R.L. Stine is a author who writes kids and young adult horror books. He also directed some series of shows that he wrote books about. Sometimes the stories he wrote seemed shockingly true, but most were predictable. Sitting in the dark just listening to the stories makes you suspicious, having you on the edge of your seat. R.L. Stine’s stories give you an enjoyable and addictive feeling. I know that being scared sometimes is not a good feeling, but I promise a movie I recently saw was not scary. It was more of a kid friendly film, in my opinion.
In the new 2015 film “Goosebumps”, it features every imaginative creation from his popular series. This film was created by screenwriter Darren Lemke, it consists of haunted masks, ghosts, angry lawn gnomes, teenage werewolves, a talking walking dummy, zombies, and the abominable snowman. The movie was filmed in Madison, Delaware, a quite small town, that was soon turned upside down. This story closely follows a teenage boy named Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) who just moved from New York City with his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) to a small town. Everything is going very smooth until he meets his awkwardly strange neighbor, Hannah (Odeya Rush). Zach seems to want to know Hannah a little better, but her father is not going to let that happen. Hannah’s father is a very strict man with a lot of rules, and Hannah is also home schooled, so she does not have a lot of friends. Zach later finds out that Hannah’s father is actually R.L. Stine (Jack Black) . After finding out who Hannah’s father really is, a lot of twists and turns occur in the film.
One day Zach and his friend Champ (Ryan Lee) decide to break into Hannah’s house. They stumble into Stine’s library, which contained manuscripts of the books he wrote that are bound and sealed. While they were snooping, Hannah unexpectedly catches them, and they drop the manuscript. All of sudden, the manuscript opens. Then the abominable snowman comes walking out the pages. All of the creations come alive, including the evil ventriloquist dummy, Slappy. Slappy becomes the leader of all the ghoulish creatures. It is up to the three wild teenagers and one snobbish writer to trap those creations back into the manuscripts and save the town of Madison. Slappy and the other creations terrorize the whole town by robbing stores and harassing town people. They began to rule over the whole town. Stine and the gang defeat Slappy and his army by writing a new story and sucking them back into the pages .
The film has many reviews, some good and some reviews were bad. Fortunately, everyone has the right to voice his or her opinion, no matter if their comment is good or bad. There was a review that I read that really caught my eye on rottentomatoes.com. A guy named Adam Graham from Detroit News said, “Goosebumps isn’t detached or ironic, nor does it pretend to be something it’s not. It’s a bonus for fans who pored over the books and it celebrated the fun side of things going bump in the night.” I agreed with Adam, because the film did not take away the true meaning of “Goosebumps.” The director only added a little humor, which is not surprising because the people that grew up reading the “Goosebumps” books found it very hilarious and entertaining. R.L. Stine was even featured in the movie as a janitor. I personally feel as if he did not complain, then the movie must have met his expectations. (Graham,2015)
Another review I read was on ladyandtheblog.com. I like this review also, and I found it to be very positive. The lady who wrote the review is a mother, and her name is Vera Sweeney. She blogs about different movies. Her review states, “The movie was amazing. It was the perfect translation from all the hundreds of wonderful, fun, and slightly (kid) scary stories and monsters from the great R.L. Stine. The really cool part start Jack Black played R.L. Stine in the movie and a whole bunch of the books and monsters were included in the movie, with Slappy the Dummy as the ringleader. It was great fun, kids loved it and so did we. It’s perfect, really especially for this fun Halloween time of the year. Fans of the books or not, you will likely to love this movie. It’s just good, clean, and kid safe. Sure there are some little scares, but it’s all good fun. Crazy monsters, funny lines, and a great cast really makes the movie pop. I’m so happy we were able to check it out.”(Para.3)
Sweeney breaks the movie down into details so well, and I love the fact that she spoke so positive about the movie. From reading the review it made me have great feeling about the movie. When reading negative reviews, it only puts you in a bad place. They automatically give you a bad impression of the movie. When people give bad reviews, that makes a person not to want to see the movie. I have made that mistake before. The best thing to do is go see a movie for yourself; so, you can get your own perspective of the movie.
In conclusion, from me watching “Goosebumps”, on a scale of 1-10, I would rate the movie a solid 10. The movie was not scary at all; it was funnier than the old Goosebumps series that R.L. Stine wrote. It is not the typical Goosebumps expected, but it puts more emphasis on goofy humor, special effects, and a teen romance. The characters are like ordinary characters: Zach Cooper is the young handsome guy with heroic qualities; Hannah is very determine with a beautiful soul, and smart; Champ was pretty much born with fear, he is always paranoid; R.L. Stine is very impatient but has a heart of gold. Together they all serve a purpose and work extremely well together. Even though they all are so different. If someone has never read a R.L. Stine book, they would not understand half of the ghoulish creatures and the role each one of them played from previous Goosebumps books. The movie would be thrilling to children who are six years old or older, because to someone younger the movie may be a little scary because of certain scenes. For example, in the movie there was a cemetery scene with zombies. Some children may find that very frightening for them to see. The characters are very likeable. Jack Black played the role of R.L. Stine, which fit perfect because he was actually funny even though he played an mysterious role. Overall, the movie is the perfect movie for a family movie night; there is no foul language. The monsters looked very real, the three main teenagers Zach, Hannah, and Champ are very good kids. There were a few kissing scenes, but nothing inappropriate. I would suggest anyone to watch this movie, only because I loved the movie. I can admit that I really can watch the movie over and over again.
