Not sure why I'd been looking forward to this one so much, given that I was just a shade too old for the Goosebumps books when they came out in the mid-90s. I have a soft spot for kiddie horror, though, and also, thanks to the likes of School of Rock, for Jack Black (which is pretty horrifying in and of itself), so the movie sounded as though it might be an honest-to-goodness good time.
Goosebumps starts with teen Zach (Dylan Minnette) moving from New York to Madison, Delaware and meeting the beautiful Hannah (Odeya Rush). Hannah's father, Mr. Shivers, (Jack Black) is a nervous recluse with some serious anger management issues, and it becomes increasingly obvious that he's hiding something big. It's only when Zach stumbles upon a library of books, however, and notices that each of them are individually locked shut, that he realises how much trouble he might be in.
It all plays out like a holiday special, fast-paced, low-budget and jolly. The two younger leads get the best of the deal, with smart, snappy dialogue that makes them genuinely likeable, if half a decade too old for the source material. Black, meanwhile, is less lucky, getting saddled with a bunch of clunky exposition and then digging himself deeper with one of his truly dreadful comedy accents.
The effects are passable and the sets are nice, particularly the implausible but gorgeous abandoned funfair. The monsters themselves, meanwhile, are comfortingly nonconvincing, with even Slappy the malevolent ventriloquist's dummy only becoming plausibly threatening in one gorgeous shot that reveals him as the alter ego of author R.L. Stine.
Harmless fun, but if you hate Jack Black (and I wouldn't blame you) you might want to stay away.
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