The 1990s was a strange time for children’s TV. It was when we tried to scare our youth with such shows as "Are you Afraid of the Dark?," "Courage the Cowardly Dog," and "Goosebumps." October 16 marked a return of the Goosebumps franchise with the release of a major motion picture starring Jack Black. While the film may have had a large budget that delivered in terms of CGI and visual effects, its overall plot was far from exciting and anything outside of predictable.
Different from the low-budget Fox TV show, the movie is feature film length, had a well-known cast, and was directed by notable children’s film director, Rob Letterman. Jack Black stars as writer R.L. Stine (actual author of the "Goosebumps" series), a recluse living in hiding with his daughter in the small town of Madison, Delaware. When a new boy comes to town and starts meddling with Stine’s privacy, Stine has his secrets exposed and worst fears realized as their cookie cutter town is run rampant by Goosebumps’ most terrifying creatures.
The film is predictable, carrying a cast of believable actors centered on "Goosebumps’" most famous characters, but with a rather anticlimactic plot. It's fast-paced to keep people interested, however the story itself falls short due to little plot development. In the end, everything is tied up with a neat little bow as all of the problems created by the monsters are easily fixed when R.L. Stine creates a new book solving the current town’s disasters. The most interesting character element is a romance between a mythical creature and human, showing that love knows no bounds. However, anyone over the age of 10 would not be amused by the film in the least, as they would have already seen this film a dozen times over before their twelfth birthday.
Jack Black’s performance was perhaps the only salvageable thing from the entire film. He was decidedly creepy – a side not normally shown in most of his work. Yet he still maintained his comedy persona at certain pointed scenes, making him a well-liked curmudgeon of a character.
The worst thing about this film was that during the entire movie, I kept thinking how I would have rather been watching the children’s television program. Even though the show was super low budget and incredibly cheesy, it told the real "Goosebumps" stories that scared you as a child. They were decidedly terrifying with classic elements of horror employed at a child’s level . . . even though they were still frightening to people well past the show’s targeted age range. The biggest disappointment was that the film was not scary – not in the least. The whole film you’re so concerned with rapid changing shots and minor speedbumps the characters are put through that you don’t even notice you are not being scared – you are just on a money-making roller coaster of overdone tropes and almost catastrophes.
