Goosebumps

R.L. Stine's Goosebumps books started in 1992 and are still spooking kids today. A big-screen treatment was inevitable. Of course, they'd have to solve the problem of which story out of many to work with. The final result is their way of doing them all. It's not perfect, but it's not terrible either.

Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) move to Madison, Delaware. Zach is the new kid in town and Gale is the new vice-principal in Zach's school. Next door is local curmudgeon Mr. Shivers (Jack Black) and his daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush). Mr. Shivers warns Zach to stay away from Hannah or else. Zach wants to find out why.

Zach and his new friend Champ break into Mr. Shivers' house. They discover that Mr. Shivers is Stine himself, and that he has all his Goosebumps manuscripts under lock and key. Inside the manuscripts are all of Stine's spooky creations and Zach's meddling releases them all. Now Zach, Champ, Hannah and Stine have to save Madison from a host of fiendish ghouls, especially Slappy (also Black), the dummy...

BZZZT.

Excuse me while I take over the review. First of all, I'm not a dummy, I'm a puppet...

That just makes it sound worse.

What're ya, shock-proof?!

Yeah. Now let's get to the review-type stuff.

Just as Stine wrote his horror stories for kids, director Rob Letterman and his screenwriters made their horror movie for kids. The monsters chase our heroes and they can't be killed. Fortunately, the monsters never get to kill our heroes (the closest they get is use a freeze-ray). It's as spooky as it gets for a PG-rating. The film's goofy humor lightens the mood and it's not annoying.

What about me?

Not dignifying that with a response.

Anyway, the film requires some familiarity with the Goosebumps series. This will help you win a game of "spot the monster" and "name that cover;" the latter refers to the end credits' animated rendering of the books' original cover art. Other than that, you don't need to know them inside and out.

I wanna know ya, pal!

The film's problem goes back to the script. It's 103 minutes and it goes by pretty quickly. Some details get lost in the process. It goes from one monster encounter to another. The script is running on cursed shoes. It's still a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. At least it gives the real Stine an amusing walk-on cameo as a teacher named Mr. Black.

Come on, pal. I know ya wanna-

Vance, duct tape and rubber ball.

(muffle!)

Danny Elfman's score is good as are the monster designs. A lot of them are CGI, but Slappy over-here is a real puppet (Avery Jones played him on-set). Other monsters were done with makeup and they're also good. The technical department did their job well on this flick.

This version of Goosebumps is spooky-fun for kids and parents alike. If you're disappointed that this wasn't scary, then my next review should satisfy your need.