As Halloween time crawls closer, many terror-loving enthusiasts have been waiting for new horror movies to feed into the fear of the season. Scary movies thrive during this period, with many people clamoring for brutal and visually grotesque movies like Barbarian, Talk to Me, Evil Dead Rise, and the Insidious series. Yet, playfully spooky thrillers can be just as fright-inducing as Disney plans to capitalize on adapting the beloved book series Goosebumps.
R.L. Stine’s series of Goosebumps books became a pop culture phenomenon in the 90s. The esteemed author would debut his first book, “Welcome to Dead House” in 1992. The young adult novel would become a huge hit and eventually led to 62 original titles that would go onto sell over 350 million copies in 32 different languages.
The popularity of this best-selling horror series did not remain within the world of literature as the Fox Network would acquire the rights to do a TV series in 1995. Goosebumps‘ debut was a massive hit with its pre-teen demographic, lasting four seasons on Fox Kids. It would be syndicated for years throughout different networks with new books being introduced into Scholastic reading along the way.
While the franchise maintained its notoriety through generational nostalgia and consistent book releases, Goosebumps had a resurgence with the 2015 film starring Jack Black. This would lead to a less successful 2018 sequel. Five years later, Sony Pictures is now collaborating with Disney to bring the series back to its TV roots with a serialized reimaging.
This 10-episode series will center around a group of danger-seeking teenagers who investigate a cold murder case that took place in a current abandoned house. When an outsider (Justin Long) moves to the small town for a teaching position, he is put up in the deserted homestead. His arrival resurrects a vengeful spirit that has made the nosy high schoolers its next target.
Goosebumps‘ newest trailer showcased various iconic images from famous storylines. They presented a glimpse of the mask from “The Haunted Mask,” The camera from “Say Cheese and Die,” and of course the legendary possessed ventriloquist dummy, Slappy, from “Night of the Living Dummy.” There are no further details as to how they are all connected, but each episode will most likely take multiple elements from the various renowned Goosebumps books.
Sony and Disney’s partnership to reintroduce a new generation of viewers to the creepy mind of R.L Stine’s Goosebumps is set to debut on both Disney+ and Hulu on Friday, October 13, 2023.
