Production –
“Goosebumps” was released October 16, 2015 then a sequel was released 2 years later. It was produced by Sony pictures, Scholastic Corporation and a variety of other production companies. The movie was directed by Rob Letterman. There are many different “Goosebumps” novels written by R.L. Stine, in which this movie originated from. The production budget of this film was $58 million but it went on to gross over $120 million world wide. Upon release it received a 78% Rotten tomatoes and 6.3/10 IMDb rating.
Main Characters –
Zach Cooper – He’s the new kid in town, a teenager who’s not thrilled about moving. Zach is a very curious kid and tends to be a bit of a troublemaker. He is also brave, resourceful and a leader. We see this all throughout the film.
Hannah Stine – R.L. Stine’s mysterious daughter. She’s been home schooled and kept away from the world for her safety. She is intelligent and very knowledgeable about the monsters.
R.L. Stine – He is portrayed as the author of the Goosebumps books, who brought the monsters to life through his writing. Stine is reclusive, serious, and burdened by the responsibility of containing the monsters he created.
Slappy – A talking and walking living dummy. Main antagonist throughout the film.
Summary –
In “Goosebumps,” Zach moves to a new town at the start of the movie. The first person he meets is girl named Hannah. Hannah and Zach eventually start speaking more often and become a little more then just friends. One day he goes in her house and accidentally opens one of Stine’s books. The Abominable snowman came to life then started to go on a terror, he knocked down many books aswell as opening Slappys book. Slappy then unleashed all of the monsters Stine has ever wrote about and left. Stine was enraged and originally ignored the request to return the monsters to there books.
Slappy made sure to burn every book so that Stine could not suck them back in. Then the group of monsters led by Slappy started to terrorize the town. He froze police officers, cut electric lines and caused pure chaos everywhere. The monsters also tried to attack and hunt our protagonists all over the town.
In the end, Zach, Hannah and R.L. Stine manage to lure all the escaped monsters back to the high school. Then they used a blank “Goosebumps” book and a typewriter to write a new book and suck all the monsters back. However there is a sneaky plot twist towards to end. It is revealed that Hannah is also one of Stine’s creations and she gets sucked in the book with the others.
Viewers Critique –
Positive – Brings a strong sense of nostalgia to all the book readers. Amazing visual effects that brought the monsters to life. Good character dynamics and relationships between the characters. Great balance between humor and action with very funny comedic moments.
Negative – Too many monsters and different story lines into one film which led to an overstuffed plot. Very weak character development, the characters do not grow or change much throughout the story. The movie struggles to maintain a consistent tone. This film heavily relies on the nostalgia of the old books and shows. Lack of genuine scares or horror scene.
My Opinion –
I feel like that target audience should be mainly for children. When I originally watched this movie as a child I really loved it. I found it very comical, entertaining and interesting. There are some scary scenes here and there but nothing much someone over the age of 12 would be frightened of.
When I rewatched it now I realized this movie is not as great as I thought. I was definitely hung up on some nostalgia from the tv show and old books I read. This movie highly lacks the horror aspect. Also an overall plot, There are too many things happening it once, I feel like the movie is overwhelming. Shane Lit (a student at CHS) has expressed many of the same thoughts as I did when I interviewed him. Personally “Goosebumps” did not live up to my expectations or many others.
