By AARON KREIN
Staff Writer
When I first heard there was going to be a film adaption of the R.L. Stine classic children’s series “Goosebumps,” I rolled my eyes and my palm immediately hit my face. When it comes to films that have been based on books from my childhood, they have varied from “The Polar Express,” which was amazing, to “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” which coincidentally lived up to its name.
Generally, anything that is nostalgic can make someone excited but it could also make them very hesitant to watch the film just because they don’t want to see it tainted in any way. This was the plan I had at first when it came to “Goosebumps,” especially after I saw the trailer and saw how it was focusing on being a comedy. However, last Friday, I went to the cinema in my hometown out of the blue and decided to go see the movie, expecting to laugh at a train wreck.
The first twenty minutes were as expected. Building up the main characters and background of the fictional town. The film follows a high school student named Zack Cooper (Dylan Minute) who moves to this unnamed town after his mother (Academy Award Nominee Amy Ryan) lands a job as vice principal at the local school.
The jokes and references to modern culture were mindboggling, from a bedazzled Yankees cap to the mother bringing up twerking. At this point, I knew the film was heading south and was going to be a disaster as I expected.
After we meet R.L. Stine, portrayed by Jack Black, and his daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush), the film starts getting interesting. When Zack and his quickly-made “best friend” Champ arrive at Stine’s house after hearing a scream, they break in and open one of his original manuscripts.
Slappy, an infamous Goosebumps character that was a terrific choice of a main villain, retaliates when he figures out that Stine and the gang want him back in the locked book. Slappy unleashes all of Stine’s creatures and monsters from his writings to the real world. To make things worse, Slappy burns all of Stine’s manuscripts, making it more difficult for the monsters to be captured.
The rest of the film involves Zach, Hannah, Champ, and Stine trying to figure out a way to lure the monsters and creatures such as the abominable snowman, the invisible boy, a ghost dog, a werewolf, and more away.
The plot is similar in a way to a classic spooky ‘90s film, “Hocus Pocus,” in that a villain is mistakenly unleashed onto the world and the group responsible for the break out attempts to bring them back into imprisonment. Slappy revives creatures from Stine’s writing like the Sanderson sisters were reviving people of the dead from a cemetery. The film honestly feels like a ‘90s film besides the bleak references to present-day culture. The cheesy jokes, spooky emphasis, and fun adventure reminds me of films like “Hocus Pocus,” “Jumanji,” and the “Halloweentown” TV movie series.
As an adaption of the book series, it’s not as bad as you might be afraid of if you are a fan. Of course, it has its moments of awkwardness and cheesiness, but Goosebumps has never been anything to take seriously. Stine was known for making creepy yet light-hearted books for children. He’s been labeled throughout the decades as the “Stephen King of children’s literature,” which is an on-going joke in the film. Jack Black’s performance as Stine has some of the quips a general Black performance has, but uses the ones that work.
His chemistry with Cooper’s aunt, Lorraine (Jillian Bell), was very adorable even with the lack of shared on-screen time. Speaking of Stine, don’t be shocked to witness him pulling a Stan Lee towards the end of the movie.
The film does have a couple gripes to pick. Some of the acting in the film, particularly Aunt Lorraine and some of the teenage extras, is a bit clunky and screams B-film material. However, the most apparent misstep in the film has to be the character of Champ.
He’s a girl-crazy stereotypical nerd with a high-pitched scream that you’ve seen in other films but even more exaggerated. His whining, facial expressions, and unfunny dialogue made me thankful every time he stepped off camera. I don’t blame Ryan Lee’s performance but actually how the character was written.
Overall, Goosebumps is a pretty decent flick for the family to see during this fall season. It’s a good ol’ monster hunt with many of your favorite Goosebumps creatures all in one feature. It’s a film I’m pretty sure ABC Family (soon to be Freeform) will be playing in reruns a couple years from now. The kind the next generation of children will be excited to watch every Halloween season.
