The stories of 90’s famous author R.L Stine comes to life, in “Goosebumps”. Upset about moving from a big city to a small town, teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) finds a silver lining when he meets the beautiful girl, Hannah (Odeya Rush), living right next door. But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach’s comes when he learns that Hannah has a mysterious dad who is revealed to be R. L. Stine (Jack Black), the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series. It turns out that there is a reason why Stine is so strange, as he is a prisoner of his own imagination. When the magical stories are unlocked, the town and it’s citizens are put at risk, while Zach and his friends try to save the day.
I was a big time reader of the “Goosebumps” kids novels when i was a kid. When I found out the movie was being made, I honestly wasn’t looking too forward to it. I worried that the film would be a CGI snoozefest that wouldn’t properly exemplify what made those stories such chillingly entertaining reads. To my surprise, the film gets a lot of the looks and feels correct. First of all, this is a very fun time for the whole family. While the movie seems to reach to the younger viewer in every audience, it’s really the kid readers who are now adults who will get the most out of this film. The movie has a very intelligent way of casting it’s biggest fan right into the action. There has been a lot of questions about Stine’s whereabouts since he virtually disappeared from the real world, and this movie does a lot to feed into some of those questions. On top of this, the movie will serve as a checklist to anyone who read the books cover to cover, as you will notice which of your favorite creatures will make the cut. I won’t spoil anything, but i was more than thrilled that my favorite villain of the series was kind of the ringleader for the evildoings in this movie. With so many characters to choose from, the movie felt very similar in it’s surroundings as “Cabin in the Woods” did. Because of this, “Goosebumps” creates much replay value, with finding who you may have missed during your original screening.
Besides the creatures, the film has a charismatic young cast. Led by Minnette and Rush, these felt like authentic teenage actor performances, with a lot of great comedic timing. Rush is a fresh face with a lot of emotional range. It will be quite interesting to see where her career goes from here. Black was a little over the top in his performance, but it’s a lot of his silly vibes that carries the film during the second act. There are a couple scenes that feel like he is trying out an accent, and happily he drops it quick. To round it all out, there are nice cameo turns by Ken Marino and Amy Ryan. Marino mostly plays it straight, while Ryan dominates the grown up time on screen when compared to Zach’s absent Mother for the second half of the film.
The film had a couple of things that it could’ve improved on, and a lot of it has to do with the screenplay that stretches a lot into a single day. Considering the 15th minute of the movie already reveals the hours as nighttime, it was a little difficult for me to believe that so much happened in one night, and the sun never even came out. Zack and Hannah’s first hangout, the school dance, the creatures being unleashed, and the fight to return everything to normal, at times makes this feel like too much is being shoved into such a short time frame (95 minutes). Also, I was slightly disappointed with the time spent on actual frights. I don’t expect a movie like this to tingle the spine of a 30 year old, but the movie is fully invested on being such a comedy, that it forgets it’s real payoff. The books did have a sense of humor, but the books didn’t always end so predictably. Because of this, the movie leaves a lot to be desired with legitimate surprises. In what i thought was the best part of the film, there was a bit of a tear jerking moment developed, but the movie wasted it away in favor of an ending that ties everything conveniently together.
Overall, “Goosebumps” is a harmlessly fun time at the theater. I would like to see this film get a bigger audience in terms of it’s older readers, but I think this movie will gain more of a following during it’s DVD run. The movie surprises in it’s ability to stay faithful to it’s popular past, while offering tasteful CGI effects to the experienced moviegoer of today. The bumps of terror aren’t there, but the shrieks of smart comedic dialogue make this more than just another wasted opportunity.
6/10