Brahms (2016)

**Brahms** is a 2016 American fantasy computer-animated live-action horror comedy film directed by Sam Raimi, based on the best-selling children's book franchise of the same name by author Neil Steinberg. The film stars Christian Slater as Neil Steinberg, Brandon Jamar, Giselle Eisenberg, Finn Carr. Summer Fontana, and Shuya Sophie Cai. The film was released in theaters in the United States on October 10, 2016 by Warner Bros Pictures, the film received mostly positive reviews by critics, and was a success at the box office.

The digital version was released in the United States on January 12, 2017, while the Blu-Ray, 3D Blu-Ray, and DVD was released on January 26, 2017.

## Synopsis

A young boy named Ben Denberg who everyone calls the “creepy kid” is forced to face his worst nightmare of Paranormal happenings in the creepy town of St, Norwood Maine. When he and his snot nosed friends go into a creepy neighbor who hates trespassers to go near his house that their not supposed to go in, when they sneak in they accidently find a dusty bookshelf with a bunch of books written by Mr. Neil Steinberg (Christian Slater) that releases a puppet by the name of Chester who goes out and releases a bunch of other monsters to cause havoc in the town of Norwood on Halloween day. Can Brahms, Mr. Steinberg, and his friends be able to stop Chester and his monsters pals before they make their Halloween a spooky and terrifying disaster.

## Plot

The film begins with a little girl named Sally Griffin (Mia Allen) riding down the neighborhood on her tricycle singing and being annoying but than stops at a spooky looking house in the neighborhood and gets creeped out by it and tries to leave but her bike gets stuck in the grass and then the door opens and a creepy old man Neil Steinberg himself (Christian Slater) who names himself Mr. Shivers who yells and questions Sally what she's doing on his property and runs over to the little girl and shouts at her "DO YOU WANT TO BE EATEN BY MONSTERS KID" and Sally gets scared and say's no, and Neil gets furious and yells at her to leave and Bea runs and Neil take's her bike as well.

The next scene starts of with a teach named Mrs. Joy (Bryce Dallas Howard) teaching a class of students in the middle and the start of fall break and a young kid named Ben (Brandon Jamar) who is making a paper airplane and shoots and Ms. Joy and doesn't suspect a thing until when she turns around and looks at Ben and just has his history book at his face and she turns back around, Max (Finn Carr) looks at him smiling and giving a thumbs up while Lucy (Summer Fontana) gives a eye roll of embarrassment, the bell rings and with everyone cheering and jumping put of their seats and out of class except for Ben who gets called by Ms. Joy who calls him by his full name 'Benjamin' and askes him about the airplane he threw.

The three kids start walking threw the hallway telling jokes and stuff and a girl named Victoria Bay (Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen) who starts walking angerly threw the hallway and goes into the girl's bathroom and kicks a bathroom door where a young girl named Alice Marshall (Giselle Eisenberg) who Vicky starts talking crap about her hitting on her brother even though she said she was just talking nice to him and a the girls start teasing her and a girl start getting some trash from the cafeteria and start spilling the trash all over her bathroom dorm and Vicky and her friends start taunting her and leaves off hoping she smells better.

The scene skips off to the St' Norwood Elementary School entrance with kids their leaving for the fall break and Ben, Max, Lucy and their little friend Emily (Shuya Sophie Cai) start throwing their school supplies in the trash bins and start questioning about what they should do tomorrow and Max answers to start his training in the arcade for "Dino Apocalypse 3" the brand new video game arcade their is in Norwood and Ben says they should go over to the town fair for the brand new autumn ride that open, but than a kid named Ricky Butch who is the school bully his his gang start shoving Ben and his friends and throws Emily's Inhaler in a school bus and Ben tries sticking up for them and and Ricky start taunting him saying him and his friends don't stand a chance to find in this school and flicks his nose as he and his pals walk away.

Ben starts saying goodbye to his friends and starts packing up his stuff and his bike and Alice spooks him from behind and says he was just getting his bike home and Alice starts picking up his headphones and starts giggling about listening to BTS, and Ben gets embarrassed saying he doesn't like or anything and Alice say's okay and starts introducing herself and so does Ben and says that calls him the creepy kid cause of his obsession for monsters and supernatural stuff and Alice say's there are worse thing to be called, and sees his Monster Community Autograph Book and Alice see's he doesn't have any kid members who have signed and she got to be the first one to write her fist signature in his book starts leaving with a cute quote "See ya later Creepy Kid, good luck with your friends, and Ben says "who?" Wait Wait no no no! their not my...

## Cast

* Christian Slater as Neil Steinberg
* Christian Slater as the voices of Chester the Dummy and Jake Blake (The Invisible Boy)
* Brandon Jamar as Ben Denberg
* Giselle Eisenberg as Alice Marshall
* Finn Carr as Max Toizer
* Summer Fontana as Lucy Broadman
* Shuya Sophia Cai as Emily Yang
* Jay Ryan as John Evans (Newspaper guy)
* Bryce Dallas Howard as Ms. Rachel Joy (School Teacher)
* Emily Beecham as Julie Toizer (Max's Mom)
* Colin Jost as Officer Harry P. (Norwood Cop 1)
* Shelby Rabara as Officer Izzy F. (Norwood Cop 2)
* TBA as Ricky Butch (School Bully)
* Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen as Victoria Bay (Alice's School Bully)
* Mia Ronn as Jayden Bellamy (Vic's Friend 1)
* Trixie Hyde as Penny Simmons (Vic's Friend 2)"
* Pallavi Sharda as Priya Denberg (Ben's Mom)
* TBA as Harold Denberg (Ben's Grandpa)
* Ryan Lee as Calvin Ford (arcade kid)
* Mia Allen as Sally Griffin

## Production

The first attempt at a Brahms film was endeavored in 2008, with Tim Burton set as the producer. This plan fell through because the scriptwriters could not decide which monster or book should serve as the film's basis.

The film rights to the *Brahms* series were acquired by Warner Bros. Pictures in 2010, and Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski were hired to write the script. These scriptwriters chose to combine all of the *Brahms* monsters into one shared universe, as they felt that none of the individual books were, by themselves, long enough for a full-length movie. Deborah Forte, who produced the television series back in 2003, was chosen to produce the film along side Andrew Adamson, while Sam Raimi was chosen to direct the film.

According to Neil Steinberg, after someone came up with the idea of using him in the film, production on the film quickened, with the filmmakers ultimately choosing the seventeenth script written for the film. Stine also clarified that as far as he knew, his only real writing contribution to the film was in vetoing two Stephen King and R.L Stein jokes that were going to be used in the film.

### Casting

Christian Slater was cast as Neil Steinberg in September 2014. Slater met with Stine and the two discussed how the fictional version of the author was going to be portrayed by the actor, Slater said he was going to play a sinister version of Stine. Brandon Jamar and Giselle Eisenberg were cast in June 2015, and the rest in September 2015. After that, it was announced that the film would hit theaters on August 7, 2016. The cast attended Comic Con three times, in July 2015, and in June and September 2015. in November 2014, the release date was switched to April 15, 2017, and in January 2016, it was switched to back to October 10, 2016.

## Comic Con

The film was promoted at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International where Christian Slater and Sam Raimi interacted with Chester the Dummy. Chester even brought some of his "friends" out consisting of the Bog Monster from *There's a Monster Downstairs*, two Graveyard Ghouls from *Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls*, Cronby the Troll and a Mulgani from *Deep in the Jungle of Doom*, the Lord High Executioner from *A Night in Terror Tower*, Murder the Clown from *A Nightmare on Clown Street*, the Mummy of Prince Khor-Ru from *Return of the Mummy*, Professor Shock for *The Boy Who Cried Scientist*, Professor Shock from *The Creepy Creations of Professor Shock*, Count Nightwing from *Dracula's Slumber*, a Body Squeezer from *Invasion of the Body Squeezers*, Sindy James Vudu form from *I Knitted My Best Friend*, a Scarecrow from *The Scarecrow Walks the Night*, and a Pumpkin Head from The *Jack-O'-Lanterns Walk at Midnight*. When Christian Slater tells Chester that it is him that Chester wants, Chester instructs the Lord High Executioner, Murder the Clown, and Professor Shock to take Christian Slater outside to his car. As the monsters leave, Chester tells Sam some of his pitches causing Sam to leave as well.

Christian Slater and director Sam Raimi collaborate at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con.
## Trivia

* The movie was originally going to be released on August 7, 2016, but was pushed back to April 15, 2017, then once more to October 16, 2016, most likely to fit in with the Halloween spirit, or make it close to the 20th anniversary of the 2003 series.
* A Goosebumps movie was original gonna be in development that was gonna star Jack Black and was gonna released in 2015 but was canceled by R.L Stein cause he didn't like the direction they were taking the film.
* Christian Slater voiced both Chester the Dummy and The Invisible Boy