Underrated ‘Goosebumps’ episodes will bring your inner child back from the 90s

8 my hairiest adventure

Larry is a disgruntled teenager who his friends love to tease and the local dogs love to stalk. He and his buddies play in a band that is rehearsing in an abandoned garage, where they find an old bottle of suntan lotion and decide to use it.

so they can be “bronze gods” for their upcoming concert. But as soon as he puts on the lotion, Larry discovers that he has hair growing all over his body. Believing this to be the result of a very unwise decision, the poor fellow keeps this embarrassing and somewhat frightening secret to himself. But what he doesn’t expect is that suntan lotion has nothing to do with it, and his parents and family doctor know much more about his strange condition than he does.

It’s an interesting game about the struggles of puberty where Larry suspects that his friends must also be experiencing the same symptoms but feel too embarrassed and ashamed to handle them, leading him to increasingly embarrassing cover-up attempts. The episode really explores the idea of ​​a young man’s body becoming unrecognizable in a frightening way, with a focus on body horror and unprecedented transformation. This is a disturbing story with a completely unexpected discovery that ties all the mysteries together.

7 Attack of the pumpkin lanterns

Like a forgotten episode of Halloween Goosebumps, Attack of the Pumpkin Lanterns is a fun spooky romp that takes advantage of the anonymity of storytelling provided by every kid’s favorite holiday. Drew and Walker are tired of the local idiots Lee and Tubby’s annual Halloween pranks and decide to get revenge on them with the help of their friends, the twins Shane and Shana. When the gang is confronted by two imposing figures wearing pumpkin lantern masks on Halloween night, who demand they keep serving candy for eternity, Drew and Walker assume that it is their friends who are helping them get revenge. They soon learn that this is not entirely true.

Notable voice actor Erica Luttrell delightful as fun and playful as Drew, with some incredible chemistry with her young actors and those who play her parents. There are some hilariously dated effects sequences that really capture the nostalgia of ’90s kids TV, and of course, Stein’s classic twist that leaves the characters in a cliffhanger. It’s a fun, colorful throwback with equal doses of laughter and fear.

6 house of no return

This enjoyable episode is the story of a group of bullies who learn their mistakes at the hands of a long-dead childless couple who want to adopt their little family. Dylan Provencher of You Can’t Scare Me is back, this time as Chris, new in town, targeted by a trio of mean kids who call themselves Danger Incorporated. They have a history of locking the kids in an abandoned house to earn their place in the gang, but when Chris fails to return after the allotted hour, they discover it’s not just an old house.

Featuring a classic Disney Haunted Manor-style haunted house, it’s filled to the brim with eerie visuals, including a slew of charmingly bad “day instead of night” shots, and a rather chilling cliffhanger that leaves the fates of all the young characters uncertain. . He looks defiantly and gleefully at the tables turning against the aggressors, allowing the audience to truly enjoy these obnoxious children tasting their own medicine.

5 chillogy

The only original story written for the series, and the only three-part episode, “Hillogia” is an anomaly for Goosebumps. The framing device involves several children who encounter beetle juicean exemplary city into which they are drawn and experience their own dizzying adventures. The plastic, picturesque ethos of the 1950s city is maintained by the maniacal Mayor Carl, who wears a stunning line of glittery blazers and aims to teach kids some valuable life lessons about greed, courage, and self-confidence.

Daniel Cash gives a powerful performance as Carl with impeccable comedic sophistication, turning the character into one of those anti-heroes you can’t help but love. Grey’s Anatomy star Caterina Scorsone plays businesslike Jessica, who uses the naivete of Carlsville natives to her advantage and learns about ethical business practices the hard way. It’s a crazy, cartoony three-part movie that fully embraces the tongue-in-cheek approach to the material and inspires a lot more laughs than fear, which sets it apart from most series.

4 ghost next door

All GoosebumpsThe fourth season consisted of two-part episodes started by The Ghost Next Door. Hannah is alone at home when she notices a shadowy figure roaming the neighborhood. The phone seems to be out of order, so she runs and meets Danny, who has moved into an abandoned house across the street. Increasingly creepy events lead Hannah to believe that Danny is a ghost, so when she walks right through the boy at the end of the first part, they are horrified to realize that she is, in fact, dead.

This is in the spirit of many earlier ghost stories such as “Ghost” in which Hannah decides she must be loitering on the ground for some purpose she needs to complete before moving on to the next plan. Its logic doesn’t always hold up, but it’s a funny and at times poignant two-parter with good performances by young actors and fun set design, along with some surprisingly clunky late ’90s technology.

3 Shock Street Shocker

In a style more like science fiction than horror, Shock Street Shocker takes an exciting premise and turns it upside down with one of Goosebumps‘ More memorable twist endings. Erin’s father is an inventor who specializes in creating creature effects for the film industry, so when the studio he works for turns into a theme park with a sightseeing attraction, he’s in charge of the project and wants his daughter to be the first to try it out. She and her friend Marty travel to Shock Street only for things to go wrong and revelations to surface about what is really going on behind the scenes.

Filmed at Centerville Amusement Park in Toronto, this is one of several theme parks. Goosebumps story, and the location really gives the episode a sense of authenticity and structure. Young Brooke Nevin (later known as Animorphs) stars as Erin and has good friendly chemistry with Ben Cook like Marty. The episode takes the opportunity to add a bunch of Easter eggs to the movie studio buffets with masks from earlier episodes, such as Haunted Mask 1 and 2 And Calling all creepsand other works from the workshop of the master of serial effects Ron Stefanyuk.

2 How to kill a monster

Gretchen and Clark are half-siblings sent to visit their crazy grandparents in the swamp while their parents are on their honeymoon. The house is old and rickety, Clark’s allergies are taking their toll, and who knows what lurks in the dark swamp outside. Children are warned to stay away from a certain room in the house, which naturally means that this is their first port of call when they are alone. Trapped in a house with nothing to rely on but their wits, they are horrified to find themselves face to face with a huge swamp monster and struggle to come up with ever crazier ideas on how to save themselves.

Helen Hughes And Peter Boretsky give brilliant, quirky performances as geeky old grandparents and laugh a bit at the material while still maintaining the creep factor. The title monster is a brilliant combination of costumed actor and puppetry, and the swamp setting lends a hostile and isolated feel to the entire episode, which features only four human characters.

1 The scarecrow walks at midnight

This creepy little episode is somewhere in the middle children of the corn And Scarecrow B-movies of the early 2000s. Jody and Mark stay at their grandparents’ farm for the summer, but soon start to notice creepy things. Farmhand Stanley and his son Styx seem to be up to something fishy while their grandparents try to find excuses for their strange behavior. It turns out that eccentric old Stanley has a spellbook and is trying to elevate his position in life by using the power of magic over his employers and their effigies.

Scarecrow Walks at Midnight leans much more towards the horror genre than some of the other episodes, with a notable dream scene that is genuinely scary and could very well give young viewers nightmares over the years. Michael Koopman beautiful as childish, cross-eyed Stanley, while Chris Lemche gives his debut performance as tough country boy Styx.