Over the last few years, I’ve gotten really into horror movies. They’re an underrated genre that has more substance than most critics think. For many people, Goosebumps was their introduction to horror as a kid, whether that was reading one of R.L. Stine’s many books or watching the beloved 90’s TV anthology which I’m discussing. These are some of my favorite episodes that I watched as a child and revisited for the purposes of this article.
Disclaimer: I’m gonna premise my list by saying that I enjoy these mostly out of nostalgia. They can also be terribly corny and badly-acted considering these are child actors of the 90s. But I’m still convinced that the theme song is such a bop.
Spoilers Included!
My Top Three
1. The Haunted Mask (Two part episode)
This episode features Carly Beth, a self-conscious young girl who struggles to be at peace with her looks. She is bullied and constantly scared by a pair of boys. She rejects her mother’s cutesy costume and decides she wants to be scary this year. Her mother also presents Carly Beth with a ceramic bust of her face that she has created. Carly Beth decides to scare her tormentors by having a scary Halloween costume. She makes her way to a dilapidated and mysterious costume shop. The shop is filled with terrifying masks that shift from creatures to people. A display of horribly deformed masks catches her eye. She is struck by one of the masks, although the shop owner warns her against taking any of them. Carly Beth takes the mask for her Halloween costume. She wears the mask and a cape while also carrying the bust of her own face. As the night continues on, Carly Beth begins to change. The mask starts to meld with her face and her voice becomes monstrous. Carly Beth is only saved when she realizes her own self-love through the bust her mother made for her.
2. Stay Out Of The Basement (Two part episode)
This episode revolves around a young girl named Margaret who feels that something is wrong with her father. He has started spending almost all his time in their basement after losing his job. Her father is a scientist with a fascination for plants. Her father has always called her Princess as a nickname, and she is concerned when he withdraws from the family. Her father’s behavior only grows stranger after their mother leaves to take care of a sick relative. He is enraged when he realizes that Margaret and her brother have been in the basement and reveals he doesn’t want them to be hurt by his experiments. He continues his strange behavior, and Margaret sees him eating a box of plant food. The next time their dad leaves the house, the brother and sister sneak back down to investigate. There is a commotion within a locked closet and they find their dad locked inside. The siblings are now faced with two men who look like their father. Armed with weed killer, Margaret tries to figure out which one is her father.
3. The Girl Who Cried Monster
This episode is about Lucy, who enjoys telling tall tales and scaring her little brother. Her mother scolds her for playing tricks on her little brother and tells him to not believe her next time. She sends Blankety off for her Reading Rangers group at the library. The group is run by the creepy librarian, Mr. Something and he encourages Blankety to explore the classics. Blankety leaves the group with her friend, but realizes she has left behind her roller blades (she calls them blades in the episode, and I cringed at the slang). She returns to the library to find the librarian acting suspiciously and preparing to feed his pet spiders. She spies on him and watches as the librarian transforms into a monster. He has huge eyes that pop out of the sockets and green skin that looks like a frog. Lucy runs home and tells her parents that the librarian is a monster.
Obviously, her parents don’t believe her because of her previous fibs, so she sets out to prove the librarian is a monster. The next day, she sneaks back into the library after it closes and takes a picture of the librarian-turned-monster. Lucy makes a terrible mistake because the flash alerts the librarian of her presence. The monster discovers her and corners her in one of the library aisles. She narrowly escapes and runs home. The monster continues to stalk her, and her parents refuse to believe that he is a monster. They even invite him over for dinner to thank him for returning Lucy’s bag. The monster comes over for dinner only to realize too late that he is the main course. The twist ending is that Lucy’s family are, in fact, monsters who want the town for themselves.
Honorable Mentions
1. It Came From Beneath the Kitchen Sink
The main character gets more than she bargains for when she finds a living sponge in her new house. This sponge is more than meets the eye with razor sharp teeth and its ability to cause bad luck.
2. Phantom of the Auditorium
Brooke is thrilled when she gets the leading part for a play about a phantom. That is, until, the nightmares begin, and the production is haunted by mishaps and the legend of a missing lead actor from decades ago.
The true horror of Goosebumps is the amount of everyday horror that is embedded within them. Something as simple as a sponge or a librarian can become terrifying. The real thing that scared me about Goosebumps is the way that authorities and adults brush aside childrens’ concerns. This only makes some of these kids’ predicaments more harrowing, as they have to face them on their own and save themselves from these monsters.