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Just as nobody will confuse young-adult author R.L. Stine with Stephen King, nobody should confuse "Goosebumps" — a fun and flashy movie based on Stine's popular book series — with an actual horror movie.
The idea behind "Goosebumps" is to give children a mild freak-out, not scare the bejeebers out of them — and director Rob Letterman and company succeed on that count, with pleasantly cartoony effects and kid-friendly humor.
Teenage Zach (Dylan Minnette) is less than thrilled when his mom, Gale (Amy Ryan), moves the pair of them from New York to Delaware, where she has a new job as vice principal at Zach's new high school. On the plus side, his new neighbor, Hannah (Odeya Rush), is cute. She's also got an overprotective father (played by Jack Black) who keeps her indoors and away from strangers.
Soon Zach discovers what Hannah's father is hiding: He's really R.L. Stine, the author of the "Goosebumps" books — and all of Stine's scary creations are waiting to escape from his locked-up manuscripts. Of course, Zach finds this out after the monsters escape, so it's up to Stine, Zach, Hannah and Zach's nerdy friend Champ (Ryan Lee) to round up the beasties before they do damage to the town.
The script, by Darren Lemke (who co-wrote "Turbo" and "Jack the Giant Slayer") with story credit given to Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, is an all-star mash-up of Stine's monsters: aliens, a yeti, a wolfman in sneakers and many more. The creepiest is the one in charge, the ventriloquist's dummy Slappy, who deeply resents Stine for locking him up in his book. (Slappy is voiced by Black, giving the character a sly Oedipal subtext.)
Letterman, who has his roots in animation (co-directing "Shark Tale" and "Monsters vs. Aliens") and live action (he directed Black in the woeful "Gulliver's Travels"), goes in for over-the-top special effects, filling the screen with monsters. This turns out to be the right approach for "Goosebumps," because it's funnier and less scary than a restrained approach would have been.
Black keeps his usual madman moves under wraps, opting to give Stine a clenched-jaw tension for added laughs. His teen co-stars counter with engaging performances.
"Goosebumps" gets a little noisy and chaotic at times, much like its spiritual ancestor, Joe Dante's 1984 classic "Gremlins." "Gremlins," though, could be authentically creepy at times — while "Goosebumps" delivers its "shocks" in a way that's safely in bounds. The result is a safe-and-sane pre-Halloween treat.
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