Plot
A teenager teams up with the daughter of young adult horror author R.L. Stine after the writer's imaginary demons are set free on the town of Greendale, Maryland.
Release Year: 2015
Rating: 7.0/10 (260 voted)
Critic's Score: 56/100
Director: Rob Letterman
Stars: Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush
Storyline
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.
Writers: Darren Lemke, Scott Alexander
Cast: Jack Black -
R. L. Stine /
Slappy /
Invisible Boy
(voice)
Dylan Minnette -
Zach
Odeya Rush -
Hannah
Ryan Lee -
Champ
Amy Ryan -
Gale
Jillian Bell -
Lorraine
Ken Marino -
Coach Carr
Halston Sage -
Taylor
Steven Krueger -
Davidson
Keith Arthur Bolden -
Principal Garrison
Amanda Lund -
Officer Brooks
Timothy Simons -
Officer Stevens
Karan Soni -
Mr. Rooney
R.L. Stine -
Hallway Player
Caleb Emery -
Dumb Jock
Trivia:
A member of the marketing team commented on the first Goosebumps poster, saying that the marketing team wanted to make the poster unique, yet pay homage to the original television series. This explains why the poster uses a unique blue and gold coloring, along with the "Goosebumps" logo being yellow. See more »
Goofs:
The tooth fillings that a character wears are not actually made of silver. Silver tooth fillings are only called that due to the silver appearance, and are actually made of Amalgam. As a result, he should not have been able to stop The Werewolf. See more »
Quotes:
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User Review
Author:
Rating: 8/10
Instead of adapting any one or a select few of Stine's 100-plus
"Goosebumps" tales, the filmmakers opt for a greatest-hits mishmash
that prioritizes the spectacle of a parade of monsters over any attempt
at atmosphere or mystery. The result is like gorging on trick-or- treat
candy — it may sound like a fun idea, but you'll pay for it later.
Clean-cut teen protagonist Zach (Dylan Minnette) moves with his widowed
mom (a grossly underused Amy Ryan) from New York to sleepy suburban
Madison, Del. Hoping for a fresh start in the wake of his father's
untimely death, Zach finds an immediate distraction in the enigmatic
girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush), whose overprotective father (Jack
Black) warns Zach in no uncertain terms to stay away.
That's especially hard to do when — in a "Rear Window" homage — Zach
spies a father-daughter argument and Hannah disappears. Soon enough, a
meta twist reveals that Hannah's father is actually author R.L. Stine.
He lives in seclusion to protect his original "Goosebumps" manuscripts,
which have the power to manifest the monsters described within when
opened.
Zach and his geeky pal, Champ (Ryan Lee), discover that supernatural
development firsthand when they accidentally unleash the "Abominable
Snowman of Pasadena" while snooping around Stine's house. During the
ensuing chaos, another creature comes to life: maniacal ventriloquist's
dummy Slappy (voiced by Black), who proceeds to spread Stine's
manuscripts all over town and conjures everything from a wolfman to
man-eating plants, trigger-happy aliens with freeze rays and a vampire
poodle.
Director Rob Letterman (who previously collaborated with Black on
"Gulliver's Travels") stages a few reasonably well-crafted monster-
specific setpieces, including a snowman showdown in an ice rink and a
gang of demonic garden gnomes invading a kitchen, but for the most part
"Goosebumps" rapidly devolves into a frantic roller-coaster ride with
random creatures popping up at every turn. A list provided in the
film's production notes tallies 25 different spooks in all (and many of
those, like the aliens and gnomes, appear in packs).
The ADD overload combined with an understandably kid-friendly approach
to horror (no one's ever in real danger, and the monsters are never too
scary) results in a disposable product intended to appeal to everyone
but likely to resonate with no one.
Performances are all over the map. Black's hammy, Orson Welles-
inspired turn fails to add much humanity to the role of a haunted
author. Best known for supporting work in film and TV, Minnette
adequately steps up to leading-man status, though his character is far
too bland to invite real rooting interest. Talented comedians Timothy
Simons and Ken Marino are wasted in throwaway roles, while Jillian Bell
works overtime to steal her scenes as Zach's perpetually single,
Bedazzler-crazy aunt, but that's petty theft at best.
From a tech perspective, "Goosebumps" is up to the current standards of
broad family entertainment — though its mix of CGI and practical
effects to bring the monsters to life falls far too heavily on the
cartoony CG side of the equation. Aside from Slappy, a legit dummy
puppeted by Avery Lee Jones, the key baddies are predominantly visual
effects.
There was a time when Tim Burton — who surely would've put a more
distinctive stamp on things — flirted with the project, which likely
explains why Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski ("Ed Wood," "Big
Eyes") have story credit.
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