Sony Pictures has released the first Goosebumps trailer for director Rob Letterman's adaptation of the R.L. Stine book series. Jack Black plays Stine in the film, and the author’s creations unexpectedly come to life thanks to a teen neighbor (Dylan Minnette).  Subsequently, Stine must team up with his neighbor and daughter (Odeya Rush) before the numerous and varied monsters destroy their small town.

This trailer actually looks really, really good. If you're going to make a Goosebumps movie, this is the way to go, and Letterman looks to have struck a pitch-perfect tone for PG-rated horror film. The effects are great, the monsters are inventive, and the humor is solid without being juvenile.

Watch the trailer below, via Sony. The film opens on October 16th and also stars Amy Ryan, Ryan Lee, and Jillian Bell.

Here’s the official synopsis for Goosebumps:

Upset about moving from a big city to a small town, teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) finds a silver lining when he meets the beautiful girl, Hannah (Odeya Rush), living right next door.  But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach’s comes when he learns that Hannah has a mysterious dad who is revealed to be R. L. Stine (Jack Black), the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series.  It turns out that there is a reason why Stine is so strange… he is a prisoner of his own imagination – the monsters that his books made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books.  When Zach unintentionally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, it’s suddenly up to Stine, Zach, and Hannah to get all of them back in the books where they belong. Directed by Robert Letterman.  Screenplay by Darren Lemke.  Story by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski.  Based on the Goosebumps Book series Published by Scholastic and written by R.L. Stine.  Produced by Deborah Forte and Neal H. Moritz.