Goosebumps (2015), PG, ★★★

Jack Black and the kids in trouble. 

I must confess that I have not been a fan of R.L. Stan's Goosebumps series because when I read the books, I never could connect to the humor and the parody of the horror genre as how kids witnessed the all these type of mawkish Halloween characters spooking the younger characters into terror and belief. But, I believe R.L. Stein said that they never put the characters into situations where they are involved with death or something life-threatening. I believe that is refreshing. It is sort of a premise for a Saturday morning cartoon. We do not get as many fun Halloweens for younger audiences as we should but this movie is right for that demographic as this version contains enough fun material and source to control our attention and center ourselves into that ride. It is an admirable and fun movie.

Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mom, Gale (Amy Ryan) move to Madison, Delaware where Gale heads a new job as a vice principal at a high school. He's still getting over the death of his father since it has been a year of that tragic event. But, the only person he knows in town is Zach's sister, Lorraine, who gives him a little gift. While Zach is accommodating himself into his new home, he meets the girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush). She is called into her house by her dad, Mr. Shivers (Jack Black) and warns him like any other strict dad to stay away from her or there will be consequences.

There's enough skepticism for Zach as he finds out why Hannah was not at school and she responds that she is home-schooled. While Zach and Hannah both hang out and get along in an abandoned amusement park, they return and Shivers scolds them both. Failed to persuade the cops to find out what is going in Shivers' home, Zach lures him away from his home and with Champ's (Ryan Lee) help, they go upstairs in Shivers home and find a locked manuscript of "Goosebumps" stories and when opened, he unlocks one of the creatures and causes havoc to the whole town.

Chill out! They are only zombies. 

Boy, when you have movies you have low expectations on, you get worried. I was worried about watching this movie and to tell you truth, the kid-friendly, frantic spook-fest turns out to be an amusement ride of fun and thrills. It is not a spoiler but we find out that Mr. Shivers turns out to be the author of the Goosebumps series, R.L. Stine, and we learn that he created these characters to get through the bullying he had to suffer through when he was a child. We understand his pain, however, his therapy goes way too far and over his head as they threaten the whole town. The movie's visuals are not the best in the world but no matter what, the frantic pace of the film carries you all the way through with no boredom and some humor.

Jack Black has some experience in the children's genre department, for better and for worse, School of Rock and the awful Nacho Libre, this movie falls into the former category with Richard Linklater's underrated movie about rock and school. He fits his mannerisms, humor and a bit of drama into the character and we follow him all the way through. The kid actors in the movie do a solid job not being too annoying and with a few characters, there is some complex background and agenda behind them that we like them and we want to follow them. Thank goodness there was some character development in the first third so we will not have to follow just one-dimensional caricatures.

Director Rob Letterman does a solid job of forming characters and a firm storyline to try to lure the creatures back to their habitats in the books. This movie will definitely appeal to the younger crowds of 9 and up because there is some scary material regarding the creatures and a few characters. Nevertheless, even if this is a fun slumber party movie for the young kids, I had a blast with this movie and it surpassed my expectations. This movie pulls off almost everything and turns into a Halloween bonanza and then next thing you know it, you get a sugar rush. But, hey, it will be worth it in the end.

***