‘Goosebumps’ monsters come to life in family adventure

CEBU, Philippines – Opposite Jack Black, the filmmakers of Columbia Pictures’ family comedy “Goosebumps” cast so many of author R.L. Stine’s famous monster creations. The film brings the Goosebumps book series to life on the big screen for the first time, starring Black as the famed writer.

Whenever possible, the filmmakers created a practical creature out of make-up and special effects. “Any monsters that we could do practically, we did,” says director Rob Letterman.

“There are a few that are CGI and some that are a hybrid of practical and CGI, but we knew that we wanted to get as much in camera as we could. I didn’t want the monsters to feel like a cartoon, or dumbed-down. I knew it would be great for the actors’ performance to have something real there, on the spot – and it really gives the movie this great feeling, as the magic of the books comes to life.”

Leading the way as the chief villain is Stine’s most lasting creation: Slappy the Dummy. In the film, Slappy is Stine’s alter ego and the mastermind behind the evil plot. The filmmakers reached out to Ironhead Studio to design and create a real, working ventriloquist’s dummy – one that resembles Jack Black in many ways.

Joining Slappy in the film are many of Stine’s other creations: The Ghouls from Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls, Snake Lady from Escape from the Carnival of Horrors, Bog Monster from You Can’t Scare Me!, Egyptian Princess from Return of the Mummy, Cronby the cave troll from Deep in the Jungle of Doom, The Evil Clown from When the Ghost Dog Howls, Vampires from Vampire Breath, The Witch Doctor from Deep in the Jungle of Doom, Madam Doom from Help! We Have Strange Powers!, The Executioner from A Night in Terror Tower, The Pirate from Creep from the Deep, The Creeps from Calling All Creeps, and The Haunted Mask from The Girl with the Haunted Mask.

Also appearing in the film are Scarecrows from The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight, Jack O’Lantern from Attack of the Jack O’Lanterns, The Mummy from Return of the Mummy, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, The Werewolf from Werewolf of Fever Swamp, The Gnomes from Revenge of the Gnomes, The Blob from The Blob That Ate Everyone, Toy Robots from Toy-Terror: Batteries Included, Bug-Eyed Aliens from Invasion of the Body Squeezers, Vampire Poodle from Please Don’t Feed the Vampire!, and the Praying Mantis from A Shocker on Shock Street.

Black says that he put in the work to make Stine a completely unique character. “I felt like the character needed to look and sound different than me – it couldn’t be like the dude from School of Rock’ is now the writer R.L. Stine,” he says. “It needed to be a character that I haven’t played before, someone with a little more gravitas, a respected writer. So, I worked on his voice, and I decided to give him a little bit of an Orson Wells-ian accent. Refined. I wanted him to be someone with a taste for the finer things.”

Naturally, Black’s character is nothing like the real R.L. Stine, who in real life is actually a jovial fellow. “I like to play characters, to get behind the façade,” says Black. “When I get into an accent, or a character who’s different from myself, it frees me up to do things I wouldn’t normally do – I get embarrassed saying certain lines or doing certain things if it feels like I’m doing it myself. Putting on a mask and a voice frees you up to express yourself better.”

In “Goosebumps,” teenager  Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette), upset about moving from a big city to a small town, finds a silver lining when he meets the beautiful girl, Hannah (Odeya Rush), living right next door, and makes a quick friend in Champ (Ryan Lee). But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach’s comes when he learns that Hannah’s mysterious dad is in fact R.L. Stine.

As Zach starts learning about the strange family next door, he soon discovers that Stine holds a dangerous secret: the creatures that his stories made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. When Stine’s creations are unintentionally released from their manuscripts, Zach’s life takes a turn for the weird. In a crazy night of adventure, it’s up to Zach, Hannah, Champ, and Stine to team up and get all of these figments of Stine’s imagination back in the books where they belong to save the town.

“Goosebumps” is opening across the Philippines tomorrow.