Starring Jack Black, ‘Goosebumps’ is a Halloween treat

“If you start at “Goosebumps”, any other movie will disappoint because I’m the most terrifying thing to ever exist”, said the puppet in an interview with KABC-TV.

Television shows based on Stine’s books have provided the same structure for those not old enough to face the likes of “American Horror Story” or “The Strain”.

Dylan Minnette (“Alexander and the awful, Horrible…”) is charismatically natural amid the supernatural as Zach, a hard-luck teen newly relocated with his school administrator mom (Amy Ryan). He soon meets the girl next door, Hannah (Odeya Rush), who seems nice and takes him on a little stroll around an abandoned amusement park in the woods, but her suspiciously secretive father catches them talking and warns Zach off the property.

“Goosebumps” is set to come to the theaters on Friday, October 16 in the United States of America, and on October 21, worldwide.

When Zach hears an ensuing father-daughter shouting match terminated by Hannah’s screams, he calls the cops, who arrive at the house to find the noise only came from the movie that a very annoyed and apparently solitary Mr. Stine was watching. When one accidentally is opened, the Abominable Snowman chases Zach, Hannah and Champ (Ryan Lee), the traditional goofy nerd who Stine loves to add to his stories. Slappy the Dummy, the creepiest character of the bunch (and Stein’s alter ego, voiced by Black), acts as power-mad ringleader.

Darren Lemke’s screenplay has a few huge holes (such as an abandoned amusement park that still has electricity), but he manages to give time to numerous classic Stine creatures.

Young audiences are in for an early lesson in disappointing cinematic literary adaptations with “Goosebumps”. 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).