By Joseph Burch - Staff Writer In an attempt to capture the minds of a new generation of children, director Rob Letterman brings to life a new and interesting take on the old R.L. Stine formula while still staying true to what made the children’s horror novellas enjoyable.

“Goosebumps” follows a teenager named Zach (Dylan Minnette) as he arrives in the town of Madison, Delaware with his mother Gale (Amy Ryan).

New in town, Zach befriends his adventurous and elusive next-door neighbor Hannah (Odeya Rush) whose strict father refuses to let her out of the house.

After hearing a scream come from inside her room, Zach breaks in with his friend Champ (Ryan Lee) to save Hannah.

While exploring the house, Zach and Champ stumble upon all of the original R.L. Stine “Goosebumps” manuscripts and of course they unlock them like any wise person would do.

But by opening the books, they accidentally free the monsters from the pages to create chaos in the town of Madison.

While the story of a new kid in town is no fresh or interesting tale, “Goosebumps” puts a creative spin on it by adding R.L. Stine (Jack Black) as a main character in the film.

This allows for some very fun tongue-in-cheek moments that fans of the writer and his books will definitely enjoy.

By not taking itself too seriously, “Goosebumps” becomes a very entertaining and pleasant children’s adventure film.

All of the actors nail their comedic timing and deliver some genuinely funny lines that work for audiences both young and old.

The screenplay, while funny, does fall into the usual cliches of a high school adventure story.

With the crazy aunt, an embarrassing vice principle mom and a goofy friend who eventually gets the girl, the “Goosebumps” screenplay isn’t all that original, but it knows this.

The movie makes fun of itself at times and at one point even explains to you the structure of an average R.L. Stine story.

This self-referential humor definitely makes up for its sometimes cliched and generic characters and plot.

The humor also works thanks to a likable cast. Black overacts consistently but he is still a highlight of the film.

The real standout is Lee as Champ. He gives a fun and relatable quality to the cowardly character coincidentally named Champion.

Dylan Minnette is able to carry both comedic and emotional scenes throughout the movie. Delivering another great performance in the film.

These performances are accented by another fantastic score by Danny Elfman, composer of films such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetlejuice” and 1989’s “Batman.”

When the music blares in on the opening scene, it feels like a mixture of a usual Tim Burton film score and the original “Goosebumps” television show theme.

The score helps to bring to life the peculiar world of R.L. Stine.

An issue that the movie does run into is its noticeably bad CGI. For a film that relies on its monsters, “Goosebumps” does not create believable ones.

The CGI looks worse as the film progresses which took me out of the experience on multiple occasions, hurting both tense and emotional moments.

While it isn’t close to the quality of CGI we’ve come to expect in modern movies, it doesn’t totally ruin the fun.

“Goosebumps” is a surprisingly decent and amusing family film that will have the audience laughing and even feeling nostalgic for the old stories.

It succeeds at being enjoyable for both adults and kids and hopefully it may even inspire some children to go out and read the original books.