Goosebumps: the movie

Just speculation on my part. If I were writing a Goosebumps adaptation, I would DEFINATLY find what the audience of those books would expect out of the film and then twist it just enough that they get an unexpected surprise, but its still enjoyable and within the general tone of the usual Goosebumps fare.

Making the Love Interest Girl into the primary antagonist would be a decent enough decision. Suddenly turning her into an all out psychopath, potentially with the author/creator of all the monsters under her thumb, would be just up the Goosebumps way of last second plot twists and typically doing so with one of the primary protagonists that you just think 'Nah, they wouldn't/can't do that!'.

I swear, I need to get into script writing.

Or the Masked Mutant is behind it all and kills Slappy for outliving his usefulness, ala R'as al Ghul and Hugo Strange.

Saw the trailer in front of Ant-Man today.

This looks so much better than I thought.

Ink Dagger, PM me and we'll talk about screenwriting pursuits.

Anyways, I saw the trailer in front of Minions and I can't say I'm terribly excited for this. It feels like they just crammed all the creatures from the books together without knowing what the appeal of the series was in the first place. Oh, and they're trying to make Jack Black relevant again.

Well, those are two things that are wrong...

It's sad to think that Jack black was ever relevant. (sigh)

,Aw come on. JB's totally relevant. OK maybe not currently since I can't name anything else the guys been in in a while beyond the Kung Fu Panda movies, Muppets, and Brutal Legend.

I didn't realize Jack Black had stopped being relevant at all yet.

It's not that he's irrelevant, it's that his family movies are shit.

I'm not expecting this to be great, but it might be turn-your-brain-off fun.

My main qualm here is that it seems more like an adventure film not horror.

The books and show weren't always scary but at least they tried to be.

After watching the trailer, hopefully it won't go too much into Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed territory in adapting the books.

. . . Okay, it kind of doing that plot line. But hopefully the tone of the movie won't go to first Scooby-Doo territory where it can't decide whether it is a nostalgic throwback to series or a deconstructive parody.

. . . . . . Okay, that might happen. Well at least I can see all the classic monsters from the books come to life in a manor that can't be done in the tv show with Jack Black impersonating the creator of Goosebumps.

edited 30th Jul '15 11:44:28 AM by BigK1337

I'm kind of wondering of all people to choose for RL Stine, why Jack Black? He seems more suited for a comic relief role then the author of Goosebumps.

I mean, he was pretty damn good in King Kong 2005.

Agreed. That was really the only role of his that I didn't find groan inducing and cringe-worthy.

Sure.

Hopefully he'll do a good job portraying him.

edited 30th Jul '15 1:29:53 PM by ScottPilgrim2013

He seems alright going by the trailer.

From what I know of RL Stine, I would've picked Ben Stein.

Going by the trailer, he's pretty much the same character he played in King Kong.

Only he's an author instead of a director.

Well, just found out about this movie and saw the trailer. I... don't know what to think.

For starter, as a big reader of these books, I would like to clarify: this movie doesn't look faithful. Goosebumps WAS goofy at times, and definitely more comical and kid-friendly than things like a Slasher Movie or... really, any horror movie, but it was still horror. It had some disturbing parts that really did scare me as a kid (granted I was rather easily frightened as a kid, but still). This looks really more like a straight comedy I would have never found scary even back then. So yeah... I don't think it follows the books.

Buuut that doesn't necessarly mean it'll be bad. It could still come up as an enjoyable horror comedy.

Basically what I said.

I know. Just wanted to clarify that I agreed.

Bite your tongue. Kung Fu Panda was the shiz.

In regards to the premise, I have a few questions. First of all, R.L. Stine has written a TON of stuff. When he says "you've released every monster I've ever created," does he mean EVERY monster, or just the monsters from the original Goosebumps line? Furthermore, not all of the monsters in the Goosebumps books were bad. Some of them tried to help the protagonist, and in some cases the protagonist turned into a monster at the end, or they were revealed to be monsters the whole time. Are they included?

Also, what does this movie define as a "monster"? Some of the Goosebumps villains are humans with magical powers, like Sarabeth from Monster Blood or El Sidney from Bad Hare Day. Do they get free, or is it only non-humans?

And is there a limit as to how many monsters per book can escape? I'm inclined to say "no," since we see an army of lawn gnomes in the trailer. But this makes things really complicated when you consider that some of the Goosebumps books show us (or at least imply) entire populations of monsters. "Calling All Creeps" ends with the entire school turning into creeps. Do all of them get free, or is it just the three or four that started it all? To make matters worse, "The Blob That Ate Everyone" ends with the reveal that the entire story was written by a couple of blob monsters, which implies that they live in some alternate universe populated by blob monsters. Does every blob monster in the neighborhood get free, or just the two we see?

And what about accessories or items that turn people INTO monsters? Will we see the Werewolf Skin or the Haunted Mask lying around somewhere, doing nothing?

Could be either one of those lines that's in the trailer to help sell the concept but doesn't actually make it to the movie, or we could be hearing it out of context or as something that's a frustrated statement of over-exaggeration.

And considering some monsters pass as human, like Keith - well, until he shows his Game Face - and I gotta wonder how they'd handle King Jellyjam.

Given the caliber of some of Stein's villains, either through intention or Fridge Horror, the situation in universe could be really dangerous.

Alternatively, it could be one of those universes where Goosebumps is actually the only thing that RL Stein has actually written.