Movies seem to be definitely anti-books even though practically every film is based on a book. All manner of horrid things happen whenever any character opens a book - remember The Mummy and Evie saying no harm came out of opening a book as she blithely opens the book of the dead?
A sequel to 2015’s Goosebumps (which now seems like a classic), Haunted Halloween tells the story of friends Sonny and Sam who let out Slappy the ventriloquist dummy from RL Stein’s unfinished book.
- Director: Ari Sandel
- Cast: Wendi McLendon-Covey, Madison Iseman, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Caleel Harris, Chris Parnell, Ken Jeong, Jack Black
Stein writes horror stories for children and the first movie told of the mayhem that happens when all the nasty beasties escape from the pages to run riot in town. In the sequel, on Halloween, Slappy animates all ghouls and ghosts. There is a side story of electricity and Tesla as well. Sam, Sonny’s elder sister, Sarah, his mum, Kathy, neighbour, Chu and Walter the friendly pharmacist all fight the evil critters including gummy bears, witches, rubber bats and rats.
The whole movie feels like a tired retread of all that went before. Jack Black as Stein comes in towards the end and wiggles his brows and rolls his eyebrows to no effect. It is unfortunate to see an actor of Black’s calibre reduced to a couple of lines and not much else. Watching his awesomeness in Kung Fu Panda would be infinitely more fun.