A nice Sunday afternoon– a cool, fall day rather spent inside a theater among little children averaging around 8 year-olds.

As my mom and I enter the theater, we glance at each other, noticing at once the absence of a mature audience, exchanging the “what did we get ourselves into” look.

We subsequently took our seats and prepared ourselves to view what we expected to be a cheesy, uneventful children’s movie that was far from scary.

Growing up amongst the “Goosebumps” books, I was ecstatic to learn that they were producing a movie modeled after the hit series. When I was younger, these books spooked me so much that I could barely finish them, and oftentimes didn’t.

Before walking into the theater, I was hoping for a movie that effectively tapped into the potential the books had for creating fear. However, as I sat alongside 8 year-old kids, I lost almost all hope.

The movie began with a son and his mother moving to Madison, Delaware. Zach, the son, soon meets his new neighbors, Hannah and her father. The father, as later found out in the movie, is R. L. Stine, the author of “Goosebumps,” played by Jack Black.

This was an interpretation of the series I did not see coming. In my mind, I had pictured something more along the lines of the “Harry Potter” movies, a movie that follows the outline of the books.

Instead, this movie was a spin-off of all the fictional monsters created in “Goosebumps,” and how they came to life in attempt to seek revenge on R. L. Stine for locking them in the various books. They were led by Slappy, a creepy ventriloquist doll.

The humor incorporated with some of the characters was the only aspect this movie truly hit right on the nail.

Champ, played by Ryan Lee, was hilarious and was a character I looked forward to seeing on the screen. His witty personality and absentmindedness reminded me of many of my friends.

Jack Black, an actor known for his comedic roles, played a more stern character with this movie. I feel like this had an off-putting result, noting that many people associate him with being the comedy man and not the stern man turned hero.

Throughout the movie, there were various obstacles the main characters had to overcome in order to “save the day” and make sure Delaware didn’t fall into “despair.” This plot is overused, or better put, a complete bore.

At the end of the novel, when R. L. Stine becomes an English teacher after helping save the town, he says something along the lines of: “There are three parts to telling a story: a beginning, a middle and a twist.”

Ironically, this story did not follow its own piece of advice. Even though the movie was geared towards younger children, I bet many of them saw the end coming before I even did.

There were a few “twists” in the plot, but nothing large enough to have the effect of wowing the audience. These “twists” were comparable to waking up in April and finding snow on the ground: it’s pretty neat at first, but we get over it.

At various times throughout the movie, I found myself paying more attention to the kids rather than the movie itself. I was quite amazed at how no child found any bit of this movie scary. Even though me, a 16 year-old girl, let out no screams during this movie, I did find parts of the movie frightful, especially with one of the characters being a living ventriloquist dummy.

Besides from being cheesy and predictable, the plot was not horrendous and provided entertainment equal to what I would find around this time on Disney Channel.

All in all, I was disappointed in this movie. I had hoped for a lot more; I had hoped for a good Halloween movie representing a large part of my childhood. My mom and I both knew this was not what we were going to get as soon as we walked into the theater. This type movie is best left on Disney Channel rather than the big screen.