dad, 2 officers, and at least 8 people we don’t know who they are. Just for funsies.

It ends with Laurie, Allyson, and Karen trapping Michael in the underground basement which is actually just a death trap. Laurie pulls a lever and the whole house starts to slowly burst into flames. They get out of the house and Michael dies a slow death as he is burned… just kidding after the credits we hear him breathing, so let’s get ready for a Halloween 3. But this isn’t the first time in the movie Michael seems to be invincible. He got shot 3 times in the movie, stabbed at least 5 times, and hit by a car, yet every time, he gets up and acts like nothing happened.

SPOILER OVER

This is a classic horror movie where all of the characters seem to have less than no brain. The classic- there’s an empty running car that they could steal, yet they run into the woods instead- and you hear a simultaneous groan from the entire audience. But that just makes the movie all that more enjoyable by adding a comedy factor to the movie.

I gotta mention this character that stole the show. Jibrail Nantambu plays the young boy Julian that Allyson’s friend is babysitting. This kid is HILARIOUS!!! He saw Michael staring at his room from his hallway and somehow escapes, but the other two people in the house gets killed. We never find out what happens to Julian, but he sure was a comic relief in this movie.

If you typically enjoy Blumhouse Productions and other classic horror movies, you’ll love this movie. If you’re a horror movie fanatic, you will be incredibly pleased with the production of this movie. I highly recommend it, even if you do get easily scared, you can handle it. It’s a good storyline filled with a perfect amount of horror. It’s the perfect movie for the 2018 Halloween season.

RATING: 82%