Jack Black plays dark role in youth horror film, ‘Goosebumps’

Clean-cut teen protagonist Zach (Dylan Minnette) moves with his widowed mom (a grossly underused Amy Ryan) from New York to sleepy suburban Madison, Del. He forms a quick attraction with Hannah (Odeya Rush), the sardonic girl next door, even though her sketchy father (Black) forbids it. And the imperious kook tells Zach as much, in a tone so clipped and simultaneously grandiloquent, you half-expect Black to launch into a few Tenacious D rock epic at any moment.

With over 350 million copies sold since its debut in 1992, the popular kids’ book series Goosebumps has given millions of youngsters all over the world their very first scare.

Cue the “Rear Window” intrigue. It’s just one more way that “Goosebumps” gets it. Director Rob Letterman previously made the critically slammed flop Gulliver’s Travels-also with Jack Black-and Goosebumps brings that same kind of broad, lowbrow approach to the beloved teen horror series. Zach doesn’t seem to fit in at school, and the only person he meets is a suit-wearing misfit named Champ (Ryan Lee). When Stine’s creations are unintentionally released from their manuscripts, Zach’s life takes a turn for the weird. Slappy the Dummy, the creepiest character of the bunch (and Stein’s alter ego, voiced by Black), acts as power-mad ringleader. A list provided in the film’s production notes tallies 25 different spooks in all (and many of those, like the aliens and gnomes, appear in packs).

There was a time when Tim Burton – who surely would’ve put a more distinctive stamp on things – flirted with the project, which likely explains why Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (“Ed Wood”, “Big Eyes”) have story credit. And, as fate would have it, Ryan co-stars as well opposite Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s equally fabulous “Bridge of Spies”, which also opens Friday.