Goosebumps Film Review

Finished watching Goosebumps directed by Rob Letterman and staring Dylan Minnette, Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, Odeya Rush, Jack Black and Jillian Bell. The film opens up with Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mom Gale (Amy Ryan) moving from New York to the suburbs of Madison, Delaware as Gale got a vice principle job at the local high school where Zach meets Champ (Ryan Lee) who Zach quickly befriends. Back at home Zach and their neighbours daughter Hannah (Odeya Rush) head to an abandoned fairground were the two become more aquatinted which leads to Hannah getting grounded by her father R.L. Stine (Jack Black) when the two return home. During one night Zack hears Hannah and her father arguing leading to him to call Champ as the two sneak into the house to investigate only for them to accidentally release the Abonabal Snowman onto the world when the boys open up one of Stine's Goosebumps books. After capturing the monster with the help of Stine the group find that Slappy the Dummy (voiced by Jack Black) has also escaped from his book where he sets out to cause havoc throughout the town and to have his revenge on Stine for being trapped inside one of his books. Overall this was a good film as it has a slow burn to begin with that helps to introduce each of the characters before the main part of the story with the monsters begins. The animation of the the monsters is great as each of them are appear very lifelike and frightening in their own unique way. While Slappy's design is haunting which is emulated by the use of jump scares by the flickering lighting that is used when Slappy appears on screen. The comedy within the film is great as it is timed extremely well within the narrative of the film with a lot of the comedy coming from the interactions and reactions of Stine and even Zack's aunt Lorraine (Jillian Bell). 7.5/10.