Goosebumps, film review: Boisterous beastly fun with Mr Black

Like all the best riffs on the Gothic genre, Goosebumps combines cynicism with sweetness, says Charlotte O'Sullivan
Charlotte O'Sullivan5 February 2016

Half-term holidays were made for movies like this, a cheeky supernatural caper that, among other things, puts Jack Black to good use. He is paranoid and prolific author RL Stine, whose sinister fictional creations are inadvertently unleashed on a sleepy town in Delaware.

There are grim gnomes and a mercurial abominable snowman but the beastie adults will like best is Mr Slappy, a ventriloquist’s dummy who owes a great deal to the puppet Hugo from 1945 cult classic Dead of Night. There are jokes concerning Stephen King too, while a sub-plot involving Stine’s teenage offspring Hannah (Odeya Rush), not only has echoes of the Nathaniel Hawthorne story, Rappaccini’s Daughter, but actually manages to be moving.

Like all the best riffs on the Gothic genre (Gremlins, Beetlejuice, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Goosebumps combines cynicism with sweetness. If you can get past the slow start, woefully blank hero Zach (Dylan Minnette), and hit-and-miss special effects, you’ll be charmed. Even the graphics over the end titles are worth a second look. The real Stein (who I’d never heard of, before seeing the film) has written more than 300 books. Is it too late to join the party?

Cert PG, 103 mins

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