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Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween | 2018 | PG | – 1.4.1
Why is “Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween” rated PG? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “scary creature action and images, some thematic elements, rude humor and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes many scenes of Halloween antics and scary creatures that come to life by magic and cause property damage and mayhem. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”
Sequel to 2015’s Goosebumps and also based on R.L. Stine’s best selling series: Three teenagers (Madison Iseman, Jeremy Ray Taylor and Caleel Harris) find a mysterious locked book in an abandoned house and discover that it is an unfinished tale by a famous author (Jack Black). A crazy ventriloquist’s dummy comes with the book, chanting magical words which animate Halloween decorations and take over the town and its giant power generator. Also with Wendy McLendon-Covey, Chris Parnell and Ken Jeong. Directed by Ari Sandel. [Running Time: 1:40]
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween SEX/NUDITY 1
– A teen boy asks a female classmate to a party and when she arrives she sees him passionately kiss another teen girl for several seconds; she rushes out of the venue, sits in her car and cries.
► A woman discovers a teen boy in her teen daughter’s bedroom and tells him to leave (the teens are clothed and no sex or kissing is shown). A woman and a man (a store manager) flirt, both smiling and stuttering as he rings out her purchases; she says, “Thanks for checking me out” and both become embarrassed. A man and a woman begin dating (no kissing or sex is shown).
► A few teen girls at a party wear clingy tops that reveal cleavage in scoop necklines. A living dummy magically makes a teen boy’s jeans fall around his ankles four times, revealing boxer shorts and bare knees; the jeans won’t pull up the last time and the boy is embarrassed.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween VIOLENCE/GORE 4
- A ventriloquist's dummy appears in a teen girl's school locker, lets itself out, and confronts a teen boy, berates the boy, magically makes the screws fall out of a ladder on which the boy is standing and crashes the ladder; the boy falls about 20 feet to a stage floor and shouts in pain (no injuries are visible).
► A ventriloquist's dummy changes a man into an Igor-like troll with a hunchback and takes him to an old electric tower lab where he recites an incantation and brings all the power up and sends power blasts into the air at night; he ties a woman into an electric chair and threatens her should she try to leave. We see a woman in a trance and her face has staring eyes and a ventriloquist's dummy mouth that clicks and clacks as she speaks.
► A teen girl demands that a ventriloquist's dummy change her mother from a human-dummy hybrid back into her human mother, and she chases the dummy on a staircase where witches fly nearby and almost knock her off; the girl reaches the roof and kicks the dummy into an active electric coil and it convulses among sparks and then flies up into the sky. A ventriloquist's dummy becomes very bossy with people until a girl hits the dummy with a ball bat, it falls and two teen boys take it to the woods and throw it in a river and then drive away; the dummy slams into their windshield, pounding it with a fist to crack it, and flies off the car and over a cliff but reappears in the next scene.
► Two teen boys and a teen girl break into a house and steal a magic book, but a toy hand on a candy bowl grabs one of the boys and the gummy bears in the dish spill and come to life; the bears combine and grow bigger, develop sharp teeth and roar and fight with the boys, who kick, punch, and throw the creatures, but each boy is partially swallowed by a candy bear until a magic book opens and all the candy is sucked into the book in a whirling cloud. A teen bully and two friends taunt two younger boys and steal one of their sweaters after threatening to punch him then chase them on bikes until a ventriloquist's dummy magically causes a garden hose to stretch across the road and clothesline the bullies at the throat, pulling them from their bikes to the ground, without visible injury. When bullies taunt younger boys, witches with neon green lantern heads pull the bullies into the sky at night and drop their bikes to the ground, keeping the bullies; the next day, one bully drops from the sky safely into a large bush with a thud (no injuries show).
► A skeleton bride rushes at the camera and a teen girl knocks its head off with a shovel. A two-story tall spider made of balloons roars and clicks as it stabs a foot into a car with a loud crash and chases men and women who scream; it wraps a woman in spider webbing and carries her away. Three jack-o-lanterns on a porch attack two teen boys by spitting seeds rapid-fire and blowing flames from candles at them; no one is hurt. A teen boy stomps on a pumpkin and slams a second one into a third pumpkin, smashing it all over the steps. A teen girl opens a magic book and it sucks up skeletons, mummies, and other creatures in swirling lights; and later the book sucks up all the rest of the town's Halloween creatures that had come to life.
► Several scenes feature a teen boy working on a model electric tower that sparks as he handles a soldering torch; the boy takes the model to school, places a light bulb in a girl's hand, he switches on the tower and electric bolts shoot into the air causing the light bulb to light, oscillate and then blow apart; electricity shoots around the room, knocks over shelves and burns a hole into a wall (the girl is seen with a soot-covered face and long, scorched hair standing on end).
► A ventriloquist's dummy recites an incantation several times and brings all the Halloween decorations in a town to life and we hear them squealing, squawking and roaring as ominous music plays; they include the classic Universal Studios monsters, a yeti, a pumpkin-head ghoul, many flying ghosts, witches, jack-o-lanterns flying with bat wings, evil gnomes, trolls, an ogre, large and small bats, a huge human-size bat that hangs upside down on a porch and roars, skeletons, mummies that throw rocks at a house, and a monster covered with vegetation. A ventriloquist's dummy enters a drug store and chants to cause all the Halloween merchandise to come alive; we see masks grow bodies, rubber rats with red eyes start running, rubber bats fly into the air, skulls with legs skitter across the floor, three witch hats whirl into three beings in black robes with green neon lanterns as heads (they later ride brooms) and a mask comes alive and swallows a man's head to turn him into a hunchback ghoul.
► Two young teen boys recoil at a stuffed black cat with red eyes on a mantel in a dirty abandoned house where they find a secret room and see a treasure chest that they open and find a dusty book; one boy opens the book, a ventriloquist's dummy appears and when the boy recites an incantation the dummy comes to life, snickering and swaggering. Adults and children run through streets, screaming in several scenes. A small group of teens put on monster costumes and go to an electric tower where they see bolts of electricity shooting into the sky. Two animated garden gnomes hit a man's hard shoes with small sickles and the man kicks them away into the street. A teen boy in a monster mask throws himself against a window and a teen girl inside shouts in fear. A man wearing a hairy monster costume runs to a teen girl holding a shovel and she swings back to hit him, but he removes the costume head and cries in fear. A teen boy enters a house through a window, hits his head and grunts in two scenes.
► A woman argues with three teenagers and later with her teen daughter. A teen girl and two teen boys argue several times. Two young teen boys argue several times, and each argues with a ventriloquist's dummy a couple of times. A teen girl shouts angrily at a ventriloquist's dummy several times and at a male teen bully once for several seconds. A ventriloquist's dummy confronts a man who invented him, opens a magical book and sucks the man into it, snapping the book's lock closed afterward. A teen girl tells another teen boy that she will kill him. A teen boy says, "We're dead."
► A ventriloquist's dummy magically folds laundry and does homework across the room from him and brings two karate dolls to life to kick and punch for a few seconds.
► The residents of a small town go overboard with Halloween yard décor, including witches, cauldrons, ghosts, skeletons, skulls, evil gnomes, small and giant bats, jack-o-lanterns, and pumpkin-head ghouls; one man has an Egyptian cemetery with crypts, mummies, and a giant spider of purple balloon clusters that covers his home from roof to ground. Teen boys use many rolls of toilet paper to cover neighborhood trees.
► A woman buys adult diapers and tells the clerk she uses a toilet, not diapers. In a hallway, a teen boy blows a white spit wad onto the face of a younger boy; an argument ensues, and a teacher breaks it up.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween LANGUAGE 1
- 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, craziness, stupid, moron, idiot, dummy, dummies, jerk, demonic, scumbag, ridiculous, psycho, evil, punk, losers, babysitter, papa, Junk Sisters), exclamations (I swear, yow, shut-up), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God, God, Jeez). | profanity glossary |
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween SUBSTANCE USE
- A nurse picks up a small bag of unknown medications at a pharmacy for a patient, and an EMT tells a bystander that a man on a gurney is imagining things because of his medications. A man and a woman at home pick up glasses of wine (they do not drink), and a teen boy gives a teen girl a can of Red Bull energy drink (no one drinks it).
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween DISCUSSION TOPICS
- Halloween, monsters, magic spells, witchcraft, fear, fantasy, college application essays, writer's block, single mothers, absent fathers, responsibility, relationships, love, respect, communication.
Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween MESSAGE
- Everyone has a special story to tell.
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CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Afraid - 4.5.5
You Gotta Believe - 2.3.3
The Forge - 1.1.1
City of Dreams - 5.8.7
The Crow - 6.9.8
Blink Twice - 6.7.10
The Union - 3.5.5
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