With the rise of a beautiful morning, the excitement of browsing new content on the internet also rises. Also, as the holidays are coming and you have plenty of free time, you will browse the internet for movies suitable for the whole family. In these jolly holidays, a movie that stands out for family viewing is Goosebumps! The first Goosebumps movie was released in 2015 and became a blockbuster worldwide. With all the monsters, plots, and comedy, it becomes a fan-favorite movie with animations.
In 2023, Disney+ has tried to make a darker version of it. A darker version of Goosebump without the iconic typewriter and some doodly monsters doesn’t seem right. If you want to know what vibe this Disney+ series has given to the viewers and what Goosebumps without Monsters and Fun is, continue to read the blog.
Let’s embark on the journey of exploration in the world of Goosebumps. Do not miss to say “Hi” to the haunts and the fan favorite “Slappy”!
What will we see here?
Overall Summary
Delve into the exhilarating universe of Goosebumps! This series takes a darker turn on the beloved movie, infusing elements of horror, mystery, and a touch of the supernatural. Across 10 gripping episodes, it presents a unique reinterpretation of classic Goosebumps tales. Accompany Isaiah, Margot, Isabella, Lucas, and James as they navigate through eerie encounters and unveil dark secrets.
The cast, led by Zack Morris, Isa Briones, Ana Yi Puig, Will Price, and Miles McKenna, delivers performances that captivate and hold audiences spellbound. Directors Félix Enríquez Alcalá, David Crossman, Erin O'Malley, Steve Boyum, and Rob Letterman skillfully craft a visually stunning and suspenseful narrative.
While different from the original movie, this series offers a fresh perspective on Goosebumps, with a heightened emphasis on horror. Despite the absence of the iconic typewriter and doodly monsters, the storyline and characters, especially the iconic Slappy, solidify its place as a valuable addition to the best shows on Disney Plus. Immerse yourself in the mysterious world of Goosebumps – a journey truly worth savoring!
Release Date of Goosebumps
This year’s big addition to the Disney+ wardrobe is a version of the fan-favorite movie Goosebumps written by R.L Stine. This version of Goosebumps is a darker version of the story, but the darker version does not mean that there will be more adventure, ghosts, and monsters. Now you all will complain about what is Goosebumps without monsters!? In this new series, there are monsters, but not in the way of the 2015 movie.
The release date of this series was 13 October 2023. It is currently streaming on the website but not in the free version. You have to buy a subscription for it! With confidence, we can say that it is worth watching for the fans of Goosebumps as it features our favorite monster, “Slappy the Dummy.”
Number of Episodes: Goosebumps
The story of this series is not that long and not time-consuming, but also, the story does not go as a roller coaster. However, you will get Goosebumps while watching it (I want to rhyme with the title!). With 10 episodes, Disney+ has given us a fantasy world with horror and darkish backstory. The 10 Episode names are:
E1 ∙ Say Cheese and Die!
In 1993, a student named Harold Biddle, who kept to himself, tragically died in a house fire. In 2023, Mr. Bratt takes over the Biddle House as the new high school English teacher. The popular high school quarterback Isaiah and his girlfriend Allison decide to use the Biddle House for their Halloween party. While exploring the basement where Harold had passed away, Isaiah discovers a Polaroid camera. He takes a picture of Allison and Margot, his childhood friend and neighbor. When Isaiah saves Margot from an allergic reaction depicted in the photo, he realizes the camera shows future negative events for the people in its pictures. His photo predicts a badly broken arm, and indeed, Isaiah breaks his arm during a game after hallucinating in a field full of burning monsters. Nora, the mother of Lucas, a reckless student, witnesses the monsters and warns Isaiah’s father that Biddle’s spirit has returned to exact punishment on their kids for the wrongs the parents committed against him. Meanwhile, at home, Mr. Bratt becomes possessed by Harold’s spirit.
E2 ∙ The Haunted Mask
Overlooked and frustrated at school, Isabella channels her discontent into online trolling. During Allison’s Halloween party at the Biddle House, she stumbles upon an unusual mask in the basement. When she puts it on, her confidence and extroversion skyrocket. However, over time, the mask starts influencing her to lash out, especially after Lucas destroys her expensive drone. Nora shares a photo of Harold Biddle with Isaiah, who recognizes him from the football game hallucination. Facing punishment from her mother over the drone incident, Isabella dons the mask and attacks Lucas, transforming into a literal troll. The moment she almost harms her little brother, they discard the mask, all while the possessed Mr. Bratt observes. Isabella, joined by her mother, attends a meeting at James’ house, where Nora has gathered other parents to discuss her belief that Harold is haunting them. As they dismiss her claims, Isabella accidentally knocks a ball at James while playing pool, leading to a shocking and horrifying outcome.
E3 ∙ The Cuckoo Clock of Doom
The revelation about James comes to light: during the Halloween party, he accidentally collides with a cuckoo clock, triggering a time loop that confines him within the house. When he manages to break the loop, he discovers that each attempt to leave spawned a duplicate. These “Dupes” trap him in his family’s mines, take on his identity, and systematically ruin his life. Isabella grasps the situation when a Dupe explodes, prompting her, Isaiah, and Margot to collaborate to find the real James and eliminate the Dupes. They trace the origin of their troubles back to the Biddle house. Nora hints that Margot’s mother, Sarah, holds the key to understanding. During a call, Sarah, who is currently in Seattle, warns Margot not to trust the other parents. A surviving Dupe fetches a suitcase for Bratt, only to discover it’s empty. Enraged, Bratt annihilates the Dupe, demanding to know the whereabouts of his “friend.”
E4 ∙ Go Eat Worms
Lucas’ father met his end, attempting a perilous mountain stunt. Lucas contemplates replicating the stunt to honor his father’s memory but is held back by fear. Witnessing his mother, Nora, and Margot’s father, Colin, sharing a kiss, he gently discloses their parents’ affair to Margot. To lift her spirits, Lucas shows Margot the tank of worms he took from the Biddle House during the Halloween party. That night, the worms find their way into Lucas’ body. Discovering that he can no longer feel pain, Lucas resolves to retry his father’s stunt. Margot suspects Biddle’s involvement, and she and Nora intervene to prevent Lucas from going through with it.
Nora unveils a painful truth: Lucas’ father intentionally performed the stunt, intending to end his own life. Lucas expels the worms, which turn into a formidable monster. The trio successfully lures it into a wood chipper, ending the creature. Nora, after disclosing the monster to the police, finds herself in a psychiatric ward. Bratt seizes the eyeball trinket dropped by Lucas at the sawmill and vows to reconstruct Slappy.
E5 ∙ Reader Beware
Sarah returns home following months of separation from Colin. She discovers that Nora is under sedation, supervised by Victoria, Isabella’s mother, who fears Nora might disclose their involvement in the Biddle incident. Despite this, Sarah believes Nora’s account. Meanwhile, Isaiah and Allison go their separate ways, with hints of Isaiah possibly harboring feelings for Margot.
On the other hand, Margot and Lucas develop a connection and share a kiss. Mr. Bratt/Harold presents Margot with his old scrapbook. As she reads it, she experiences visions of Harold’s high school life and uncovers that he and her mother were once friends. Harold’s ghost transports Margot to the night of the fire, revealing that their parents unintentionally caused Harold’s death while attempting to steal a suitcase from his house. Bratt/Harold invites them into his home, promising to disclose the contents of the mysterious suitcase.
E6 ∙ Night of the Living Dummy
In 1925, Harold’s great-grandfather Ephraim purchased Slappy the Dummy, an ominous puppet, to revive his career as a magician. Slappy compelled Ephraim to retrieve Kanduu’s coffin to perform a spell. After witnessing a violent vision of death, Ephraim rejected Slappy and concealed him in the basement. In 1993, Ephraim’s descendants, the Biddle family, including their son Harold, inherited the house. Struggling to fit in, Harold discovers Slappy, who isolates him from his crush, Sarah, and manipulates him into turning his parents into puppets. Following a humiliating incident involving Sarah and her friends, they realize Harold changed after finding Slappy.
The group breaks into his home to remove Slappy and implores Harold to come out. Locked in the basement, Harold believes they were bullying him, leading to his accidental death in a fire. The friends hide Slappy’s remnants. In the present, the children rationalize that their parents were not to blame and Harold needed assistance. This realization upsets “Bratt,” who believes the parents were responsible for Harold’s demise. Bratt discards his disguise, revealing himself as Harold to the horrified friends.
E7 ∙ Give Yourself Goosebumps.
The group realizes they’re stuck in a scrapbook that Harold created. Nora, who just left the hospital, is followed by Harold as she tries to gather Slappy’s parts. Ben and Eliza check Nora’s family mine and find out that Slappy’s remains are indeed gone, confirming Nora’s warning about Harold. In the Biddle house, they uncover another memory of Harold’s. Mr. Bratt figures out that he can return to the real world for a short time when he gets hit. They attempt to bring him back to write an escape plan, but there’s a struggle for control between Harold and Bratt. In a last-ditch effort, Harold throws the scrapbook into a puddle, causing the drawings and the world inside to melt, and the group falls through the dissolved floor.
E8 ∙ You Can’t Scare Me
The friends tumble through the pages as the scrapbook falls apart. They encounter the spirits of Harold’s parents, who patiently wait for Harold so that the family can move on together. Somehow, Bratt manages to sketch a way out, and they hastily escape, determined to find Nora. However, Harold regains control of Bratt, incapacitates Nora on the mountain, and reclaims Slappy. The children and all of their parents searching for Nora unite. Lucas and Margot discover Nora unharmed, but Isaiah dangles perilously off a cliff edge. Just as Harold is on the verge of harming him, everyone arrives, pleading with Harold and apologizing. Slappy attempts to maintain control, but Margot connects with Harold, expressing that his parents are waiting and have forgiven him. Moved by this, Harold rescues Isaiah and then hurls Slappy down the cliff. Harold’s spirit departs from Bratt’s body, finding peace as he joins his parents in the afterlife. With everyone thinking it’s over, the pieces of Slappy at the bottom of the cliff unexpectedly open their eyes.
E9 ∙ Night of the Living Dummy Part 2
Several months pass, and everyone is attempting to move on from the haunting by Harold Biddle. Margot’s mother invites her to relocate to Seattle, prompting the children to embark on a weekend trip to explore the city. Lucas, however, finds it challenging to move past their shared ordeal. Struggling with the aftermath, he ends his relationship with Margot, citing differing life goals, and heads back home.
Bratt endeavors to turn his experience into a book, aspiring to become a published author. A New York publisher expresses interest but suggests altering the ending to delve deeper into Slappy. Confronted with writer’s block and financial struggles, Bratt retrieves Slappy’s remains for inspiration. Slappy, seemingly guiding him, leads Bratt to Kanduu’s buried coffin near the Biddle House, promising him a fitting conclusion. Reading the spell within, Bratt unintentionally releases Kanduu’s spirit from the Slappy dummy, revealing him to be a magician with a restored human body. In an unfortunate twist, Ben arrives, and Kanduu transforms him into a puppet.
E10 ∙ Welcome to Horrorland
Kanduu, once a human injured in a war in 1879, found a healing cave with mysterious carvings. Later, he made a deal with a struggling puppet maker named Mahar. However, Mahar tricked Kanduu and trapped him in a dummy. Today, Kanduu captures people in Port Lawrence, including Lucas, turning them into puppets. Isaiah confesses his feelings to Margot while searching for the captives. Kanduu captures Margot, Isaiah, James, Isabella, and Nathan. Nathan discovers a way to defeat Kanduu by gathering people for a sacrifice. Nathan explains that they must go to the remains of Mahar’s old circus for a special ritual. They find a spell to trap Kanduu in a false vision, but he breaks free and goes to finish the task himself.
Isaiah combats Kanduu while Margot reverses the spell, turning him human. The souls of Kanduu’s victims drag him to hell, but he shoots at Margot. Isaiah sacrifices himself to save her. In critical condition, Isaiah is pronounced dying in the hospital. Margot uses the book to revive him, but Nathan discovers that Kanduu’s spirit is now in his body. Devastated over Isaiah’s supposed death, Nathan, crying, sees Kanduu’s face in the mirror, realizing the spirit is inside him.
The cast of the Goosebumps series
The Goosebumps series is well known worldwide, and to direct or perform any character from it is a lot for an actor. No one can imagine the pressure and responsibility on the Actor to play the character with a huge fanbase and present it on-screen. However, before this, there is one more challenge to conquer: directing a series. Here is the list of Directors and Actors of the series:
DIRECTORS:
- Félix Enríquez Alcalá
- David Crossman
- Erin O’Malley
- Steve Boyum
- Rob letterman
CAST:
- Zack Morris as Isaiah
- Isa Briones as Margot
- Ana Yi Puig as Isabella
- Will Price as Lucas
- Miles McKenna as James
- Rachael Harris as Nora (Lucas’s Mother)
- Rob Huebel as Colin (Margot’s Father)
- Leonard Roberts as Ben (Isaiah’s Father)
- Françoise Yip as Victoria (Isabella’s Mother)
- Laura Mennell as Eliza (James Mother)
- Lexa Doig as Sarah (Isaiah’s Mother)
In this series, Zack Morris, Isa Briones, Ana Yi Puig, Will Price, and Miles McKenna are in the main lead roles. They are playing the roles of Isaiah, Margot, Isabella, Lucas, and James. They are the ones who go into the haunted house for a party, and the party becomes the turning point of their lives! Now, how that turn will result for them is an interesting story!
Overview of the story:
With the name Goosebumps, all the old Fantasies and childhood dreams begin to emerge. In the old Goosebumps, released in 2015, many monsters, plants, and animals existed. All those monsters and our favorite Slappy emerged from the book written by the in-movie writer with his typewriter. But in this series, the process was different. Moreover, many things are different from the original, from the characters to the place all things are different, and the story is also different.
In the original movie, there were only 3 main characters in the series and numbers and various monsters, all thanks to the writer. However, in the latest series, there are 5 primary characters and only a handful of creatures (which can’t be truly labeled as monsters). Moreover, the movie’s classic narrative of Goosebumps is brimming with laughter, adventure, horror, and a touch of romance. On the contrary, the new series focuses solely on horror, horror, and more horror.
What inspired Goosebumps?
The widely recognized series of books, Goosebumps, crafted by the author R.L. Stine, originated from Stine’s love for eerie and timeless horror stories. He aimed to construct a collection that would engage the interest of youthful readers, blending tension, humor, and otherworldly elements. Stine drew inspiration from various sources, including his imaginative mind, traditional horror literature, and individual encounters. All these elements converged to form the gripping and exciting narratives of the Goosebumps series.
What kind of show is Goosebumps?
The Goosebumps TV series, a product of the collaboration between Rob Letterman and Nicholas Stoller for Disney+ and Hulu, is an American supernatural comedy horror show. It takes inspiration from R.L. Stine’s book series with identical titles.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if this series is in comparison with the movie, the series will lack the kick of delivering a family movie as the series contains a bit of 18+ content. However, the series is well portrayed, and the kick is missing. The series’ storyline was also good, and the actors who played their roles did a great job. From the actors to the locations, all the things were great, and you can binge-watch the whole series in one day.
The only thing that was missing in the series was the deadly and furious monster which are trying to kill. Also, there was a lack of comedy part. With no Monsters or Funny moments, Goosebumps does not represent itself. However, the character of Slappy is great, and the Slappy remains iconic.
