October Belongs to Horror #8: Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?

Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? a.k.a R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly 2: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?

Universal 1440 Entertainment, Commotion Pictures, Lookout Entertainment, USA, 2014.

Halloween movie for the whole family, based on the book by R.L. Stine.

Max (Ryan Ochoa) goes to walk his dog on cemetery. Max has a ring that protects from evil ghosts. He even has ghost friends Tara (Madison Pettis) and Nicky (Roshon Fegan). Eevil ghost wizard Phears (Charlie Hewson) wants to raise a ghost army. Phears looks like Nosferatu with pointy teeth and hair.

Max, Tara and Nicky

Phears

Cammy

Max likes cute redhead Cammy (Bella Thorne) but she is not very interested in him. Grandma (Joan Rivers in her last role) and parents give tips about girls. Nicky and Tara are trying to find their parents. In the evening Max and the ghosts search for clues at school. Surprise! Cammy is also there setting up Halloween decorations. Little by little Max begins to look more interesting to her. 

Grandma and Cousin Shelley

Max  has to survive PE-lessons, there he gets help from his ghost-friends (that's ghost-doping!) As a weird detail PE-teacher (Carolyn Hennesy) has named all the gym equipment. Phears sends ghost dancer Emma (Caroline Lagerfelt/Anastasia Baranov) to steal Max's ring, but she targets annoying big brother Colin (Calum Worthy) instead. Comical possessions and ghostly pranks follow. Teacher Mrs. Wright (Juliette Cohen, who plays teacher in all of the "Mostly Ghostly" movies) tries to keep the order in the classroom with poor results. Emma isn't evil but she was tricked by Phears, so Emma loans her athletic skills to Max. 

Emma (Anastasia Baranov)

Mrs. Wright

It seems that this is a sequel to "Mostly Ghostly" (2008), flashbacks in the beginning reveal what happened previously. It is curious that the sequel took so many years. This is not the best R.L. Stine filmatization, "Haunting Hour" (2007) was more entertaining spooky fun. This movie suffers from overtrying to entertain with (cheap) special effects and having a weird pacing, the main story ends and the movie still goes on for 15 minutes. Only appearance of Phears is in any way scary, overall the adventure is too comical to be creepy. For younger kids the spooky gimmicks are quite safe as Halloween entertainment. Some fun is also there when Max performs magic tricks. In the beginning Max is kind of underdog  requiring help from the ghosts all the time, but the lesson is that he must learn to trust his own skills.

Colin and Max escape evil ghouls

Ali Eagle who has a non-speaking role here appeared year later in "Lake Placid vs Anaconda"  as sarcastic goth.

Rating:  Average

Starring: Bella Thorne, Ryan Ochoa, Roshon Fegan, Madison Pettis, Charlie Hewson, Calum Worthy, Eric Allan Kramer, Gigi Rice, Joan Rivers, Ali Eagle, Caroline Lagerfelt, Anastasia Baranova, Marc Kenneth Robinson, Casey Young, Wyatt Bernard, Eric Julian Shaw, Adi Shankar, Carolyn Hennesy, Juliette Cohen, Hank Donovan, Abbey Blake, Mary Passeri, Elsie Hewitt, Chelsea Vale, Jordan Bailey, Nick Bemrose, Ilia Constantine, Sherilyn Henderson, Benjamin Levy, Scott P. Martin, Scott P. Martin, Danny Mika, Nino Nava, Isabella Revel, Jan-Michael Rosner, Joe Sobalo Jr.

Director: Peter Hewitt