Goosebumps (2015) Review

Goosebumps (2015) Adventure & Comedy

Teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) move from New York to the small fictional town of Madison, Delaware. His new neighbors are a girl named Hannah (Odeya Rush) and her mysterious author father "Mr. Shivers" (Jack Black), who tells him to stay away from his daughter. At his new high school where Gale becomes the new vice-principal, Zach meets and befriends Champ (Ryan Lee), a socially awkward student who is often bullied. One night, Zach hears Shivers and Hannah arguing from his window, followed by Hannah screaming. When he calls the police to investigate, Shivers assures Officer Stevens (Timothy Simons) and Officer Brooks (Amanda Lund) that the scream was from a movie. The officers lecture Zach about wasting the police's time and leave as Gale reprimands Zach.

Suspicious of Shivers and fearing Hannah is in danger, Zach anonymously calls Shivers and pretends to be a police officer and tells him to come to the police station for further questioning. Once he is gone, Zach and Champ break into Shivers' house in search of Hannah. They find several manuscripts from the Goosebumps book series, all of which are locked. They unlock The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, but are confronted by Hannah who assumes they are burglarizing the house. Zach clears up the misunderstanding. But when he accidentally opens the unlocked book, the Abominable Snowman emerges from it and breaks out of the house. In the ensuing chaos, the Night of the Living Dummy manuscript is accidentally unlocked as well. Zach, Champ, and Hannah pursue the Abominable Snowman to a local ice rink where it attacks them, but Shivers appears and sucks it back into the book.

On the way home, it is revealed that "Mr. Shivers" is actually R.L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps books. He explains to the three kids that he created the books' monsters when he was a child to cope with severe bullying. However, the monsters became real and he had to lock them in their manuscripts. Returning to the house, Stine and the kids are confronted by Slappy the Dummy (voiced by Jack Black), the villain of Night of the Living Dummy who is angry about being imprisoned. Before Stine can capture him, Slappy burns his own manuscript and flees with the other manuscripts in The Haunted Car. The Lawn Gnomes from Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes are also freed. Zach, Hannah and Champ help Stine smash them into pieces, but each gnome reforms itself making them realize that they cannot be destroyed.

Slappy frees the other Goosebumps monsters, destroys their manuscripts, and leads them on a destructive rampage across Madison where the Body Squeezer from Invasion of the Body Squeezers Pt. 1 and 2 freeze the entire police department. Zach suggests to Stine to write a new book that will trap every monster, but he can only do it on a special typewriter which is at the high school. He and the kids are attacked by various Goosebumps monsters on their way to the school including Brent Green the invisible boy (also voiced by Jack Black) from My Best Friend is Invisible and a giant mantis from A Shocker On Shock Street. Will Blake's werewolf form from The Werewolf of Fever Swamp pursues them in an abandoned supermarket. They escape and Zach's aunt Lorraine (Jillian Bell) hits the werewolf with her car. As Stine and the kids continue toward the high school through the cemetery, Zach notices that Hannah glows a ghostly blue in the moonlight. Before he can ask her about it, a zombie bursts out of the ground. After they escape the zombies from Welcome To Dead House and the Graveyard Ghouls from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls in the cemetery, he privately questions Stine about Hannah's existence. Stine reveals that she is not real, but a Goosebumps character he created after his wife died, though Hannah is unaware of this.

At the school, they find the typewriter and Stine starts working on the new book. However, Slappy confronts Stine and breaks his fingers before it can be finished. The monsters attack the school during a fall dance where the giant mantis grabs a person and the swarms of bees from Why I'm Afraid of Bees and the mutant plants from Stay Out of the Basement get into the school. Champ rescues Taylor (Halston Sage) from Will Blake's werewolf form by biting him with his silver teeth fillings and they kiss. The students have to barricade themselves inside to keep the other monsters out.

Stine and the kids board a bus and lead the monsters away from the school to an abandoned carnival on the outskirts of town. Slappy catches up with them in the Funhouse and unleashes the giant blob from The Blob That Ate Everyone. While Stine distracts the monsters, Zach finishes the story, but is reluctant to open the book because Hannah will be trapped inside it as well. Hannah reveals that she knew she was not real all along and opens the book. Slappy and the monsters are all sucked into it, and while Zach tries to hold on to her, Hannah accepts her fate and is sucked in as well after they kiss.

Some time later, Stine has started working at the high school as an English teacher. After class, Zach asks him if he misses Hannah, but Hannah suddenly reappears. Stine reveals that he wrote her back into existence with another book. She and Zach kiss and leave school together while Stine burns Hannah's manuscript and tosses it in the garbage. As Stine prepares to leave the school, he sees the typewriter typing "The Invisible Boy's Revenge" by itself revealing that Brent Green had somehow evaded capture. Stine screams as his hand prints appear on the cabinet's glass.