Sometimes called the “Stephen King of children’s literature,” R.L. Stine has inspired bad dreams for decades. The author of hundreds of horror fiction novels for youngsters, including the classic “Goosebumps” series, returns to the big screen this week with “Zombie Town,” a teen horror comedy based on his 2012 novel of the same name.
The action takes place on one eventful night in Carverville, a small town named after legendary b-movie horror director Len Carver (Dan Aykroyd). “This whole town is just a bunch of zombie following idiots,” grumbles Mike (Marlon Kazadi), the only guy in town who doesn’t like zombie movies.
It’s the eve of the premier of Carver’s latest “flesh drenched extravaganza,” his first film in decades. “You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll kiss your five bucks goodbye!” screams the film’s trailer. Everyone in town is excited except for Mike, who works at the theatre, and will have to watch the film whether he likes it or not.
When Carver takes ill before the show, the screening is cancelled, but Mike’s friend Amy (Madi Monroe) convinces him to give her a private screening. As white light bounces off the blank screen, strange things begin happening. Mike and Amy protect themselves from the weird glow with film cannister lids embossed with an ancient symbol.
The symbol’s mystical power protects them from the film’s magical spell, but outside the theatre, all over town, the good folks of Carverville have been transformed into the living dead. “You have to get over your fear of zombies,” Amy says. “It is just us and them now.”
Mike and Amy realize that if they are to save themselves and their town, they must track down Carver and put an end to his film’s zombie curse.
The zombies in “Zombie Town” may amble around with George A. Romero style menace, but this is no “Night of the Living Dead.” Thrills and chills are few and far between, pitched toward the younger end of the YA scares of “Goosebumps.”
Director Peter Lepeniotis aims for an Amblin PG-13 feel, that mix of plucky young people and the supernatural, but falls just short because the film has no real menace. Sure, the town has been zombified, but the peril and the frights are kept to a minimum. Raising the stakes and ramping up the horror may have given the movie more edge, without risking the alienation of the core audience.
It’s a bit of fun to see Aykroyd ham it up as the tormented filmmaker in “Zombie Town,” and cameos from Chevy Chase, Henry Czerny and “Kids in the Hall” alums Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch add some texture, but overall it doesn’t bring quite enough life to the undead.
“The Summer of Fear” continues on Netflix with the release of “Fear Street Part 2: 1978,” the second part of their R.L. “Goosebumps” Stine trilogy about the cursed town of Shadyside, where terrible things have been happening for three hundred years.
Moving backwards in time sixteen years from the first instalment, this movie takes place in 1978. Against a classic slasher movie backdrop, a local sleep-away on a lake called Camp Nightwing, a group of teens, half from the Richie-rich town of Sunnyvale, the others from the possibly possessed Shadyside, get ready for a summer of swimming, campfires, secret hook-ups and… murder. As Ziggy Berman (“Stranger Things’” Sadie Sink) says, “bad things always happen to Shadysiders.”
Cue the gallons of blood, masked killer, a pentagram and more clues as to why some Shadysiders just can’t stop killing people. With axes.
In real life 1978 was a pretty good year for horror movies. “Halloween,” “Stranger in Our House” and “Dawn of the Dead” all dropped that year, and all feel like they are paid homage to by director Leigh Janiak. “Friday the 13th” also looms large over “Part 2,” both in vibe and look.
Janiak is faithful to the tropes of vintage slasher films, and despite the young adult label that comes with Stine’s work, doesn’t spare the blood, allusions to sex, the language or the scares. Characters we care about are offed with mighty swings of an axe, blood squirts and the teens react how teens would react, by using language that may make mom and dad blush.
“Fear Street Part 2: 1978” may look in the rear view mirror for inspiration but what is innovative is the way it links with the other two movies, connecting the narrative over the course of the trilogy. They aren’t sequels to one another, but one Shady-verse, bound by a certain set of rules, some of the same characters and lots and lots of gore.
“Fear Street Part 2: 1978” is rated R for obvious reasons, but the rating feels necessary and authentic to the genre. What feels less necessary are scenes of exposition and a drawn-out storyline between Ziggy and sister Cindy (Emily Rudd), but when the rest works so well, these are quibbles.
“Goosebumps,” the new Jack Black comedy-horror based on R.L. Stine’s wildly popular books, is more silly than scary but contains enough tricks to be a fun treat for Halloween.
Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) isn’t too happy about moving from New York City to Madison, Delaware but his attitude improves when Hannah (Odeya Rush), the cute girl in the big, spooky house next door, introduces herself. She welcomes the big city kid but her father, R.L. Stine (Jack Black), isn’t so hospitable. “You see that fence?” he snarls. “Stay on your side of it!”
Of course Zach ignores the warning and soon finds himself on the wrong side of the fence, inside Stine’s library. The shelves are lined with dozens of books with titles like “The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena” and “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp.” It’s Stine’s life’s work, a collection of scary novels for kids, populated by creatures that exist only in the author’s imagination… until Zach opens one of the books and unleashes the fiends into the real world. As the Abominable Snowman wreaks havoc in Madison, Zach learns that Hannah and Stine keep the book’s beasts locked up inside the manuscripts. With Vampires, and Werewolves, and Demons—oh my!—
On the loose the town is in danger. Only Stine and the kids can put an end to the monster mayhem and take the beasties from the stage to back on the page.
“Goosebumps” will tickle your funny-bone more than raise any actual goosebumps, but it’s a fun throwback to the kind of teenage thriller best enjoyed at a Saturday afternoon matinee movie with a large box of popcorn and a Coke. The movie is meant for teens, but older viewers—whether you’re of the “Monster Squad” age or the “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” generation—should get a nostalgic blast from the harmless scary fun on display.
