Parents' Guide to Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-o-Lanterns

Movie PG 1996 65 minutes
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Common Sense Media Review

Barbara Shulgasser-Parker By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 10+

Spooky book-based horror stories may be too scary for kids.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 10+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

What's the Story?

GOOSEBUMPS: ATTACK OF THE JACK-O-LANTERNS is divided into three short vignettes. In one, Halloween is overshadowed by the knowledge that in the next town, four adults have recently mysteriously disappeared. Parents warn their kids to be careful as they trick-or-treat. High schoolers Drew and Walker enlist the help of friends Shane and Shana, two resourceful friends, to scare Tabitha and Lee, a pair of neighbor kids no one likes. Pumpkin-headed creatures show up and drag the foursome away from the rest of the town's trick-or-treaters. Are they Shane and Shana in costume, or scary otherworldly monsters? They refuse to let the trick-or-treaters go home, making the evening more and more bizarre and scary. After Tabitha and Lee run off terrified, the creatures morph magically into Shana and Shane and then morph again into odd-looking snake-headed creatures who, it turns out, are what Shane and Shana -- in their true alien form -- really look like. Drew explains her alien friends matter-of-factly to the fairly blasé Walker. After the extraterrestrial pair admit they've eaten the four mysteriously missing people, they fly off in their spaceship. The next episode features two teens who accidentally awaken a vampire sleeping, then run for their lives into a field filled with countless empty coffins. The last piece feels like an old Twilight Zone episode -- complete with a front door spinning aimlessly in space. Two brothers discover a hidden room in their old house containing a magical mirror that can make them disappear into a mirror world, where their evil doubles are waiting to replace them in life outside of the mirror.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

Goosebumps fans are probably better off reading the books. Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-o-Lanterns presents some interesting mental riddles -- do space aliens exist, are vampires real, do other people inhabit an alternate universe? -- but the special effects are rickety and the acting amateur, making it an unlikely pick for tech-savvy tweens who know they can create better-looking videos on their phones. Compared to adult-targeted horror films, these scenarios are mild, and for younger kids this could be just the right dose of scariness, but there's plenty of nightmare material here for more sensitive kids.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about why people like scary movies. Do you think some people like to pretend they're scared? Do you think people like to imagine awful events and creatures in order to make them feel safer in their actual lives?

  • The teens in Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-o-Lanterns seem to take it for granted that evil and magic exist. Is it fun to think about imaginary worlds that exist beyond the world we normally see? Why?

  • How does this television version compare to the books? Which do you think is more frightening? Why?

Movie Details

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