Running Scared
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday March 9, 1998
FRIDAY THE 13TH
GOOSEBUMPS SPECIAL
Fox 8, Friday 4pm-6pm
MOST kids love Goosebumps, be it in the books, TV shows or associated merchandise ranging from Curse of the Mummy's Tomb bookmarks to Shocker on Shock Street pencil cases.
R.L. Stine has made a fortune from writing kiddie horror, and even if parents look askance at the lurid covers and banal writing, most are happy to see their children reading anything.
Even so, parents must wonder about the rights and wrongs of turning Goosebumps into television. If Stine's books are the one thing that children read without resentment, filming them can only be seen as a project of dubious worth.
To mark Friday the 13th, Fox 8 is screening four Goosebumps episodes (two two-parters) back to back.
Attack of the Mutant is about Skipper, a boy who becomes obsessed with a comic-book villain called the Masked Mutant. On his way to an orthodontist's appointment, Skipper sees a pink-and-blue building he recognises as the Masked Mutant's secret headquarters. When he returns later, the building is not there. Skipper, aware that the Mutant's special powers might be at work, walks through the headquarters' "invisibility curtain" and ventures inside. Skipper then finds himself starring in the comic strip ...
R.L. Stine himself introduces the other tale, A Night in Terror Tower. This one is about two American kids, Sue and Eddy, who join a tour group going around some sub-Tower of London where, in ancient times, a young prince and princess mysteriously disappeared, presumably murdered by their wicked uncle.
The modern children say things like, "This place gives me the creeps" when they see a ghost on the ramparts or a waxwork figure comes to life and tries to kill them. Even when Eddie and Sue escape, the tower continues to haunt them ...
In some ways, the Goosebumps TV shows are an improvement on the written originals. The production values are higher than the books' literary merits, and many have the additional virtue of tongue-in-cheek verve.
The downside is not that the Goosebumps shows are too scary for kids, but rather that they do all the imagining for them.
© 1998 Sydney Morning Herald