This family friendly scary monster movie is mild on the scariness and heavy on the humor with fun characters, funny scenes and an overall feel-good vibe. 

• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★
• Scare factor: ★☆☆☆☆
• Monster factor: ★★★★★
• Suitable for kids: 9 years and up

Goosebumps is a very entertaining spooky comedy for the whole family. With smooth special effects the monsters that R.L. Stine has conjured up in his books come to life to cause some havoc in the town of Madison. And of course the villain role is for Slappy. It’s a fun exciting adventure with some mild themes, very mild horror and a lot of comedy which results in a feel-good movie. 

Duration: 1h 43m

Plot 

After Zach’s father has died, he and his mother Gale move to Madison where her sister Lorraine lives. He befriends the girl-next-door Hannah but her father Mr. Shivers acts very hostile. When Zach hears him yell at her and hears her scream inside their house he calls the police but they believe Mr. Shivers when he says he’s all alone. 

To prove he is right he calls in the help of his new friend at school Champ. When Shivers drives away they break into the house and find a bookcase full of books that are locked. Hannah catches them as Zach opens one of the books The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena. When he does, a vortex appears and out crawls the real Abominable Snowman. After he caused some damage he jumps out of the window and accidentally unlocks another book Night of the Living Dead. Now Hannah is chasing the Snowman to put it back into the book. 

It turns out that Mr. Shivers is actually R.L. Stine and now that Slappy is freed all Stine’s monsters are set free from the books wreaking havoc in town. They must find a way to put them all back before things get really ugly.

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

After many Goosebumps books written by R.L. Stine and tv-series this film lets loose a whole bunch of familiar monsters. This results in a lot of chaos and an entertaining film full of campy humor. Just like the books and tv-series it’s very mild on the horror and more exciting than scary. What is different is that it isn’t scary at all, never really dire and it has a feel-good happy ending, while Stine’s books have often a darker tone and ending or ambiguous ending where the evil is still alive.

The characters certainly ad to the funny vibe. The two police officers are rather funny especially Officer Brooks who is a very enthusiastic rookie and she is cause for some laughs as is her senior Officer Stevens. Aunt Lorraine is also quite a character that offers some comic relief. And finally Champ is a rather quirky character who has some funny scenes. 

The humor is a big counterpart to the monsters, although some monsters are cause for some very funny scenes too. Like the attacks of the gnomes. They are not the only familiar monsters. There’s the giant praying mantis, aliens with freeze rayguns, a werewolf, the demonic poodle, flesh eating plants, the invisible boy, zombies and the blob. A clown, bugs and tiny robots also make their appearance. While they might seem scary, they all are cause for some good entertainment and fun scenes. Of course Slappy is the main villain with a sinister plan, who orchestrates all the havoc. He is also the main and most well-known evil character of the books,. The focus lies on the humor and comic relief instead of the scariness. Which I think works very well, although it doesn’t have that genuine Stine vibe.  

There are also some inside jokes about R.L. Stine’s competition with Stephen King about who sold more books. And when Stine has to write a new book to put all the monsters back in, he finds a quiet place that is the school theater where The Shining is staged. But the real R.L. Stine also makes his appearance at the end as the new drama teacher.  

Aside from the humor and monsters there’s also a small theme about not fitting in and struggling with grief. But those play a small part. It’s fully focused on the action, stopping Slappy, running from monsters and saving the town. Finally there’s also the twist. A sad and dramatic twist that eventually turns out okay and results in a happy end. 

Goosebumps is a very entertaining spooky story with monsters that is more comedy than scary and has the nostalgic feel of all the familiar monsters and stories R.L. Stine has written. 

Read more about Goosebumps & R.L. Stine’s Universe:

• Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018) review
• Goosebumps season 1 (2023) review
• R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead (2025) movie review
• The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (2007) movie review
• R.L. Stine’s Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls (2015)

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