The Goosebumps franchise started in 1992 when writer R.L. Stine published the first book in the series, Welcome to Dead House. While the books gave children nightmares, the TV show that ran for four seasons from 1995 to 1998 is equally as memorable. The Goosebumps franchise has continued into 2020, with Stine still releasing more Goosebumps books and a new generation of fans being introduced to the characters thanks to Sony’s two films.
Horror anthology series continue to be a big draw today, and a new Goosebumps TV show is even in the works. While the upcoming series is sure to give viewers a good scare, there are some characters from the original series that are still terrifying even after 25 years.
Shane & Shana
“Attack of the Jack-o-Lanterns” begins with Drew and Walker being bullied by two of their peers. Shane and Shana were Drew’s best friends, but they had moved away the year before and were also aliens. When they return for Halloween, they offer to help Drew and Walker scare their bullies.
They take the form of two giant Jack-O-Lantern monsters with pumpkins for heads and giant lobster claws for hands. It’s also later revealed that Shane and Shana had eaten the four missing people from their town. This act triggered Drew’s nightmare where she and her friends were kidnapped, which is arguably the scariest part of the episode in addition to the Jack-O-Lantern aliens.
Mr. Mortman
The season one episode “The Girl Who Cried Monster” centers around a young girl named Lucy who loves monster stories. She terrorizes her little brother with scary stories, but she herself becomes terrified after she realizes the school librarian is a monster. Mr. Mortman transforms into a creature at night and eats crickets and tarantulas in the library.
Of course, with all of the stories she tells about monsters, nobody believes her when she encounters one in real life. The prosthetics used in the episode look grotesque even after all these years, and the fact that he eats tarantulas automatically earns him a spot on this list.
The Horrors
“One Day at Horrorland” was one of the two-parter episodes of season three. In the episode, the Morris family gets lost on their road trip and stumble upon a theme park called Horrorland. At first, the family doesn’t think anything of the workers and just assume they are in really good costumes.
It turns out that the workers are actually a race of monsters called Horrors led by the villain Retch. After playing a deathly game show, a parody of Wheel of Fortune called Horrorland Hidden Camera, a Horror named Blek helps them escape. While Blek turned out to be a friendly Horror, it doesn’t make the monsters any less frightening.
Scarecrows
Like a lot of the stories in Goosebumps, the scarecrows in “The Scarecrow Walk at Midnight” are brought to life using a magic spell. While scarecrows can be creepy in general, the masks used for this episode are especially spooky. There is also a dream sequence in this episode where two of the scarecrows attack Jodie. Even though their faces look more human in this scene, it still provides a good scare.
“The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight” is considered one of the better episodes of Goosebumps, and the monsters in this episode is one of the main reasons for that.
The Lawn Gnomes
Movies revolving around evil dolls are quite a popular sub-section of the horror genre, but “Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes” is even scarier than a little doll. What makes the gnomes in this episode frightening is that, instead of being little 9-inch figurines, they are life-sized so that actors could dress up as the lawn ornaments.
The gnome props' sculpts are creepy, but watching the actors dress up as the gnomes is truly the stuff of nightmares. It doesn’t help that the gnomes are voiced by Cal Dodd, the actor who voices Slappy.
The Swamp Monster
A handful of Goosebumps episodes take place in a swamp, but “How to Kill a Monster” features one of the scariest creatures in the whole series. When Gretchen and her stepbrother Clark visit her grandparents, they discover a monster in their house. The monster is a 10-foot tall grotesque creature that is supposed to resemble a mixture of a dinosaur and a chicken.
The special effects department did a great job with the monster costume, and the screech of the creature is equally chilling. The monster’s weaknesses are kind of silly, spicy gumbo, and an allergy to humans, but the creature design doesn’t disappoint.
Rip & Crystal’s Mom
“Cry of the Cat” is one of the few Goosebumps episodes that is based on R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps Series 2000 books. The episode is about a pair of rude teenage actors making a parody of The Exorcist. After Allison runs over a cat named Rip, the furry feline takes his revenge to get one of his nine lives back.
Rip isn’t seen for most of the episode, but one of the final scenes shows Rip in all his glory along with Crystal’s mom, who is half-cat, half-human. “Cry of the Cat” may not be one of the stand-out episodes of Goosebumps, but the make-up and creature design were truly grotesque.
The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
“The Werewolf of Fever Swamp” is one of the most iconic Goosebumps books, and the filmmakers behind the TV series did a great job of adapting it for the small screen. There are dozens of werewolf stories and movies out there, but “The Werewolf of Fever Swamp” managed to be scary, even though it’s in a 90s kids show.
The werewolf isn’t seen for a lot of the two-part episode, but the quick glimpses viewers get make it even scarier, especially since the wardrobe department managed to create a scary costume for the actor to wear. There are even a few jump scares that still hold up today.
The Unloved (Haunted Masks)
The first-ever episode of Goosebumps, “The Haunted Mask” aired on October 27, 1995. The episode featured a young girl named Carly Beth who desperately wants to scare her peers after years of being bullied. She eventually finds a terrifying mask in a Halloween shop, which becomes permanently glued to her. Near the end of the episode, after Carly Beth realizes her mistake, the collection of masks made by the shopkeeper float out of the store and chase her.
While it made for a horrifying and memorable scene in Goosebumps, the scares continued a year later in “The Haunted Mask II” when the main mask returned along with a new horrifying creation.
Slappy & Mary Ellen
Out of all the Goosebumps characters that R.L. Stine has created, Slappy is by far his most popular. Stine has written several books devoted to the character, Sony’s two movies revolved around him, and the character got a total of four episodes in the Goosebumps TV series.
Slappy is an evil ventriloquist dummy brought to life by the words “Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molanu Karrano.” Slappy himself was scary, but that was amplified even more when he took on a bride in the season three episode “Bride of the Living Dummy.” Sure, several dummies were brought to life in “Night of the Living Dummy III,” but Mary-Ellen takes the cake for the short time she was alive.