After moving to a small town, Zach Cooper finds a silver lining when he meets next door neighbor Hannah, the daughter of bestselling Goosebumps series author R.L. Stine. When Zach unintentionally u...
Goosebumps may not give you a fright, but has enough delight to supply children with a bump in the night. In what may just be the greatest marketing tool for R. L. Stine's series of children's horror novels, Letterman grants us the PG adaptation of 'Cabin in the Woods'. The abominable snowman, a werewolf, evil ventriloquist doll, a colossal praying mantis and even an army of garden gnomes. It's a menagerie of Halloweeny goodness, enough to spark the imagination from the youngest of viewers before the film concludes due to its ridiculous rapid pacing. A group of teenagers and the author of the Goosebumps novels accidentally open various manuscripts that literally transform the ink to reality. With the monsters unleashed, it's up to them to lure the ghouls back in before Slappy the Dummy burns all of the manuscripts, leaving them trapped in the real world forever.
If you're like me and have never read a single Goosebumps novel, despite one of the titles being 'I Live in your Basement!' (a phrase I say way too often...), then no need to panic. Turn off Tenacious D, switch over from 'School of Rock' and give it ago. As far as embodying an entire intellectual property goes, Goosebumps is accessible to everyone. Mostly because you'll be enthralled by pointing at the screen and loudly proclaiming "oh wow, it's a floating vampire poodle!", and that's where most of the enjoyment lies. The brisk exploration of these creatures, whilst solely powering the plot, brings out the family horror that is the essence of the original source material. Some monsters are better realised than others, the invisible boy and werewolf lacked a certain "je ne sais quoi", but on the whole the agglomeration of furry/fleshy/plastic ghouls were intricately designed.
The same cannot be said for the human characters however. Unfortunately, the one-dimensional protagonist, his robotically monotonous love interest and his new best friend that irritates more than he entertains, aren't enough to keep me invested in the story. The performances were fine, although Rush was instantly forgettable compared to Minnette and Lee, yet it's the basic screenplay that disallows any personable qualities to be brought forward. The comedy was scattered and rarely landed, mostly because Letterman focused on Black's rip-roaring, insatiable and rather exhausting charisma and the nightly frights. Various plot conveniences, such as Zach's aunt randomly appearing to save the day when the teens were about to be shredded by the werewolf, bring the enjoyment down a smidgen and of course allow for many eye-rolling moments. The third act chucks in as many monsters as possible and diminishes the intensity of the tightly wound second act. Oh, and I counted three jump scares in this family film. Three!
So whilst the monstrous thrills were somewhat lacking, the comedy was sporadic and the human characters were more hideous than that pinkish Blob, it does harness the accessibility of Stine's novels and Black is as hyperactive as ever. Which is a good thing, right?
