“Goosebumps” is set in Maddison, Delaware where teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) relocate from New York after his fathers untimely death.
Upset about moving from a big city to a small town, Zach finds a hopeful prospect when he meets a girl, Hannah (Odeya Rush).
Though even with this new prospect to distract him from the reality of small town existence Zach's hopes are torn apart when Hannah’s paranoid father, R. L. Stine (Jack Black), demands he stay away from her.
As the film progresses, it turns out that there is a reason why Stine is a recluse. He is a prisoner of his own imagination - the very monsters that send chills down the readers of his Goosebumps books spine are real.
Stine protects the world by keeping them locked up in their books. When Zach accidentally releases the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, it's suddenly up to Stine, Zach, Hannah, and Champ (Ryan Lee) to get all of them back in the books where they belong.
“Goosebumps” accomplishes not just paying respect to our childhood, but the very film itself invokes an aura of nostalgia around reading and writing. It’s not of the norm that a movie can portray reading and writing as magical, but “Goosebumps” very plot shows is an exploration of how books can be a portal in to another world.
Combined that with a clever use of CGI, quality direction, and relatable dialogue among likable characters, it invokes just that making the power of books the very foundation of the film. Though the message is doubly effective if you’re a fan of R. L. Stine, I actually left the film wanting to read for pleasure. It makes the message that it's cool to read accessible to anybody willing to watch.
Rating: Five Stars
The film fires on all cylinders. 
