My favourite scary movie is 'The Shining': Jack Black

New Delhi: Hollywood funnyman Jack Black, who portrays the role of horror writer E L Stine in the upcoming movie "Goosebumps", says his all-time favourite scary film is Stanley Kubrick's 1980 drama "The Shining".

"My favourite movie of all-time is 'The Shining'. There's just something great about being scared. I don't know the scientific reasons for it but there's an exhilaration, an exploration of what it is to be alive. It's very heavy, it's very deep being scared and I see it in my kids," Black said at a media event in Cancun, Mexico.

The actor accepted "Goosebumps" because while his children -- at the age of 9 and 7 -- were too young to watch "The Shining", they would enjoy the horror-comedy, which introduces some of the most famous monsters from Stine's stories.

"I have a 7 and a 9 year old, and they like to be scared, they're obsessed with it, and I think there's a part of it that is cool if you can watch something scary... There's something about growing up to being a little bit scared.

"I wouldn't let them watch 'The Shining', I don't want them to grow up that fast, but that's why I wanted to make this one because it's scary, but it's not too scary."

Black, 46, will play a fictional version of Stine, a reclusive author, who has to keep his books hidden because once they are opened, they unleash real versions of his literary monsters.

"I just read the script and loved it. I thought it was really funny, and scary in the right amounts that I could take my kids to it...

"... The character, R L Stine, I just sort of heard his voice as soon as I read the script before I'd ever met him or heard his actual voice, so when I met him and I heard his actual voice I said, 'I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be doing you. I already heard your voice when I read the script'. The script is a lot different than the real R L Stine," he said.

Also starring Dylan Minnette, Odeya Rush, Ryan Lee, Jillian Bell, Amy Ryan and Ken Marino, the film is being released in India by Sony Pictures on October 23 in English, Hindi and Tamil.