"GOOSEBUMPS 2: HAUNTED HALLOWEEN"............VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED GUMMI BEARS.....

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)   Since B.D. (Beloved Daughter) grew up gobbling the R.L. Stine books this movie's based on, there was no avoiding it........

                    So what can we say?   It's harmless dumb Halloween fun.

                    It moves along at a good clip ( a must for us) and does a fairly efficient job of creating a suburban Halloween gone amuck......in which all the decorations come to life to wreak havoc on hapless trick-or-treaters.......

                       Even better, it quickly skims over any attempts at duplicating 1980's Spielbergian sentiment......it's far too busy parading its overstuffed population of sentient skeletons, pumpkins and the main attraction - a giant spider made of purple balloons.......

                        We especially liked the teen sweetheart's boyfriend turning out to be a cheating shit.....and properly put into traction by Slappy, the latest in a long cinematic line of nasty, creepy ventriloquist dummies........

                      Wisely it carefully rations out portions of the exhausting Ken Jeong as a Halloween-crazy neighbor........(he's kind of like pepper in any comedy - you don't want to sprinkle too much on it....)

                         And there's genuine special effects creativity and wit shown in the onslaught of rampaging Halloween creatures........including Gummi Bears depicted as we always imagined them.......hot tempered little psychotics.

                         No it's not as good as the first "Goosebumps" film.......and when Jack Black returns for a cameo as R.L.Stine, he seems at a complete loss as to what to do.....

                         The film barrels along just fine with or without him and this movie will probably end up as a Halloween party staple for kids and arrested development adults (like us.....)  For an extra special bash, we suggest pairing this one up with 1987's "The Monster Squad".......

                       It's possible we're being too kind to this film, having watched it right after suffering through the catastrophic Disney trainwreck "Nutcracker And The Four Realms"........compared to the 'Nutcracker' atrocity, "Goosebumps 2" arrived like a minty burst of fresh air......

                        So be it. We still had a good time...... 3 stars (***)......Slappy for President in 2020....(we couldn't do much worse than the babbling dummy we have now......)