There's a lot of nostalgia involved when it comes to Goosebumps. I enjoyed reading to books when I was younger (heck, I still do). Technically, I was probably too old for them, having moved on to the harder stuff with the likes of Stephen King at that point as well. But there was just something about R.L Stine's brisk, fun storytelling that I always enjoyed. They were never scary to me, but they were thrilling and fun. Therefore, I looked forward to the new Goosebumps movie with anticipation as it looked to deliver more of the same, with a decidedly clever meta approach in having Mr. Stine as a character in the film as well.
Zach Cooper (played by Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (played by Amy Ryan) have just moved to the small town of Madison, Delaware so Zach's mom could take a new job as vice principal at the local high school. Zach is less than thrilled, but goes along with it for his mom's sake. While at his first day at school, he meets the socially awkward Champ (played by Ryan Lee) and the become friends. Also living nearby is Zach's Aunt Lorraine (played by Jillian Bell). Things look up when he meets the girl next door, Hannah (played by Odeya Rush), who he finds out is home schooled and largely kept indoors by her over-protective father, R.L Stine (played by Jack Black). One night he overhears an argument between Stine and Hannah and heads over to the house to check it out along Champ. Once inside, they discover a shelf full of manuscripts. Champ quickly identifies them as manuscripts of Goosebumps books. He takes one off the shelf and undoes the lock on it, which to their shock releases the monster within, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena. In the chaos of having a twelve foot monster stomping around the house causes the other manuscripts to be knocked over, with the lock breaking on another one, Night of the Living Dummy. The monster within is of course Slappy, a possessed ventriloquist dummy, who decides to take his revenge on Stine for being imprisoned within a book and sets about releasing the rest of the monsters, including zombies, a werewolf, a vampire dog, homicidal lawn gnomes, giant bugs and assorted other ghouls. Each time he does, he torches the manuscript so they can't be re-imprisoned. With the help of R.L Stine, the kids scramble to try and find a way to contain the newly released army of monsters before they destroy the entire town and beyond.
I have very fond memories of the Goosebumps books and the movie captures their spirit quite nicely, becoming basically the ultimate Goosebumps story. The film follows the basic formula that was used time and again with those stories. A new kid moves to a weird new town, makes a few friends, checks out things he's warned to stay away from, supernatural shenanigans ensue and the kids have to save the day. The adults are basically useless except for Stine himself, of course. There is a great deal of creativity and fun to be had in this movie. The director Rob Letterman manages to capture the same sort of funny scary atmosphere as films like Jumanji or Hocus Pocus. Whether the film obtains the same sort of cult following those two films have only time will tell.
Jack Black is great as the film's rendition of R.L Stine, capturing a nice balance of sinister, mysterious and silly (he in particular bristles at comparisons between his writing and Stephen King). Dylan Minnette and Odeya Rush are good as well as the two main kids in the film and have some nice moments together and potential love interests, including a nifty scene at an abandoned amusment park outside town (which also factors into the climax in a scene right out of Spielberg's 1941). I can't decide who steals the show more Ryan Lee or Jillian Bell, but both are pretty priceless in their roles. Danny Elfman contributed the score to the film and it give the film a great sense of manic energy that brought to mind his early collaborations with Tim Burton, specifically Beetlejuice. The one real criticism I have with the film is that the CGI isn't really all that great. It comes across as very cartoony and is not at all convincing. I wish they had worked harder on it, because while it wasn't completely distracting, it was disappointing.
Overall, if you enjoyed and have fond memories of the Goosebumps books like I do, you'll have a blast with the movie. Seeing all the monsters released and intermingling was a nice stroll down memory lane, with a nice meta twist to it all. Overall, I quite enjoyed it from beginning to end.
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