Goosebumps (film)

Goosebumps is a 2015 American fantasy computer-animated live-action horror comedy film directed by Rob Letterman, based on the best-selling children's book series with the same name by author, R.L. Stine. The film stars Jack Black as R.L. Stine, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Amy Ryan, Halston Sage, and Jillian Bell. The film was released in theaters on October 16, 2015 by Columbia Pictures. The film has received mostly positive reviews by critics, and was a hit at the box office. The DVD was released in the United States on January 12, while the Blu-Ray was released on January 26, 2016.

Plot
After moving into a small town of Greenland, Maryland, a teenage boy named Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) meets Hannah (Odeya Rush), his new neighbor. Hannah's father, R.L. Stine (Jack Black), who writes the Goosebumps stories, keeps all the ghosts and monsters in the series locked up in his books. When Zach unintentionally releases the ghouls and the monsters from the storybooks, Zach, Hannah, and Stine team up in order to put the monsters back where they came from, before it's too late.

Full Synopsis
Teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) and his mother Gale (Amy Ryan) move from New York to the small town of Madison, Delaware. His new neighbor is a girl named Hannah (Odeya Rush), they introduces themselves to each other, then her father Mr. Shivers (Jack Black) tells Zach to stay away from them. That night, he watches a video of him and his dad playing baseball, Zach's dad died last year.

The next day, Gale gets a job as the vice-principal at the high school, Zach is a student there himself, the day skips to an after school assembly, where Gale tells everyone about tomorrows fall dance, a boy named Champ (Ryan Lee) sits next to Zach and befriends him.

That night, Zach takes out the garbage, then Hannah says hi, they go to an abandoned amusement park, and climb to the top of the Ferris wheel, they talk to each other for a while, and Zach is happy that he found a friend, and he may like Hannah more than a friend. When they arrived home, Shivers warns Zach again to stay away from them.

On the very next night while Zach is doing his math homework, he sees Hannah and Shivers arguing in the window, followed by Hannah screaming, he rushes over to make sure she's okay, but Shivers tells Zach that there was no scream. Zach calls the police and Officer Stevens (Timothy Simons) and Brooks (Amanda Lund) arrive at Shivers's door, he explains that Hannah went back home with her mom in London, and the scream was from a horror movie that he was watching on his HDTV which has surround sound. After the police officers tell Zach the pitfalls of wasting the police's time, Gale reprimands Zach and tells him to go home. When Gale leaves to chaperon the dance, she asks her sister Lorraine (Jillian Bell) to watch Zach.

Later Zach sees Hannah in the window, he tells Lorraine that he's going to bed, but he's actually going to sneak in Shivers' house. He calls him pretending to be a cop and asks him to come to the station for further questioning. Zach meets up with Champ, who goes with him in Shivers house, when they make it to the office upstairs, they see a bookshelf full of manuscripts, each one is titled a book in the Goosebumps book series, Champ grabs the one titled, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena and Zach unlocks it. Hannah comes in the room, wondering why they're there, Zach explains the situation, and grabs the book by the cover. a real Abominable Snowman pops out of the pages, then leaves the house, knocking the other manuscripts to the ground, the one titled, Night of the Living Dummy is unlocked as well.

Zach, Hannah, and Champ follow the Abominable Snowman to a local ice rink, where it attacks them, luckily, Shivers sucks it back into its book. On the way home, Zach realizes that Shivers is actually R.L. Stine, the author of Goosebumps. Stine tells Hannah to start packing, but Hannah doesn't want to move since she's grown attached to Zach. Stine explains to the kids what's going on. He says that when he was a kid, he had terrible allergies that kept him indoors. The other kids would make fun of him, so he created his own friends, monsters, demons, ghouls. They all became real and unstable, so Stine wrote the Goosebumps series to lock them up and made a harmless copy to sell around the world making him a famous author. While picking up the books, one is missing. Sitting in the chair is Slappy the Dummy (voiced by Black) from Night of the Living Dummy who was angry about being imprisoned. He burns his manuscript, and flees the house with the others, he opens the book The Haunted Car that releases the titular car and then releases the Lawn Gnomes from Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes. Zach, Hannah, R.L. Stine, and Champ battle them, but the gnomes come back together, so they escape from the gnomes, and began to search for Slappy.

Slappy begins rampaging through Madison with the Haunted Car and opens Stay Out of the Basement releasing the Mutant Plants which destroys the telephone towers. Then he opens six more books and troughs them in different locations. The Body Squeezers from Invasion of the Body Squeezers: Part One and Part Two freeze Officer Stevens, Officer Brooks, and the entire Madison Police Department. Fifi the Vampire Poodle from Please Don't Feed the Vampire! attacks Lorraine. While looking for Slappy, Zach tells Stine that maybe they would capture the monsters if Stine wrote one more book, Stine says he can only do it with his special typewriter, which is at the high school on display, while driving to the school, they get attacked by Brent Green (also voiced by Black), the Invisible Boy from My Best Friend is Invisible, and then The Giant Praying Mantis from A Shocker on Shock Street. Will Blake's werewolf form from The Werewolf of Fever Swamp follows them into the grocery store. Luckily, Lorraine hits the werewolf with her car where she's covered in poodle fur after escaping from Fifi. Zach tells her to get help. Lorraine goes to the police station where she gets frozen by the Body Squeezers.

R.L. Stine, Zach, Hannah, and Champ cut through a cemetery, where Zach sees Hannah glowing ghostly blue in the moonlight, revealing her to be a ghost. Before he questions Hannah, the four get chased by the Graveyard Ghouls from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls. They barley escape and make it to the high school, Stine grabs the typewriter and goes to the auditorium to finish the story, while Zach, Hannah, and Champ warn everyone.

Outside on the football field, Slappy and the Lawn Gnomes release almost every monster in the "Goosebumps" series including Murder the Clown, Carly Beth Caldwell's Haunted Mask form, the Bog Monster, the Scarecrows, the Creeps, the Mummy of Prince Kho-Ru, Nila Rahmad, Madame Doom, the Pumpkinhead, and many more. Slappy tells them that the only way they'll be free forever, is if they kill R.L. Stine.

Zach warns the students about the monsters. At first, they don't believe him, but they finally do when the giant praying mantis takes the student closet to the window. Zach tells them that they have to barricade the school. In the library, Zach battles the Bees from Why I'm Afraid of Bees and the rest of the monsters get in the school with the help of the Annihilator 3000s from Toy Terror: Batteries Included in the hallway. Taylor (Halston Sage) and Davidson (Steven Kruger) are attacked by the werewolf. Davidson abandons her, but then Champ saves Taylor from the werewolf by biting it with his silver teeth fillings. Taylor repays Champ by becoming his new girlfriend.

In the auditorium, Slappy breaks Stine's fingers, preventing Stine from finishing the story as the students run from the monsters, Hannah starts glowing again, Zach privately questions Stine about this and he tells Zach that Hannah is not real, but a Goosebumps character created after his wife left him, most likely Hannah from The Ghost Next Door. Zach, Hannah, R.L. Stine, and Champ leave Madison High on a school bus, and the monsters follow, now the students and staff are safe, the mantis knocks the bus over, and the Werewolf and the Abominable Snowman open the door, but Stine isn't driving, it's a tackle dummy, Stine and the kids are on a different bus.

They go to the abandoned amusement park, and Stine tells Zach what to write, but then Slappy finds them since the werewolf tracked their scent, and Slappy opens the book titled The Blob That Ate Everyone. Once the Blob came to life, it devoured the fun house, Stine tells the kids to finish the story while he distracts the monsters. The Blob swallows Stine, but he's still alive as Slappy watches and laughs. Zach, Hannah, and Champ climb the Ferris Wheel avoiding the monster army below. Zach finished the story and put it in a leather bound manuscript. the mantis chews the bolts, causing the wheel to roll down the hill and crash as they survive. As Zach was about to open the book, he realized that if he did, Hannah will be sucked in too. Hannah tells Zach that she knew she wasn't real and she opens the book herself. All of the monsters are then sucked back to the book one by one. When the Blob gets sucked in the book, he spits R.L. Stine out. Slappy then begins to strangle Stine only for Stine to kick Slappy into the vortex. Slappy vanishes saying "See you in your dreams!" As Zach holds on to Hannah, she accepts her fate. Zach and Hannah kiss, then she lets go of him. Hannah was sucked in the book as well, and Champ closes the book.

Some time later, Madison High School reopens and Stine gets a job as the new English teacher as well as him dating Lorraine. Zach and Champ have Stine's class the last period of the day and he gives them his first lesson. After class, Zach walks with Stine in the hallway. The drama teacher Mr. Black (R.L. Stine) says hi to Stine and he says hi back. Zach asks Stine if he misses Hannah. Then Hannah appears in the hallway. Stine told Zach that he wrote her back into existence with another book. He sets her book on fire and puts it in the trash. Zach and Hannah kiss and leave school holding hands. Stine just stares at them and smiles. A few minutes later, Stine grabs his suitcase and is about to leave school himself, but then sees the typewriter typing "The Invisible Boy's Revenge". It turned out that Brent Green had evaded capture as he quotes "You forgot about me!" Stine screams in horror as Brent's hand print appears on the cabinet glass while Brent maniacally laughs.

Alternate Opening
The film was originally going to start this way:

Two movers (Kumail Nanjiani and Luka Jones) are packing a house, they put the boxes in the moving truck. One of them accidentally drops a box. The Goosebumps manuscripts appear inside, and the Night of the Living Dummy manuscript's lock breaks. As they drive, one of the movers begin talking about how a lady was flirting with him, then they hear a box fall over. The two movers check it out, and they see the books lying on the ground. Slappy the Dummy reveals himself, and one of the movers refer to him as a "Ventriloquist Dummy". Slappy gets offended and replies to them saying, "Who you calling Dummy? Dummy!" the two movers scream in terror as the trucks back door shuts on them.

Cast

 * Jack Black as R.L. Stine
 * Jack Black as the voices of Slappy the Dummy and Brent Green
 * Dylan Minnette as Zach Cooper
 * Odeya Rush as Hannah Stine
 * Avery L. Jones as Slappy the Dummy (puppeteer)
 * Amy Ryan as Gale Cooper
 * Ryan Lee as Champ
 * Ken Marino as Coach Carr
 * Jillian Bell as Lorraine Conyers
 * Halston Sage as Taylor
 * Steven Krueger as Davidson
 * Timothy Simons as Officer Stevens
 * Amanda Lund as Officer Brooks
 * R.L. Stine as Mr. Black (credited as Hallway Player)
 * Nate Andrade as Bog Monster (credited as Monster #1)
 * Melissa Brewer as Monster #2
 * Sheldon Brown as Monster #3
 * Marshall Choka as Murder the Clown (credited as Monster #4)
 * Melissa Cowan as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #5)
 * John Deifer as Professor Shock (credited as Monster #6)
 * Everett Dixon as Monster #7
 * Brian Gabriel as Monster #8
 * Kevin Galbraith as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #9)
 * Maryann Gorka as Female Vampire (possibly Countess Yvonne, credited as Monster #10)
 * Clare Halstead as Carly Beth Caldwell, wearing The Haunted Mask (credited as Monster #11)
 * Devin Hampton as Monster #12
 * Rory Healy as Count Nightwing (credited as Monster #13)
 * Vivian Kyle as Snake Lady (credited as Monster #14)
 * Drew Lamkins as The Lord High Executioner (credited as Monster #15)
 * Charlie Leach as Monster #16
 * Katie Lumpkin as Creep (credited as Monster #17)
 * Larry Mainland as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #18)
 * Lucky Mangione as Creep (credited as Monster #19)
 * Justin Natic as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #20)
 * Josh Phillips as Cronby (credited as Monster #21)
 * Mickie Pollock as Madame Doom (credited as Monster #22)
 * Steve Quinn as Captain Long Ben One-Leg (credited as Monster #23)
 * Ashley Jo Sizemore as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #24)
 * Jeff Tenney as Monster #25
 * Jennifer Trudrung as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #26)
 * Ashton Lee Wolden as Monster #27
 * Coleman Youmans as Graveyard Ghoul (credited as Monster #28)
 * John Bernecker as Werewolf (uncredited)
 * John Herndon as Scarecrow (uncredited)
 * Luka Jones as Mover #2 (alternate opening)
 * E. Roger Mitchell as Mayor of Madison (uncredited)
 * Kumail Nanjiani as Mover #1 (alternate opening)
 * Benjamin Papac as Seth (uncredited)
 * Nick Stanner as a Pumpkinhead (uncredited)

Monsters and Villains
The following monsters and villains appear in this film:


 * Slappy the Dummy from the Night of the Living Dummy saga
 * Carly Beth wearing the Haunted Mask from The Haunted Mask
 * Hannah Fairchild from The Ghost Next Door
 * The Abominable Snowman from The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena
 * Will Blake in Werewolf form from The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
 * The Lawn Gnomes from Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes
 * A Giant Praying Mantis from A Shocker on Shock Street
 * Madame Doom from Help! We Have Strange Powers!
 * Captain Long Ben One-Leg from Creep from the Deep
 * The Scarecrows from The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight
 * The Graveyard Ghouls from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls
 * The Creeps from Calling All Creeps!
 * Count Nightwing and other Vampires from Vampire Breath
 * The Swamp Monster from How to Kill a Monster (referred to as the Bog Monster in the movie and accidentally identified as a Mud Monster from You Can't Scare Me! in the Goosebumps Activity book Slappy's Revenge and the Monster Survival Guide)
 * The Lord High Executioner from A Night in Terror Tower
 * The Mummy of Prince Khor-Ru and Nila Rahmad from Return of the Mummy
 * A Pumpkinhead from Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns
 * Murder the Clown from A Nightmare on Clown Street
 * Professor Shock from The Creepy Creations of Professor Shock
 * A Muglani Witch Doctor and Cronby the Troll from Deep in the Jungle of Doom
 * The Body Squeezers from Invasion of the Body Squeezers: Part One and Part Two (referred to as the Bug-Eyed Aliens in the movie)
 * The Snake Lady from Escape from the Carnival of Horrors
 * Clarissa from Be Careful What You Wish For...
 * Fifi the Vampire Poodle from Please Don't Feed the Vampire!
 * Brent Green from My Best Friend Is Invisible  (referred to as the Invisible Boy in the movie)
 * Mutant Plants from Stay Out of the Basement
 * The Haunted Car from the book of the same name
 * The Annihilator 3000s from Toy Terror: Batteries Included
 * The Blob from The Blob That Ate Everyone
 * The Bees from Why I'm Afraid of Bees
 * The Cuckoo Clock from The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (seen as a decoration in Stine's basement)
 * The Shrunken Head of Baladora from How I Got My Shrunken Head (it appears on the Muglani's staff)DWdjN4u.png

Scrapped Monsters
These monsters were originally going to appear in the film, but were cut out:


 * Monster Blood from the book of the same name (though the title is mentioned)
 * Sabre from Welcome to Camp Nightmare (though the title is seen on Stine's bookshelf)
 * Cuddles the Hamster from Monster Blood II.
 * The Masked Mutant from Attack of the Mutant (though the title is seen on Stine's bookshelf)
 * Ghosts from Ghost Camp (they do appear in the movie novel)
 * Bell Valley students from The Haunted School.
 * Gargoyle from I'm Telling! (it does appear in the movie novel)
 * A centipede tattoo from Attack of the Tattoo.

Box Office
As of February 28, 2016, the film has grossed $80 million in North America, and $75 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $155 million, against a budget of $58 million, making the film a box office success.

Trivia

 * The movie was originally going to be released on August 7, 2015, but was pushed back to April 15, 2016, then once more to October 16, 2015, most likely to fit the Halloween spirit, or make it close to the 20th anniversary of the TV adaptation of The Haunted Mask.
 * Tim Burton was originally going to produce the film in 1998 and was attached to it. However, the project fell through.
 * This movie marks the first theatrical debut of several characters in the series:
 * The Giant Praying Mantises never appeared in the television version of A Shocker on Shock Street.
 * The books starring the Abominable Snowman, The Body Squeezers, The Graveyard Ghouls, The Haunted Car, the Snake Lady, the Muglani and Cronby the Troll, Professor Shock, Fifi the Vampire Poodle, The Annihilator 3000, and The Bees, were never made into episodes. Most of those monsters all came in Give Yourself Goosebumps, while the rest, excluding the Abominable Snowman and Bees, were in Goosebumps Series 2000.
 * Captain Long Ben One-Leg, Madame Doom, and Murder the Clown never appeared on TV considering the television series was made long before their releases, because their books were from Goosebumps HorrorLand and Goosebumps Most Wanted.
 * The titles The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, The Ghost Next Door, Night of the Living Dummy, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, Monster Blood, Go Eat Worms!, and Little Shop of Hamsters are mentioned.
 * You might say that The Werewolf of Fever Swamp and The Blob That Ate Everyone are mentioned titles as well, but Stine is referring to Will Blake and The Blob as the names of their titles.
 * The titles Chicken Chicken, Under the Magician's Spell, The Mummy Walks, Weirdo Halloween, Zombie School, Welcome to Camp Nightmare, Night of the Living Dummy, The Haunted Car, Creature Teacher, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, You Can't Scare Me!, Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter, Deep Trouble, Return of the Mummy, Planet of the Lawn Gnomes, Revenge of the Living Dummy, Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life, Checkout Time at the Dead-End Hotel, Say Cheese and Die!, Attack of the Mutant, Beware, the Snowman, Attack of the Beastly Babysitter, Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, Let's Get Invisible, Toy Terror: Batteries Included, Escape from the Carnival of Horrors, The Horror at Camp Jellyjam, Stay Out of the Basement and Monster Blood for Breakfast are seen in the bookshelf.
 * The movie plot is similar to the plot of The Blob That Ate Everyone, in that monsters created by a writer with a magic typewriter come to life. Incidentally, The Blob serves as Slappy's secret weapon.
 * Goosebumps: The Game and the mobile title Night of Scares were released as a tie in to the film.
 * References to Stephen King and The Shining are made in the movie. There are also references to Gollum, a character from The Lord of the Rings, Frosty the Snowman, the classic 1950's Blob movie, and Steve McQueen.
 * Although the movie is a family film, it has hidden inappropriate material, for example, Gale mentions Twerking, which is dancing sexually, Zach says ,"What the Hell man!" and the angle statue that grabs Hannah, if you look closely, you can see the angle statues breasts.
 * Slappy the Dummy and The Invisible Boy are the only monsters who actually talk in the movie. They are both voiced by Jack Black.
 * Hannah Fairchild and Carly Beth Caldwell, despite being in the Haunted Mask's control, are the only protagonists of the book series to appear in the movie. Although it could be possible that one of The Creeps was Ricky Beamer, considering that he became one at the end of Calling All Creeps!.
 * This is the first Goosebumps story with a love story in it.
 * The end credits feature many of the different Goosebumps covers including Welcome to Dead House, Ghost Beach, Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, A Shocker on Shock Street, Lost in Stinkeye Swamp, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, Attack of the Jack O'Lanterns, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena and Night of the Living Dummy (in that order). The Graveyard Ghouls from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls and the skeleton cook on the cover of Say Cheese and Die! are seen during Welcome to Dead House's animation, and during A Shocker on Shock Street's animation, there's a street sign that says, "The Reality Police Department" referencing the villains from Don't Go to Sleep!.
 * A sequel has been planned by Sony in 2019.
 * The most seen monsters in the film are Slappy the Dummy, Will Blake, the Lawn Gnomes, the Giant Praying Mantis, and The Abominable Snowman.
 * Many books were made as tie ins to the film like The Goosebumps Movie Novel, Night of the Living Monsters, Goosebumps Activity book, Slappy's Revenge, and the Monster Survival Guide. Stine mentions the title, 'Slappy's Revenge' at one point in the movie.
 * A Goosebumps Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released for the film, with music by Danny Elfman, who did the score for the film.

DVD
The movie's DVD and Blu-ray release date was released on January 26, 2016. The digital download was released on January 12, 2016. The movie has a total of nine special features on the blu-ray version:
 * 1) Beginner's guide to surviving a Goosebumps creature- in this special feature, Zach and Champ show us how to survive the following monsters: Lawn Gnomes, Will Blake, The Haunted Car, Abominable Snowman, and The Giant Praying Mantises.
 * 2) Strange things are happening... on set- During the filming of Goosebumps, Dylan Minnette recorded a video diary, and he shows us the strange videos in this feature.
 * 3) Alternate opening- The film's original start... starring Slappy.
 * 4) Alternate ending- On R.L. Stine's website, he said that this ending was cut because everyone hated it, so they changed it.
 * 5) Deleted scenes- scenes that were cut out. Including R.L. Stine going to the police station, and more.
 * 6) Blooper reel- This feature shows all of the hilarious mistakes that the cast and crew made during filming.
 * 7) Casting gallery- This feature shows screen testing from Jack Black, Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, and Ryan Lee.
 * 8) All about Slappy- Slappy the Dummy tells us how the crew made him for the film, R.L. Stine's thoughts on him, as well as his books, and how much Slappy loved playing in the film.
 * 9) Creaturefield!- Two of the FX creators for the monsters, Steve Prounty and Fiona Cursh, show us how to make ourselves into our favorite monster's, they show us how to make fake blood, and a realistic Mummy mask.
 * The DVD version only has the first two special features.
 * The Digital version has an extra special feature.
 * Goosebumps will also be released in a DVD 3-pack, with Zathura and Jumanji.

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