I want to apologize right now for how stupid and dorky this article is going to be. It’s all under the guise of showcasing this new poster for the kids film Goosebumps (click to enlarge):
To stay on topic for a little bit, I actually like this poster (except for how Slappy the ventriloquist doll is totally perving on Odeya Rush)! It’s selling the monsters over the actors which is cool in my book. If I was six years old and saw this poster (with no knowledge of the Goosebumps series of books), I’d be begging to see this. I’d list off the books that these monsters come from (Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, Night of the Living Dummy, Attack of the Jack-O’-Lanterns, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, A Shocker on Shock Street), but I don’t want to look like a total loser now do I?
I’m under no such belief that this film is going to be good (it’s directed by the same person who gave us Jack Black’s nightmare version of Gulliver’s Travels), but I am definitely going to see it. I was deep into the Goosebumps books when they hit the scene (I remembering watching the premiere of the Goosebumps TV show, “The Haunted Mask”), and thanks to those and Are You Afraid of the Dark? (which I will genuinely defend as pretty great horror television for kids), my lifelong love of the horror genre was cemented. If not for those two properties, my dad never would have taken notice of my interests and introduced me to HBO’s Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow, and I may never have learned at an early age (which I think is important) that horror can be fun and funny while also being scary.
I owe it to R.L. Stine to check out this probably-not-good adaptation of his life’s work (we should be getting a trailer very soon). Plus, I feel the need to support horror-themed material aimed at kids since that’s a very dwindling market. We just don’t get anymore The Monster Squads these days, and if Goosebumps actually fares well (it won’t), maybe that could change. Let me dream just a little while longer.
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