Movie Review: Goosebumps
I was first introduced to the Goosebumps series by a 'tween' with learning difficulties.
Despite battling to read she plodded on devouring RL Stine’s tales of ghouls, ghosties and all forms of creepies.
Can you believe that there are now 62 books in the series and a major motion picture?
Jack Black takes on the role of the author (RL Stine), but that hasn’t prevented the actual author from garnering a cameo role.
Along the lines of the infamous Jumanji (1995), Goosebumps focuses on the fiercely private author and his daughter, with one of the main provisos being that the Goosebumps books on the shelves must never be opened… for if they are ‘hell’ will literally reign loose as the characters escape into the ‘real’ world.
Danny Elfman, who has a strange allegiance to the weird and wacky having been involved with many of Tim Burton’s productions, takes the musical helm once again, but this time under Rob Letterman’s direction.
Believe it or not, Tim Burton was actually approached in 1998 according to Wikipedia as a Fox Family Films project, but they apparently could not decide which of the Goosebumps’ stories to include or the monsters on which to focus… and so it landed in ‘File 13’.
In 2012, the idea was resuscitated with a new draft of a screenplay written by Darren Lemke (scriptwriter of Shrek Forever After… I need say no more.
Halloween may have passed, but RL Stine’s characters remain to entertain.
Enjoy this week’s trip to the movies!
