Name : Molly Eichel / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Goosebumps fulfills its purpose, and that's what matters.

Name : Inkoo Kang / Alias : TheWrap
Goofily self-aware and wholesomely boisterous, it's a children's picture whose sense of spooky fun readily diverts from its quibble-worthy messaging.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
The film goes too wide and gets a little soft at the end, but not fatally so. It's the rare horror film - well, sort of horror - that you and your children can enjoy together.

Name : Geoff Berkshire / Alias : Variety
Turns an endearing collection of silly spooky stories into a busy, noisy, soulless eyesore.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
It's the best treat we've gotten this Halloween, and definitely not just a bigger-budgeted version of the "Goosebumps" seen on TV.

Name : Kevin P. Sullivan / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
It's a never-boring trip to a world, where stories and imagination are powerful tools, that just might inspire kids to do the scariest thing of all: pick up a book.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
It gently mocks the traditions of the genre - giant preying mantis rips roof off high school - while never getting too frightening.

Name : Nicolas Rapold / Alias : New York Times
"Goosebumps" would seem to yield the serial pleasures a voracious Stineophile might desire.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
This Goosebumps ride may be bumpy, but it works and it is worthwhile.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
As effects-heavy time-wasters go, Goosebumps is mostly harmless, even sporadically amusing. But it isn't likely to keep anyone up at night, out of fear or excitement.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
At a guess, I'd say that Goosebumps will satisfy its core audience - fans of R.L. Stine's popular children's books - and bore pretty much everyone else.

Name : Kyle Smith / Alias : New York Post
A special-effects extravaganza that skips over basics like coming up with an interesting origination myth for the creepy creatures who bring havoc to a sleepy suburb.

Name : Linda Barnard / Alias : Toronto Star
Jillian Bell's brief scenes as Zach's Bedazzling-obsessed singleton aunt are fun. So is Darren Lemke's solid script, which leans heavily on groaners and bad jokes to balance scares.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
The pace is great, with the last hour being an all-out monster attack, as all of Stine's creatures - a werewolf, zombies, a mummy, murderous garden trolls and a particularly sarcastic ventriloquist's dummy - go on the rampage.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
The filmmakers, to their great credit, spend more than half the running time bending their studio tentpole release to the spirit of Stine rather than cramming Goosebumps into their template.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
It's a cheerful, nasty delight.

Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
Goosebumps isn't detached or ironic, nor does it pretend to be something it's not. It's a bonus for fans who pored over the books and it celebrates the fun side of things going bump in the night.

Name : Glenn Whipp / Alias : Los Angeles Times
I have no idea as to the extent of the actual Stine's peculiarities, but just going from his weird, wonderful work, every scene in the movie feels authentic compared with the version I carry of him in my head.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
The production values are better suited for a television movie, and the music, by Danny Elfman, is distractingly intrusive.

Name : Bill Zwecker / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Black gets to show us his ability to play nasty, distant and angry - all in a way we really have never seen from him before. The bottom line is: It works perfectly.

Name : Peter Hartlaub / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Happily, the filmmakers build a reservoir of goodwill in the first hour.

Name : Michael Rechtshaffen / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An amusing, fearlessly over-the-top screen rendering of the book franchise.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Jack Black fires up a stampede of comic terrors ready made for Halloween. Sure it's exhausting. But Goosebumps, knowing its audience, lets it rip.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
A tongue-in-cheek love note to spook stories of yesteryear, "Goosebumps" is a kid-friendly crowd pleaser adults can love, too.

Name : Britton Peele / Alias : Dallas Morning News
Goosebumps is chock full of fun moments whether they're all logical or not, and it's an adventure that should appeal to both young viewers new the series and older readers who devoured them as kids.