Goosebumps

Before seeing this movie, my only experience with R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series of books was when I worked at a library, and would be putting his books back on the shelf.  They all had outlandish covers, with appropriately B-Movie titles like "Night of the Living Dummy", "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom" and "Monster Blood".  This new film adaptation is pretty much what I expected from looking at those covers long ago.  It's silly, energetic and just weird and spooky enough that kids will have a great time watching it.  What I didn't expect is how much I would enjoy it myself.  There are some moments where I genuinely laughed out loud, and it's just a lot of fun to watch.

Rather than try to adapt any of Stine's books, the filmmakers have instead decided to place the author himself (played here by a very game Jack Black) in the middle of a plot that brings many of his classic monsters, demons, ghouls and evil ventriloquist dummies to life.  Director Rob Letterman and screenwriter Darren Lemke (working from a story by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski) find the right tone with the plot.  The set up of a teenager thinking that there is something weird and possibly murderous going on at the house next door has a certain Rear Window quality to it.  From there, it builds into a full-blown adventure story that hits the right notes of being creepy and fun.  The "scary" moments of the story are tense, but not so much so that kids of a certain age (I'd say around 8) can't handle it.  And even if the story does start to get a little scary, it's always in a way that lets the audience know you're not supposed to be taking this all that seriously.  For example, when the heroes are being chased down by a werewolf, the creature is wearing what looks like gym shorts for some reason.  I'm sure it makes sense if you've read the books, but it still got a laugh from me.

The plot kicks off when lonely teenager Zach (Dylan Minnette) moves with his mom (Amy Ryan) to the sleepy little town of Madison, Delaware.  Zach is not happy about his new surroundings ("Couldn't we live in Guantanamo Bay or North Korea?"), and is still trying to get over the recent death of his father.  At his new school, he quickly becomes friends with the awkward and geeky Champ (Ryan Lee).  But more importantly, he catches the eye of the sweet 16-year-old girl living next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush).  There's an obvious connection between the two, but Hannah is being kept under the strict and watchful eye of her obsessive father, "Mr. Shivers", who forbids her from being with anyone or going outside of the house.  We soon learn that her father is actually R.L. Stine, the reclusive author who wrote the series of Goosebumps books back in the 90s, but now spends his life moving from town to town, running from someone or possibly something.

Zach suspects something sinister going on at the Stine home when he hears what sounds like violent arguments between Hannah and her father late at night from his window.  He tries to report a domestic disturbance to the police, but when the cops arrive, everything seems normal.  This does not deter Zach from learning the truth.  While Stine is gone, he gets his friend Champ and they decide to investigate the house together.  As they search for information, they come across a room filled with Goosebumps manuscripts that are strangely being kept under lock and key.  Opening one of the books happens to somehow magically unleash the creature within, in this case the Abominable Snowman of Pasadena.  It seems that all of Stine's monsters that he has been writing about for years are real, as he has always had the ability to dream up creatures and bring them into reality.  He has kept them locked in these books all this time, and now that our heroes have accidentally released one, the other monsters want their freedom back as well.

Zach and his friends have the misfortune of accidentally unleashing one of Stine's most evil creations, a possessed ventriloquist dummy named Slappy (voiced by Jack Black, pulling double duty).  The malevolent little guy sets about releasing each and every monster from their proper book, and then burning the manuscript so that they can't be returned to their literary prisons.  Before long, the entire town is besieged by evil lawn gnomes, giant praying mantises, vampire poodles, killer clowns, and aliens with freeze ray guns.  As Stine joins up with the kids to face the demons he has created, he realizes that the only way to save the people is to write a new story that contains every monster he's ever written about, and trap them inside one book.  If this all sounds silly, that's because it is.  It's also a lot of fun.  Playing the famed children's horror author, Jack Black is obviously having a blast portraying him as a cantankerous and egotistical man who is so full of himself, he gets offended when someone calls him a Stephen King knockoff.  He also enjoys casually dropping the worldwide number of his book sales in the middle of a conversation for no reason.  Like the movie itself, Black finds the right note of intensity and humor with the various characters he plays throughout the film. (Aside from Stine and the evil Slappy, he also provides the voice for another monster, the mischievous Invisible Boy.)

The whole cast is actually much better than I expected.  Dylan Minnette and Odeya Rush make for a sweet on-screen couple, and they even get to share a nice moment when they visit an abandoned amusement park for a romantic scene early in the film.  Ryan Lee has the role as the comic relief best friend, and while he comes across as a bit grating at first, he does settle into the role and never becomes as annoying as I feared he would be at first.  There are also a number of supporting adult characters who get some big laughs through, chief among them being Jillian Bell as Zach's lovesick Aunt Lorraine.  Bell is becoming one of those actresses who show up in small roles in movies, and always winds up making a big impression.  She stole every scene she was in last year with 22 Jump Street, and here she does the same.  I also laughed a lot at the banter between Amanda Lund and Timothy Simons as a pair of over-zealous cops who find themselves in over their heads when the monsters arrive.

Goosebumps is a chaotic movie, with its non-stop action and various creatures lurking about seemingly every corner of the screen.  But, it also knows how to reign itself in and focus on the characters.  It has a genuinely funny script, and enough action to keep us involved.  The special effects used to bring the monsters to life (provided by Sony Animation Studios) work well enough, but don't exactly stand out in any way.  I really don't think kids will mind.  The movie does a great job of thrilling kids without actually scaring them, and it always has a sense of fun to itself.  And adults who used to read the books as kids can enjoy the various references and cameos to the different stories and monsters.  This is probably the best movie we could have hoped to be made from this particular franchise, and is probably more clever than you'd expect.  There are some fun nods and spoofs of horror cliches to look for.

This is one of those movies you don't exactly walk in with big expectations, but you wind up enjoying yourself more than you thought.  Should it spawn a franchise (and I think that is the intent), hopefully the filmmakers can keep the sense of silly fun that this film has in spades.

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