Goosebumps: Nostalgic Horror

Hello everybody! It is time for the return of our movie club, and this time we watched Goosebumps.

GOOSEBUMPS

DIRECTED: Rob Letterman

STARRING:Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, Jillian Bell

GENRE: Horror, Comedy

YEAR: 2015

COUNTRY: United States

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… he is a prisoner of his own imagination – the monsters that his books made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. When Zach unintentionally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, it’s suddenly up to Stine, Zach, Hannah, and Zach’s friend Champ (Ryan Lee) to get all of them back in the books where they belong.

The way that they tell the story is excellent. Jack Black stars at R.L Stine (1st spoiler) and his portrayal is enjoyably unique. I mean actually using Stine as a character (he also make a cameo), whose storyline propels the plot of the movie forward is a great idea and it works very well. In that, Stine is set up as a man who learned to escapes the dullness and loneliness of his life by writing these stories on a special typewriter, and because he does so, they come to life when the original manuscript is opened. And as you have probably already figured, that’s exactly what happens.

The remainder of the film is a high-energy chase in which Stine and the three youngsters have to recapture his demons. There’s a rather tedious over-reliance on CGI imagery at times, but things improve when the special effects dial down. A stretched-out chase in a supermarket is a bore, but watching our players bicker and strategise is a hoot.

There’s a streak of old-fashioned B-movie spooky playfulness here, and when actual, motivated characters are on screen it’s delightful. Danny Elfman’s score keeps the proceedings moving along, and it’s fair to describe the film as Tim Burton-lite. The director, Rob Letterman, was also responsible for the abysmal Gulliver’s Travels, but Goosebumps ought to get him out of director’s jail.

PROS:

• Jack Black’s performance.
• Monster design.
• Special Effects.

CONS:

• Supporting cast performance.
• Pacing.
• B-movie with an A-movie budget.

SCORE: 6.0 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

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Brandon Stuhr

Who am I? Just some guy who decided to start writing on the Internet years ago and now operates his own brand and site. Owner/Operator of Modern Neon Media, I make all kinds of niche content to suit my interests at the time. DIY Enthusiast, Brewmaster extraordinaire, and avid freak for geek culture. Follow on my socials for a more “on” version of me.