Goosebumps released a less than exciting television adaptation on October, Friday the 13th.
Goosebumps only has five episodes so far, with the 6th prepared to come out October 20th. As someone who’s interested in the goosebumps franchise, this new series was something to be excited for. However, that excitement quickly faded while watching the first episode with disappointment taking over by the end of it.
The first episode, titled “Say cheese and die,” starts off with a teen boy making his way to a house far into the woods. Once inside, he goes down into the basement and after some ghostly antics with objects moving on their own and knocks coming from nowhere, the house burns down. 30 years later, we meet the cast: Isaiah, James, Allison, and Margot. The house from the beginning returns when it’s the venue for an upcoming party. In preparation, Isaiah made his way down to the basement where he found some of the boy’s belongings, which included a polaroid camera. The camera predicts the future and says that Isaiah’s arm will break, leading to the end of his football season. In an attempt to stop this, he burns the camera. Regardless of this, Isaiah breaks his arm as the camera foretold while being chased by imaginary demons.
Like anything from Goosebumps, the storyline is almost entirely lifted from the book of the same title, with little changes made to fit places and aspects of character. Most of the changes made were just to fit the current year and the character’s ages. While I do like some of the writing decisions made, the rest are a problem with modern television in general, without an exception with Goosebumps.
Some changes that I enjoyed were changes of the character’s motives. In the original story the characters were in the house to explore. Now, it’s more interactive by making it the venue of a party, which can fit the current era where kids feel like they’re maturing faster and enjoying themselves more. Goosebumps has a target audience of teens, so making the characters more realistic and relatable can increase their enjoyment of the movie.
What I didn’t enjoy was how the writers forced pop-culture into the show. Hearing characters say things like “Super patriarchal of you” or “I have anxiety” into casual conversation made for clunky dialogue and completely took me out of the episode. These moments aren’t rare either. They pop up a decent amount with each one being equally as out of place as the last. A problem with many shows is they try to implement too many popular topics, and it can lead to being taken out of the story and can slow the progression of the world by making it too similar to ours. Hopefully in future episodes they leave dialogue like that behind.
Goosebumps is a pretty decent show. Like any Goosebumps adaptation, it follows the same story as the original with small changes to make it stand out. Though the dialogue can be off sometimes, the characters and how the storylines are executed is enjoyable to watch. I recommend giving the show a try if you’re into horror comedies.
