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This Exclusive 'Goosebumps 2' Clip Reveals Behind-The-Scenes Secrets

by Megan Walsh

In Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, friends Sonny and Sam accidentally release an army of monsters when they discover one of R.L. Stine's abandoned manuscripts. Cracking the book open frees the villainous Slappy the Dummy, who unleashes even more monstrous creatures on the unsuspecting town. And this Goosebumps 2 behind-the-scenes clip brings Halloween candy to life, too. It's as adorable-slash-creepy as one would expect.

The living candy can be spotted at the end of the Goosebumps 2 trailer, for those who haven't seen the film yet. When the gummy bears first start moving on their own, they seem harmlessly tiny and cute — until they suddenly quadruple in size and bear gummy fangs. Goosebumps 2 is now out on Digital, as well as coming to 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD on Jan. 15. So if you haven't gotten your fill of evil candy treats yet, you can imminently.

And in this exclusive behind-the-scenes clip, you can see how the film's crew managed to craft such delectable antagonists. Vicious gummy bears might not seem as terrifying as, say, werewolves and vampires, but just wait until they launch themselves at an opponent. However, the real life process is a lot more technical and not quite as scary.

In the clip, director Ari Sandel believes that the gummy bears will be the most talked about aspect of Goosebumps 2. He's a long time fan of the multi-colored treat, boasting that he eats them "almost every day, practically." His real life love of gummy bears inspired him to bring them into the film. Since the story revolves around Halloween creatures coming to life, candy was a natural extension of the premise. "Everything on Halloween should come to life, including candy," Sandel says.

In the movie, Sonny and Sam spill a bowl full of gummies onto the floor. And that was the easy part. VFX supervisor Derek Spears explained that having real gummies as a handy reference for the size and shape of the small gummies made them less complicated to recreate. But then the gummy bears began to merge together and grow larger. That became trickier.

At that point, the gummies needed to have "character," in Spears' words. They are genuinely dangerous to the boys but still a gelatinous candy. The gummies have to have an elastic, bouncy quality that complicates the resultant brawl. When Sonny pulls one, it only stretches; when Sam punches another, his fist is swallowed by that sugary gelatin. It had to look realistic, even if the scenario wasn't.

And that could be especially tough because there wasn't really anything there while filming. Young actor Caleel Harris, who plays Sam, had to pretend to be convincingly hitting a large, giggling gummy. But in reality, it was just a folded-up blanket held together with tape. Acting!

The clip shows every step of the process, from the on-set filming to the placeholder CGI to the perfectly rendered finished product. It's an interesting look at how movies manage to make the impossible come alive, no matter how far from reality the situation might be.

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