Beloved Horror Book Series Adaptation Heads To Netflix
If you grew up in the late 1990s or early 2000s like me, you may recall spending endless hours collecting, reading, and trading volumes upon volumes of books within the Goosebumps series, penned by one Ohio novelist named R.L. Stine. The books, which have sold hundreds of millions of copies all over the globe, have resulted in numerous adaptations, including a pair of television shows, as well as a couple of feature-length films. According to What’s On Netflix, the 2015 Goosebumps movie, starring Jack Black, is on pace to join Netflix as of November 1.
Goosebumps Is Coming To Netflix
For those of you who have never seen 2015’s Goosebumps, the latest Netflix addition centers on a pair of teenagers named Zach Cooper and Hannah Stine, who become fast friends after Zach moves into the small Delaware suburb.
Though Hannah’s overprotective father insists that she not go outside and have any fun with Zach, the teens share a flurry of adventures, including a day at an abandoned amusement park. Before long, Zach finds himself in the massive library of Hannah’s home, where he opens a locked manuscript containing volumes of bizarre monsters.
Much to Zach’s shock, the monsters outlined in the scripts begin to materialize into the real world, prompting him, Hannah, and Hannah’s curmudgeonly father to chase them down and trap them back within the pages. During this chase, the father reveals himself to be R.L. Stine, the mentally disturbed genius responsible for crafting the book of goblins, ghouls, and one particularly obnoxious living dummy.
As the narrative of Goosebumps continues building to a thrilling conclusion, the Netflix film offers big laughs, shocking special effects, and plenty of excellent homages to the original books.
Making The Film
Long before Goosebumps was picked up by Netflix, the film was conceived by producers Neal Moritz and Deborah Forte. The duo, who previously worked on a 1990s television iteration of Goosebumps together, felt that no one novel in the series could be properly adapted into a feature film, and instead decided to structure the movie as a fictional biopic of the author and his many creations.
Filmmaker Rob Letterman was selected as the director for the project based on a recommendation from Jack Black, who had previously worked with the director on such films as Shark Tale and Gulliver’s Travels.
A number of talented performers appear in the Goosebumps Netflix movie alongside Jack Black, including Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Jillian Bell, Keith Arthur Bolden, Timothy Simons, Ken Marino, and The Office‘s Amy Ryan. The real-life R.L. Stine even makes a cameo appearance in the film, portraying a music teacher humorously named Jack Black. The film rapidly became a massive box office success, bringing in over $150 million against an estimated production budget of just $58 million.
Critical Reception
REVIEW SCORE
Reviews for Goosebumps were mixed but mostly positive upon release, resulting in the Netflix film touting a solid 78 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes today. Personally, I think the movie is perfectly serviceable for general audiences, though I’ve always felt that its attempt at cramming numerous book plot lines and characters into a single film detracts slightly from the quality of the original works.
While the 2015 film may not specifically appeal to all of my tastes, I can mostly attribute this to the nostalgia factor and deep attachment that I have to the original book series.
Those looking to check out Goosebumps can enjoy the film on Netflix on November 1.
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