Let me say this first — “Goosebumps,” directed by Rob Letterman, is a B-movie through and through. The special effects are cheesy, the dramatic moments cheesier and the villain speaks exclusively in bad puns. But if audiences go into the film having read R. L. Stine’s books or watched the TV show, they already know that. With that disclaimer, “Goosebumps” is a surprisingly funny movie aimed at younger kids that is sure to be watched again and again in Halloweens to come.

The film follows highschooler Zach and his mom, played by Dylan Minnette and Amy Ryan, who move from New York to Delaware for a new job and a change of scenery.

They move in next to a mysterious girl named Hannah, played by Odeya Rush (who, on an unrelated note, looks exactly like Mila Kunis). After she and Dylan share a genuinely sweet date in an abandoned theme park, Hannah gets locked away by her father, R. L. Stine, who is played by a wonderfully overacting Jack Black. During Dylan’s attempt to break into her house and save her, he accidentally unlocks one of Stine’s books, which creates real-life monsters that can only be beaten by being put back into the book. One of the monsters that escapes, Slappy the dummy, also played by Black, begins to release all the rest of the monsters who run rampant on the town. It’s up to Zach, Hannah and friends to save the day.

Once the monsters are released, the plot unwinds similarly to a video game: the crew goes to an ice rink and have to catch the Abominable Snowman, then to the basement and fight off garden gnomes, then through a graveyard to escape ghouls, etc. There are very few surprises throughout the film, despite the books being known for their twists.

All the B-movie staples are here and done well: the cops are lovable idiots, no one believes Zach when he tells everyone about the monsters and the town is completely wrecked by the end. The important part is that these elements, while cliched, are entertaining because the film moves at such a quick pace that it never overstays its welcome.

Two noteworthy elements of the writing are how well the humor stands out and how poorly the dramatic moments flop. To be fair, the jokes can be lame at times; Slappy’s dialogue is literally just puns and everything said by an annoying scaredy-cat character named Champ, played by Ryan Lee, is insufferable. But aside from these two characters, most of the jokes stick the landing.

The whole film is full of sarcastic banter, and simple conversations between two characters are brought to life by the sharp writing. The two dim-witted cops were especially funny, since they got some pretty clever jokes that are aimed at the adults in the audience. However, nothing compares to Jack Black, who steals the show through his outrageous performance. He just looks so pissed off all the time, insulting every character he comes across and ranting on Stephen King, that it’s impossible not to enjoy his time on the screen.

But while the comedy succeeds, the drama fails. Subplots about Zach’s father and Hannah’s past try to delve deeper into the character’s morals, but they’re so hastily done that they failed to connect. The ending also substitutes the deeper message for a more traditional happy ending, which makes me wonder why they tried a deeper message in the first place. Without spoiling anything, Zach is supposed to learn to let go, but then he gets what he’s supposed to be letting go of in the first place, so he didn’t actually learn anything. Minnette and Ryan also don’t sell the dramatic parts nearly as well as the humor, which only adds to the imbalance of quality between the two elements.

The special effects were similarly hit-or-miss. When the monsters are sucked back into the books, the monsters are ripped apart into globs of ink, which looked both parts enrapturing and unnerving. Then there’s the blob, which looks faker than special effects used in B-movies 50 years ago. The monsters looked fine on their own, but when they interacted with the actors, their strings began to show.

One last aspect of the film worth mentioning is the score. Danny Elfman, who did scores for “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Corpse Bride,” created another stellar spooky soundtrack to rival his best works. The instrumentation fit the film perfectly, with wacky trombones and creeping clarinets punctuating the kid-friendly spooky atmosphere, and I can see the soundtrack being played at future children’s Halloween parties.

Overall, “Goosebumps” does more right than wrong. A phenomenal score, clever humor and an enjoyable performance by Black make up for the simple plot and cheesy moments, and in the end, kids will remember the humor and monsters more than the dramatic subplots, anyway.

_MOVE gives “Goosebumps” four out of five stars._