Goosebumps [PG]

When Zach and his mother move to Delaware, he thought the hardest part would be fitting in to a new school. But that was before he discovers that his neighbour is children’s horror writer R. L. Stine, a man with such talent that his characters literally jump off the pages of his books! The horror first becomes real when Zach and his friend accidentally unleash the abominable snowman of Pasadena, unaware that another character has escaped from the page: Slappy, an insane ventriloquist dummy with a vendetta against Stine. Whilst Stine helps Zach and his friends recapture the abominable snowman, Slappy steals the rest of Stine’s manuscripts and lets out every monster he’s created to wreak havoc on the small town. Now it’s up to Stine, his daughter Hannah, Zach, and his new friend Champ to find a way to recapture all the monsters and save the town. 

I went in to this movie expecting it to be clichéd and delightfully bad in a fun way and it’s always satisfying to have a filmic experience that lives up to expectations. I don’t want to say that this is a bad movie as in a negative way because it actually falls into that class of bad movies that are still fun to watch; you know, in the same league as films such as Batman & Robin, The Phantom, or anything by the people who make the Scary Movie films. Admittedly, I only ever read one Goosebumps book in my childhood, so it stands to reason that there is a lot of humour and definitely nostalgia in this movie that I probably missed, which is a con that I’ll get into a bit later. For now, let me review… 

Whilst the film is primarily all about the writers’ abilities to cram as many Stine monsters into one story as they can, there is more to it than initially meets the eye. One thing that I did like about this movie was how it had this deeper, underlying story about the struggles of establishing and/or maintaining human relationships. The central story of the new kid on the block is self-explanatory and example enough, but then we have the overprotected and sheltered girl next door, the story of her reclusive and solitary father (Stine), and the geek who’s always trying to be cooler than he is (Champ). Each character has their own little story of struggle in connecting with other people and what I did like is how that brought this extra layer to the film and gave it that little bit of needed depth. 

Another aspect that deserves some complimenting is the special effects and computer wizardry, particularly that of the fictional characters crossing the boundaries of fiction and real world. I found myself quiet mystified watching when things either enter or exit the real world in a whirl of molasses-esque ink and blinding white light. Very cool. 

However, all this does not counteract the fact that there are a fair few cons to this movie. 

Whilst the deeper stories of human relationships work on a subtler level, the majority of the film is a mess of clichés, mediocre performances, and a certain level of audience exclusion. 

The whole fictional-characters-leaping-off-the-page story? Well, we’ve seen that done –and done better just quietly- in family films such as Inkheart and, to a lesser extent, in horror movies such as The Evil Dead, and The Babadook. The books as the source of terror is a horror genre cliché definitely not unheard of, and whilst this movie changes the trope with the terrors being unleashed by merely opening the book rather than reading from it aloud, it still is a predictable and clichéd generic building block. Then we have the clichés of the new kid on the block, the girl next door, the creepy guy on the street, the mad aunt as comic relief, and the geek who (spoiler alert) somehow manages to get a girl. Nothing new, nothing really all that exciting. 

The performances are so-so. I mean, with so many clichés dominating the script, I would imagine it’s hard to not be underwhelmed and lose the will to really try. Everyone does a fine job, but they really are just going through the motions, and for the life of me I could not fathom what Jack Black was doing with that accent. 

Finally, I get the distinct feeling that there are a number of references, onscreen and off, that were not accessible to me because I have never properly gotten into the Goosebumps series. Of course, the film focuses on the monsters that were the most popular in the franchise: killer gnomes, abominable snowman, giant mantis, werewolf, and talking ventriloquist dummy and I cannot help but think that a number of the jokes that were hidden to me would have been more apparent if I had read more of these books. 

Whilst arguably a fault on my part, it still shows that there is a bit of exclusion happening here, with those in the audience who’ve read the stories or grown up with them in their lives being rewarded with little titbits of nostalgia and in-jokes. I think that the film would have been better if the writers had attempted to make it more accessible to Goosebumps virgins rather than just inclusive to veterans, after all that’s what made Force Awakens break box-office grossing records. 

Starring Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan, Jillian Bell, Halston Sage, Steven Krueger, Keith Arthur Bolden, Amanda Lund, Timothy Simons, Ken Marino, Karan Soni, Caleb Emery, and featuring a sneaky cameo from R. L. Stine himself, Goosebumps is a harmless and fun movie, but in that delightfully bad sort of way. 

Filled with action, adventure, drama, romance, comedy, and a telltale Goosebumps twist at the end, it’s nothing cinematically great, but it’s fun.