Review of Goosebumps (2015) by Billie P — 29 Jan 2016

"Goosebumps" (2015) is about a kid named Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his misadventures with unlocking the monsters of Goosebumps. Goosebumps was, and still is in its newest incarnations, a horror book series for children, written by R.L. Stine.

Author R.L. Stine is played by Jack Black in this film, who at turns is doing the Jack Black we know and love from such films as "Saving Silverman" (2001) and at other turns playing a more subdued role. The film could have benefitted from picking a side.

This film has been called "Jumanji" (2001) with monsters, which is basically true, but no worse for that fact. The problem is that the way this conceit is used is unlikely to satisfy the diehard fans of R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series, nor will it satisfy any viewer who comes to the film with no history of Goosebumps. This is because the monsters are seen but rarely engaged with.

The only exception to this is Slappy (voiced by Jack Black), the ventriloquist dummy who looks an awful lot like an evil Charlie McCarthy doll. Slappy is compelling as a character, not least because he can talk: it's that we actually get a backstory with this character, and he has a rich personality and relationship with fictional Stine himself.

What the film could have done is provided more nods to the actual content of the Goosebumps books. For example, when the Abominable Snowman of Pasadena is unleashed, why not have him do and say some of the stuff he did in that book? Sure, he is breaking and pounding things, but there would have been a golden opportunity to give more homage to the source material.

If not that, the film needed something--anything--other than one monster unleashed after the next.