There have been many adaptations of the “Goosebumps” series of children’s horror books by R.L. Stine. First there was a television series that was made in 1995, then there was two movie adaptations of “Goosebumps”, one in 2015 and another in 2018, and now there is a new adaptation, a TV series released on Disney+ that started streaming episodes on October 13th.
The books each had their own separate story to tell therefore leaving it as a book series. The show in 1995 tried to mimic that by having each episode tell their own story in the book series. The films focused on trying to bring the stories to life, where each story that R.L. Stine wrote had been opened, causing the monsters to come to life and all of them wreaked havoc on the town they landed in. The 2023 series is a different take on the “Goosebumps” story compared to the other interpretations because it deals with hauntings and solving a murder mystery, which is new to the series.
The first episode, titled “Say Cheese and Die!” featured a group of teenagers that encountered a haunted house. They enter the basement because of rumors having to do with a teen’s death, Harold Biddle. When Harold was a teenager, he was bullied and trapped by a group of teens, where a candle was knocked over and he supposedly burned to death. Now as a ghost, Harold gets revenge on the group of teens in modern day.
He haunts children with different objects he liked to use when he was alive, like his camera, mask, and ventriloquist dummy. The children of the former teen’s host a party at the Biddle House and end up haunted with the different belongings. They try to do the best they can to face each problem together, and end up working great together. Another antagonist is a haunted ventriloquist dummy named Slappy who corrupted the Biddle kid causing him to become different in a bad way; making him think he was bullied, and that nobody liked him. The day his friends lost trust in him was the same day when he was burned alive.
Each episode gives more background about Harold’s story, the things he went through in the past, and hauntings he’s doing in the present. The group of modern day teenagers make progress toward solving the mystery while being haunted by Harold. As of time of writing, six episodes are out, but 10 episode are planned and will be released every Friday.
As a fan of “Goosebumps” I’ve watched and read about the stories for a long part of my life and I like this new series. They tried to make the story make sense instead of just telling each story by itself or bringing it to life they tied it all together. The acting improved as the series on went on. The teen actors were a little monotone in the beginning, but over time got more comfortable and their acting improved. The effects were good, the tiny details were clear, and Slappy is an actual puppet, which adds to the spookiness.
If you are a fan of ¨Goosebumps¨ I highly recommend that you watch this. It may not be too similar to it’s former interpretations, but they do a good job with it. If you are interested in watching Goosebumps you can watch new episodes on Disney+ each Friday or on Hulu each Thursday.
