Goosebumps (film)

For other uses, see Goosebumps (disambiguation).
Goosebumps

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Rob Letterman
Produced by
Screenplay by Darren Lemke
Story by
Based on Goosebumps 
by R. L. Stine
Starring
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Javier Aguirresarobe
Edited by Jim May
Production
companies
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • October 5, 2015 (2015-10-05) (Los Angeles premiere)
  • October 16, 2015 (2015-10-16) (United States)
Running time
103 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $58 million[2][3]
Box office $156.7 million[4]

Goosebumps is a 2015 American fantasy horror comedy film which combines live action and computer animation. It was based on the children's book series of the same name by R.L. Stine, directed by Rob Letterman, produced by Deborah Forte and Neal H. Moritz, written by Darren Lemke with music by Danny Elfman and based from a story by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The film stars Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Amy Ryan, Halston Sage, Ryan Lee, and Jillian Bell. It was financed by Sony, LStar Capital and Village Roadshow Pictures[2] and also produced by Original Film and Scholastic Entertainment.[5] The film premiered at Los Angeles on October 5, 2015 and was theatrically released on October 16, 2015 in the 3D, 2D and RealD 3D formats in the United States by Sony Pictures Entertainment under its Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation labels.[5] Goosebumps has grossed over $156 million[4] against its $58 million budget. It received nominations for the Las Vegas Film Critics Society[6] for Best Family Film and the Visual Effects Society for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project.

Plot

Zach Cooper and his mother Gale move from New York to the town of Madison, Delaware. While settling in, Zach meets his new neighbor Hannah and her father, known as "Mr. Shivers". Zach and Hannah become quick friends, but Mr. Shivers frequently warns Zach to avoid contact with them. At Madison High School where Gale works as the vice-principal, Zach befriends Champ, a socially awkward student.

The next night, Zach hears Mr. Shivers and Hannah arguing, followed by Hannah screaming. He calls the police, but Mr. Shivers assures the officers that that the noise came from his television. Fearing Hannah is in danger, Zach tricks Mr. Shivers into going to the police station for further questioning and breaks into his house with Champ's help. The two find a shelf containing many Goosebumps manuscripts, all of which are locked. Zach unlocks one of the books, but when Hannah discovers them, Zach drops the book, releasing the titular character of The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena that breaks out of the house. They pursue the monster to an ice skating rink, where Mr. Shivers appears and imprisons it back into the book.

On the way home, Mr. Shivers reveals that he is Goosebumps author R.L. Stine. He created the stories as a child to terrorize the people that made fun of him, but the monsters came to life and became uncontrollable, so he had to trap them inside their manuscripts. Returning to the house, they find Slappy from Night of the Living Dummy, which was accidentally unlocked before, waiting for them. Angry at being imprisoned, Slappy burns his own manuscript and flees in The Haunted Car. They are attacked by the lawn gnomes from Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, but when Stine and the kids try to smash them, each of the gnomes reform, making them realize that they can only run away.

Slappy releases several monsters, letting them rampage under his command. Zach suggests Stine to write a new book that will trap every monster, but he can only do it with his special typewriter which is at the high school. On the way there, the invisible boy from My Best Friend Is Invisible and the giant praying mantis from A Shocker on Shock Street attack Stine's car, so they are forced into hiding. The titular Werewolf of Fever Swamp pursues them into an abandoned supermarket, only to be run over by Zach's aunt Lorraine.

As they cut through the cemetery, Zach notices that Hannah glows blue in the moonlight. After evading the Graveyard Ghouls from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls, they manage to make it to the high school. There, Zach privately questions Stine about Hannah, and Stine reveals that she is a Goosebumps character he created to cope with his loneliness, of which she is seemingly unaware. Stine finds the typewriter and starts writing a new story based on the events around them, while Zach leads the students in fending off all the released monsters that are storming the building. Slappy confronts Stine and breaks his fingers with the typewriter case before the story is finished.

Stine, Zach, Champ and Hannah board a school bus and go to an abandoned amusement park. There, Slappy lets out the blob from The Blob that Ate Everyone. Stine then hands the book and typewriter to Zach, and distracts the blob by allowing it to devour him alive. Zach finishes the story, but is reluctant to open the book because Hannah will also be sucked inside it. Revealing she knew the truth about herself all along, Hannah opens the book, sucking Slappy and all the other monsters into it; she bids farewell to Zach with a kiss before she is also sucked in.

Sometime later, Stine has started working as Zach's English teacher. After class, Zach is surprised and delighted to see that Hannah is there and Stine reveals to Zach that he wrote her back into existence with another book. She and Zach kiss and leave school together while Stine burns Hannah's manuscript, making her permanently real. As he prepares to leave the school, he sees the typewriter typing by itself inside its display case. To Stine's horror, the invisible boy has evaded imprisonment and begins writing a story titled The Invisible Boy's Revenge.

Cast

Jack Black, Odeya Rush, and Dylan Minnette starred in the film.

E. Roger Mitchell cameos in the photograph of Zach's father as the unnamed Mayor of Madison.[19]

Production

Development

The first attempt at a Goosebumps film, in 1998, was set to be produced by Tim Burton. Chris Meledandri, the president of Fox Family Films at the time, said, "I think you'll see us tackling a scale of story that would be prohibitive to do on the small screen".[20] However, the film did not materialize since they could not find a script they liked or determine which book or monster to adapt.[21] In 2008, Columbia Pictures acquired rights to create a Goosebumps film.[22] Neal Moritz and Deborah Forte, the latter of whom had previously worked on the TV series, were chosen to produce the film.[23] Screenwriting team Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski were hired as screenwriters,[24] and wrote the original script for the film. The duo decided against adapting any one book in the series, feeling the individual books in the series were too short. Thinking of ways to create a universe where all the creatures in the books could live together, they elected to do a fake biographical film where R. L. Stine writes a book and the monsters within it become real.[25] In 2010, Carl Ellsworth was chosen to write the screenplay.[26] On January 14, 2012, it was reported that a new draft of the screenplay would be written by Darren Lemke; Lemke co-wrote the screenplays for Shrek Forever After and Bryan Singer's Jack the Giant Slayer.[27] In November 2012, Stine expressed pessimism about the prospect of the film, saying that he would believe that a film can be based on his Goosebumps series when he sees it. He mentioned Where the Wild Things Are being adapted into a film almost 50 years after publication.[28]

Casting

Jack Black "fighting" monsters at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International.
The film marks the third collaboration between Jack Black and director Rob Letterman, who previously worked together on Shark Tale and Gulliver's Travels

In September 2013, it was reported that Jack Black was in talks to "play a Stine-like author whose scary characters literally leap off the page, forcing him to hide from his own creepy creations".[29] Black stated that he tried to make the character "more of a sort of curmudgeonly dark, brooding beast master". He also said that he attempted to approach this film the same way he does others, trying to "make it as funny as possible".[30] Black met with R. L. Stine to get his consent for the film, but determined that his character could not be too similar to the real one; Black explained that he needed the character to be more sinister.[31] Rob Letterman was chosen as the director, reuniting him with Black, after working together on Shark Tale and Gulliver's Travels.[29]

It was announced in February 2014 that Dylan Minnette had been cast as Zach Cooper,[32] and Odeya Rush as Stine-like author's daughter, Hannah.[7] On February 26, 2014, it was announced that the film would be released on March 23, 2016.[33][34] On April 4, 2014, it was announced that Amy Ryan and Jillian Bell had joined the cast as Cooper's mother and aunt respectively.[12] On April 10, 2014, Ken Marino joined the cast as Coach Carr.[15] On April 28, 2014, Halston Sage joined the cast.[14] On May 1, 2014, the film's release date was moved up to August 7, 2015.[35] Stine stated on May 20, 2014 that he was going to make a cameo appearance in the film.[18]

Some monsters due for an appearance in the film were cut for budgetary reasons, but Letterman stated that the crew tried to choose the monsters most appropriate to the story. Letterman also stated that he tried to combine both humor and horror in the film, commenting that "[t]he books themselves are legitimately scary, but they’re legitimately funny, and we try to capture that".[31] In November 2014, the release date was moved back to April 15, 2016.[36] In January 2015, the release date was pushed forward to October 16, 2015.[37][38]

Filming

In mid-April 2014, a crew of six spent three days gathering visual data for the film in downtown Madison, Georgia. The crew used a theodolite to collect points in three-dimensional space to complete a detailed survey of the city. The visual data was used to create a CGI background of the downtown.[39] Neal Moritz and Rob Letterman stated that Madison was their first choice for the film after scouting the city.[40] Principal photography on the film began on April 23, 2014 in Candler Park in Atlanta;[41] they were also set to shoot the film in Conyers and Madison.[7] On May 19, filming was taking place in the streets of Madison,[42] with 480 Goosebumps crew members working in Madison and Morgan County.[40] Principal photography ended on July 16, 2014.[43] A stretch of Dawsonville Highway in Georgia was intermittently closed to film a car travelling up and down multiple bridges for the film.[44]

Music

The soundtrack for the film, featuring original music composed by Danny Elfman, was released on CD on October 23, 2015, by Sony Classical Records. The digital version was released by Madison Gate Records the week before.[45]

Release

Premiere

Goosebumps had its world premiere screening on June 24, 2015, at the CineEurope film distributors' trade fair in Barcelona, Spain, where the film was presented by Black on stage.[46]

Home media

Goosebumps was released on Blu-ray (2D and 3D) and DVD on January 26, 2016 where it includes deleted scenes, a blooper reel, interviews with the cast and crew, an alternate opening, an alternate ending, and a featurette about Slappy.[47]

Reception

Box office

As of April 6, 2016, Goosebumps has grossed $80.1 million in North America and $76.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $156.7 million, against a budget of $58 million.[4]

In the United States and Canada, pre-release trackings indicated the film would open to between $20–31 million at 3,501 theaters. However, Sony was more conservative, and projected the film to take between $12–15 million.[48][49][50] The film opened on October 16, 2015 alongside Bridge of Spies, Crimson Peak, and Woodlawn, however box office pundits noted that it did not face serious competition except for The Martian, which was entering its third week.[2] It made $600,000 from its early Thursday night screenings at 2,567 theaters, and $7.4 million on its opening day.[51][52] In its opening weekend the film grossed $23.5 million, beating studio projections and finishing first at the box office. It marked the fourth Sony film to reign at the top of the box office during the fall. Previously the studio scored No. 1 spots over the last seven weeks with War Room, The Perfect Guy and Hotel Transylvania 2.[53][54] Families represented the largest demographics with 60%, followed by under 25 with 59% and male/female ratio was split evenly at 50/50.[53]

Outside North America, Goosebumps will be released in a total of 66 countries.[55] Mexico has so far represented its largest opening as well as the biggest market in terms of total earnings with $7.1 million followed by Australia ($6.3 million) and the United Kingdom and Ireland ($6 million).[55][56] It opened at No. 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($3.9 million). In the United Kingdom preview takings helped Goosebumps top the box office ahead of the more heavily hyped Dad's Army.[57] In Russia, it opened at No. 2 behind In the Heart of the Sea with $1.27 million.[58] Furthermore, it opened in France with $1 million.[56]

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 77%, based on 138 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Goosebumps boasts more than enough of its spooky source material's kid-friendly charm to make up for some slightly scattershot humor and a hurried pace".[59] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[60] On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[61]

Kevin P. Sullivan of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B rating, citing at the end of his review: "Nothing about Goosebumps is revolutionary—at a certain point you may realize that it’s as if Nickelodeon produced Cabin in the Woods—but it’s a never-boring trip to a world, where stories and imagination are powerful tools, that just might inspire kids to do the scariest thing of all: pick up a book".[62]

Accolades

Award Category Recipient Result
Las Vegas Film Critics Society[63] Best Family Film Nominated
Visual Effects Society Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project Jason Schugardt, Mike Wigart, Alex Harding, Daniel Mars Nominated
Saturn Awards Best Fantasy Film Pending

Sequel

On September 2, 2015, it was reported that a sequel was in the planning stages, with Sony looking for a screenwriter.[64]

References

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External links

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