New Goosebumps series set to creep out Disney Plus subscribers
A live-action adaptation of R.L. Stine's popular book series is officially heading to the streamer
Aux News Goosebumps
A new live-action adaption of the children’s horror novel series Goosebumps is creeping its way onto Disney+.
The series has been reported as being in the works as far back as April 2020, but now it’s been confirmed that Rob Letterman—who helmed the 2015 big-screen adaptation of the series—will be joined by Muppet maven Nick Stoller. The duo will be writing as well as producing. Letterman will direct the first episode of the 10-episode order.
This latest adaptation will take a serialized approach to the creepy stories of R.L. Stine and feature high school kids unleashing supernatural forces upon their town (doesn’t anybody just go drink in a cemetery or cruise around the same ten blocks of their neighborhood anymore). According to Variety, the kids will also learn “about their own parents’ teenage secrets in the process.”
As we live in the age of the cinematic universe and the legacy sequel, it’s fair to question whether this latest take will tie into Letterman’s film or the Canadian adaptation that ran on Fox Kids from 1995 to 1998, especially with the suggestion of the parents of the new crop of kids having some secrets just waiting to be unearthed.
The new series will no doubt feature callbacks and easter eggs for constant readers of the original series which features 62 books beginning with 1992’s Welcome To Dead House as well as its many spin-offs.
Lovers of young adult horror are smack in the middle of a Stine-aissance. His Fear Street series— the middle step for horror-loving adolescents who grew up on Goosebumps but weren’t quite ready for Stephen King or Clive Barker—was the inspiration for a trio of films released on Netflix last summer. This will be the second Stine property at Disney as an adaptation of his Just Beyond graphic novels premiered just last October with an eight-episode season that featured E.T.’s buddy Henry Thomas and Tim Heidecker.
No cast or release date is currently set for Goosebumps.
9 Comments
Er derdn’t ger erp werth Gersberms, ser thers ersn’t thert merningferl to mer.
Every time someone mentions that meme, I can’t help but notice how much “Ermagerd” sounds like Irma Gobb, the name of Mr. Bean’s girlfriend. Yep, I can see someone who sees someone like Mr. Bean as a romantic interest getting pumped for the literary stylings of “Rr rL Sterne.”
Fear Street was great because it was able to really go there. Not optimistic.
Not a fan of a serialized approach. A huge part of the excitement for me as a kid was the fact that it was a new story every episode with a beginning, a middle and an end. This reeks of too much cynical market research. Some “epic” overarching narrative (which is what I’m suspecting) goes directly against a major strength of the series, in my opinion, which is simplicity.Kids can, within reasonable boundaries, explore their own various fears through different characters and scenarios from episode to episode and go on frightening journeys that will all be resolved by the end. Very effective. Same principle, useful variables.Both the books and the show helped Young Boy Schultz gain a sense of being able to face my fears and made me feel courageous and strong. And I believe the classic (age old, really) format was an integral part of that.
Agreed – most good spooky stories have enough juice for a short simple arc – stretching them longer is both too flimsy for a satisfying plot and ALSO tends to weaken the scare factor of the monster/ghost/whatever through over exposure. I don’t need the “Car Door Hook Hand Man” canonical cinematic universe
Specifically, to me, it reads like “let’s do a Stranger Things!”
Geez, I think you’re right about that. What a shame. Classic Goosebumps >>>>>> Stranger Things.
This isn’t about the series, but I loved these books, and then I started watching Twilight Zone and Outer Limits and discovered that Stine was just repackaging plots and selling to kids. I was furious and never read it watched the series again. As an adult, with far more important priorities…I’m still furious. Fuck that rich asshole.
The Fear Street Saga scared the crap out of me as a kid, with plenty of pretty gruesome murders. Then I reread them and the flaws I overlooked made them more riffable than scary. One moment in particular, when two characters were cackling madly and drinking blood out of wine goblets, the blood “dribbling down their chins” had to be the most cringeworthy thing in a series of cringe.