Goosebumps (2015)

Goosebumps is a 2015 American horror comedy film based on the children's book series of the same name by R.L. Stine. It was directed by Rob Letterman and written by Darren Lemke, from a story by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The film stars Jack Black (in a triple role), Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, Jillian Bell, and Halston Sage. It was financed by Sony, LStar Capital, and Village Roadshow Pictures, and also produced by Sony Pictures Animation, Original Film, and Scholastic Entertainment.

Summary
Following his father's death, Zach Cooper and his mother Gale move from New York City to the small town of Madison, Delaware. Settling in the neighborhood, Zach meets his neighbor Hannah, whose overprotective father tells him to stay away. The next morning at the local high school where Gale is introduced as the new vice-principal, Zach befriends Champ, a cowardly but friendly student. That night, Hannah invites Zach to an abandoned amusement park where they get to know each other, however, upon returning home, Hannah's father again warns him to stay away.

Later, Gale has to supervise a school dance, leaving Zach with his aunt Lorraine. Fearing Hannah is in danger, Zach tricks her father into going to the police station while he and Champ enter his house. They find a bookshelf with numerous locked manuscripts, each one cataloging entries from the Goosebumps franchise. In response to Champ's curiosity, Zach unlocks The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena and the story's titular monster emerges from it. With Hannah's help, they track it to a local ice rink where Hannah's father appears and reimprisons it in the manuscript.

Hannah's father unintentionally reveals he is R. L. Stine, the creator of the Goosebumps franchise. He originally wrote the stories to cope with severe bullying, but the monsters featured in them became real, forcing him to imprison them in their manuscripts. Back home, they encounter Slappy the Dummy from the Night of the Living Dummy series, somehow now freed from his manuscript. Seeking revenge on Stine for his imprisonment, Slappy incinerates his manuscript, which leaves no other way to reimprison the monsters, before fleeing with the others.

Stine and the kids are attacked by the gnomes from Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes and are forced to escape. Slappy releases several of his fellow monsters, causing havoc around Madison. Meanwhile, Lorraine is attacked by Fifi the Vampire Poodle from Please Don't Feed the Vampire!. Zach convinces Stine to recapture the monsters by writing a single manuscript, but it can only be done with his supernatural typewriter, which is currently on display at the high school. Along the way, they are attacked by Brent Green from My Best Friend Is Invisible and the giant mantis from A Shocker on Shock Street, forcing them to hide in the supermarket. Will Blake from The Werewolf of Fever Swamp chases them to the parking lot where he is run over by Lorraine, who survived Fifi's attack.

Stine and the kids go through a cemetery, where Zach sees Hannah become ghost-like in the moonlight before being attacked by the titular characters from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls. Arriving at the school, Zach confronts Stine privately; his "daughter" is Hannah Fairchild from The Ghost Next Door and he originally created her to cope with his loneliness, but Hannah is unaware of this. Stine begins to write a story based on the events around them, while Zach and Champ try to warn everyone, but nobody believes them until the mantis attacks the building. The rest of the monsters are then released and Slappy orders them to storm the school. Despite the best efforts of the school's staff and students to keep the monsters out, they break in nonetheless. Slappy finds Stine, breaking his fingers with the typewriter's case before he can finish the story.

Stine and the kids trick the monsters into following a school bus rigged with explosives while they grab another and head for the abandoned amusement park. Realizing the ruse, Slappy tracks them down and releases the Blob from The Blob That Ate Everyone as the other monsters arrive. Stine confronts it and is devoured, while the trio seek refuge in the park's ferris wheel where Zach finishes the story just before the structure is damaged by the mantis, causing it to roll towards the forest. After surviving the ordeal, Zach refuses to open the story's manuscript, because Hannah will also be sucked in, but she reveals she knew the truth about herself all along and opens it, sucking the monsters into it, kissing Zach before accepting her fate.

Some time later, Stine begins working as a substitute teacher at the school while starting a relationship with Lorraine. After class, Stine reveals to Zach that he brought Hannah back into reality by writing a new copy of her story. When Zach and Hannah leave together, Stine incinerates the copy and prepares to leave, but then finds his typewriter writing by itself. To his horror, Brent Green was omitted in the monsters' imprisonment and is using the typewriter to write a new Goosebumps story entitled The Invisible Boy's Revenge.

Good Qualities

 * 1) It really captures the spark that R.L. Stine’s book franchise had.
 * 2) Decent casting choices, especially Jack Black playing R.L. Stine and Slappy The Dummy.
 * 3) Wonderful acts and performances.
 * 4) The idea of making all the monsters from the Goosebump’s books come to life and go on a town rampage is pretty clever and original.
 * 5) Likable, interesting and relatable characters.
 * 6) Some funny and touching moments here and there.
 * 7) Zach’s backstory about his father dying is very sad and emotional.
 * 8) The actual R.L. Stine makes a cameo appearance towards the end of the film.
 * 9) Well-done plot and character development.
 * 10) Top-notch special effects.
 * 11) An unpredictable twist ending that leaves it open for a sequel.
 * 12) Zach and Hanna have a very loving and romantic relationship.
 * 13) Funny lines of dialogue that are well-said by the main characters.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The story feels like a Jumanji cash-in.
 * 2) R.L. Stine can be very mean-spirited in the first half of the film.
 * 3) Not for easily frightened children.
 * 4) Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, while a pretty okay sequel, mainly just recycles most elements from the first film.
 * 5) * It also reveals a massive plot-hole of the first film whereas it reveals Slappy the Dummy has supernatural powers.

Reception
While the film was well received by fans of the Goosebumps series, critical reception was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 76% based on 152 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Goosebumps boasts more than enough of its spooky source material's kid-friendly charm to make up for some slightly scattershot humor and a hurried pace." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 60 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Kevin P. Sullivan of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B rating, citing at the end of his review: "Nothing about Goosebumps is revolutionary—at a certain point you may realize that it's as if Nickelodeon produced Cabin in the Woods—but it's a never-boring trip to a world, where stories and imagination are powerful tools, that just might inspire kids to do the scariest thing of all: pick up a book".

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