Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: October 12, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
14
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinOct 23, 2018
Goosebumps 2 is a lively and colourful ghost train ride, with some well-judged scares that would have been at home in its 1980s Amblin forerunners, such as The Goonies and Young Sherlock Holmes. Read full review
59
IGNWitney SeiboldOct 10, 2018
The Halloween monster mash iconography is incredibly strong and the cast is excellent, but Goosebumps 2 is in far too much of a hurry – and perhaps too eager to be widely accessible – to be actually scary or wholly effective. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyDana SchwartzOct 10, 2018
The real magic of the movie comes in its echoes of the first — namely, Black’s performance as the Goosebumps mastermind. Read full review
58
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiOct 10, 2018
As directed by Ari Sendal (“The Duff”), the film keeps its low-key, harmless energy at a steady simmer. Every once in a while a joke is funnier than you might expect, or a monster looks surprisingly spooky, but overall this is a safe, by the numbers Halloween family film. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandOct 10, 2018
The creativity may be lacking in other areas, but “Goosebumps 2” steps up the creature feature quotient with style and smarts. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 11, 2018
It replicates the template and the atmosphere of the original, but it lacks invention and emotional investment. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshOct 11, 2018
The only performance worth mentioning is Jeong, who brings his energetic weirdness to a rather small role. Read full review
50
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeOct 11, 2018
The production design displays a genuine enthusiasm for the decorative kitsch of the Halloween season, and the flashes of giddy craftiness beneath the slick style almost compensate for the toothlessness of the horror. Read full review
50
Original-CinKim HughesOct 11, 2018
There is absolutely nothing in Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween that you haven’t seen before, and seen done far, far better. Read full review
50
Film Journal InternationalHarry HaunOct 10, 2018
It’s a completely new crew, on both sides of the camera, dispensing warmed-over chills. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 10, 2018
The way a movie like “Goosebumps 2” works, even a weary adult will be grateful, by the time it finally kicks in, for all the brainless whirling distraction. I almost wrote fun, but that would be pushing it. To achieve that F-word, the film would have to ground its amusing effects in a story that was less skittery yet leaden. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckOct 10, 2018
Although it provides a fair number of mild scares and laughs, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween feels more like a kiddie film than did the original. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyOct 10, 2018
Though Sandel relies less on exasperating, rubbery digital effects than Rob Letterman, the DreamWorks Animation vet who helmed the original, his direction of the monsters and mayhem is never more than workmanlike, racing joylessly through a shaky plot that barely holds attention. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillOct 18, 2018
The problem lies not strictly with what’s on screen – which on its own, reduced terms is basically watchable and not unlikable – but in what’s been elided or forgotten about in the rush to duplicate the original’s surprise success: any sustained wit or personality. Read full review
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