Slappy from Goosebumps is one of the funniest villains: Madison Iseman

Three years have passed since the original Goosebumps (2015) was released. The horror fiction franchise, written by RL Stine and published by Scholastic, was reimagined for the big screen by Rob Letterman, based on a script written by Darren Lemke. Starring Jack Black in the lead, playing RL Stine, the film had famed Goosebumps characters come to life as Stine and a raggedy bunch of teenagers try to save the town from being overrun by the monsters from the fictional world. With the second instalment, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, set for release in India this Friday, Madison Iseman, who plays the lead in the sequel, talks here about the film, her role and more.

The trailer looks like a lot of fun. Can you tell us something more about the film?

It's a fun adventure-comedy that follows, you know, your three leads, which are me, my brother, Sonny, and his friend, Sam. And we find Slappy (the ventriloquist dummy who is the main villain of the franchise), once again, and he does his thing and wants to take over the town. So it's kind of up to us to get everything back in order and put Halloween back where it belongs.

Slappy is back? Tell us more about him in Goosebumps 2

Slappy is this evil, demonic dummy, which is one of RL Stine's creations. And, not only is he mean, he's one of the funniest villains I think there is. He's hilarious, and he'll come back at you with anything you throw at him. He's a really cool guy. I'm a big fan of Slappy. As long as he doesn't show up in my nightmares, I'm all good. (laughs)

Tell us more about your character as Sarah Quinn in the film.

Sarah is your typical high school senior. She’s struggling with school and the balance of relationships and social life while trying to get into college. And there's a lot of real stuff in the film, like her mom putting a lot of pressure on her to take care of her brother and take care of the family. It's all relatable things that a lot of people are dealing with in today's world. And so, throughout the story she finds this confidence she never really knew she had, and she really learns to believe in herself and believe that she can do anything she puts her mind to.