Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

(On Cable TV, July 2020) It’s amusing to see how Jack Black has carved himself a niche in children’s fantasy film over the past few years, and he’s back as no less than R. L. Stine in Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween. It’s a small, late role for him but it does highlight the self-referential nature of this horror-lite film for young kids. Here, a Goosebump book is opened and brings to life all of the monsters of the franchise in a small town on Halloween night. This is not something made to be scary—it’s content simply remixing Halloween icons for a short 90-minute spooky time. The inclusion of Nikola Tesla is amusing, much of the film taking place at the Wardenclyffe Tower he designed and built. Also worth a mention is a bit of fun on how fiction can turn to real life and vice versa. Despite this, Haunted Halloween is not bad but not good either: it’s just inert, and the kind of stuff the kids can watch for thrills, while the adults keep their own harder horror films for themselves.