Goosebumps (2015) review

If you’re a 90’s kid, then you’ll probably remember the classic horror franchise ‘Goosebumps’. Created in 1992 by R.L. Stine, ‘the Stephen King of children’s literature’, ‘Goosebumps’ both delighted and terrified audiences with its kid-friendly scary stories and surreal nature. As some would put it, it was sort of like a kid-friendly version of ‘Tales from the Crypt’ and of course it became a phenomenon, selling over 350 million books worldwide and even spawning a successful TV series that ran for 4 seasons from 1995 to 1998. And now in 2015, the characters of R.L. Stine’s books come to the big screen in a brand new ‘Goosebumps’ film. Given the anthology nature of the series, it did raise some questions about what kind of approach the filmmakers would take in translating the series to the big screen. Would this be a case of them adapting a single storyline at a time, resulting in a new horror film franchise? Ultimately the answer to that question is no because the route that they do take ends up being more meta in execution; one in which Stine himself is an actual character in the plot. And to the surprise of many, this film has actually been doing pretty well with critics, which I guess primarily stems from the fact that the last film the duo of director Rob Letterman and lead Jack Black worked on was 2010’s infamous remake of ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. But at the end of the day, their third film collaboration actually ends up being a pretty fun family horror film with a wide array of zany monsters and a surprising amount of heart.

The film begins as teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) move from New York to the town of Madison, Delaware when his mother is hired to be the new vice-principal at the local high school. After they move in, Zach immediately befriends his next-door neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush) but is warned by her mysterious father ‘Mr. Shivers’ (Jack Black) to stay away from her. One night when he hears her screaming, Zach and his new friend Champ (Ryan Lee) sneak into her house to try and find her. There they are surprised to come across numerous manuscripts of ‘Goosebumps’ stories but when they end up opening one of them, the monster of that story is released straight from the pages of the book. Zach and Champ soon learn that ‘Mr. Shivers’ is actually R.L. Stine himself and that the monsters that he had created in his stories had come to life when he was younger and had been trapped within the manuscripts so that they wouldn’t cause any trouble. But as a result of Zach and Champ’s interference, Stine’s other creations, led by the villainous wooden dummy Slappy (voiced by Black, who also voices the Invisible Boy), break out of their books as well with the intent on terrorizing the neighborhood and getting revenge upon Stine for trapping them within their manuscripts for so long, leaving Zach, Hannah, Stine, and Champ to try and defeat all of the author’s crazy creations.

Old-school ‘Goosebumps’ fans will most certainly appreciate the numerous amount of references and call-backs that are made to classic ‘Goosebumps’ stories. As noted earlier, because this is not just a case where one single ‘Goosebumps’ story is being adapted to film, this film basically features every major monster/creature from the original book series. Though with that said, because there are so many featured, some do get more attention than others, namely Slappy being that he’s basically the main villain of the film and it wouldn’t really be a ‘Goosebumps’ film without him. As for younger audiences who may not be that familiar with the series or are 100% newcomers to the franchise, the film will still manage to hold their interest with its large array of crazy monsters, likable lead characters, and its overall light-hearted tone. The film admittedly suffers at times due to how rushed it is due to the pacing but that also means that the film never really drags at any point either, although I will say that the film doesn’t really get going until the monsters start getting released from their books. I also can’t really go as far as to say that it’s the ‘scariest’ PG-rated horror film ever made as the film is more action/effects oriented, though this may also just be due to the fact that I’m older and have seen more adult-oriented horror films.

One of the things that surprised me the most about this film was that it had a surprising amount of heart. A lot of this comes from the two main leads, Zach and Hannah. Both Dylan Minnette and Odeya Rush do excellent jobs here; they have strong romantic chemistry and the romance between their characters is actually really sweet as far as teen romances are concerned. The two also end up having their own personal emotional arcs throughout the film. In the case of Zach, it’s him coping with the loss of his father, which is really conveyed well in a particularly touching scene near the beginning in which he looks at old footage of him and his dad. As for Hannah, it involves a particular plot point that I won’t spoil here but needless to say it’s a neatly executed twist that pays homage to a classic ‘Goosebumps’ story. Ryan Lee (AKA the fireworks-loving Cary from ‘Super 8’) is a major standout as well as the hopeless romantic but loyal friend Champ. The fact that I’m highlighting the kid actors first shows that despite having top billing, Jack Black as R.L. Stine actually isn’t the main character of the film. But even with that in mind, Black still does a really good job in the role and has his fair share of humorous lines, like a scene in which Stine makes a jab at Stephen King after being goaded into it by Zach. Black also does a nice job in providing the voice for Slappy and it should also be noted that the film version of Slappy is clearly modeled after Black as Stine.

As noted earlier, ‘Goosebumps’ is basically one of the big film ‘surprises’ of the year. That is because I have the feeling that many people weren’t expecting that much out of a film based off of a book series that has been around since the 90’s. But at the end of the day, ‘Goosebumps’ actually does avoid being nothing more than a cynical cash grab by instead being a fun little horror adventure that may not be the scariest family horror film of all-time but one that I think that both kids and adults can both enjoy. In the case of kids, it’s getting to see all of the fun and zany monsters while those who grew up with the ‘Goosebumps’ books and TV series will get a good dose of nostalgia. You’ll also be surprised to see that the film actually has a lot of charm and heart to it as well, which primarily stems from the genuinely sweet teen romance between the two main leads. I’ll admit that I’m not a ‘mega fan’ of this series despite being a part of the generation that grew up with it. I have read a few of the books and have watched multiple episodes of the TV series but it’s been a while since I’ve done either so I went into this film with a more casual perspective. And with that in mind I will say that this film is generally accessible to anyone whether they’re a fan of the series or not. If this ends up warranting a sequel then that gives Sony two big family-friendly horror-themed film franchises that they can work with, the other being the ‘Hotel Transylvania’ films.

Rating: 3.5/5