Creepers Book 1 The Piano

 

Weeks ago I was in my local Dollar Tree trying to find snacks,with my trips to the coast I usually buy snacks at Dollar Tree to save cash,and I saw there was a pile of these fairly short kids horror books. Averaging 100 pages and costing $1.25 I took the chance and grabbed the 4 I found on the shelves.

Days maybe weeks later the bag they were in was sorta and I did some research. I had figured they were some kids horror books made recently thanks to the Goosebumps movies doing big money. 

Nope these were UK published originally in the 90s when Goosebumps was huge.

There's the UK cover.

Some Canadian company got the rights to the 29 or so of these books. And now is republishing them with new covers and they are sold at Dollar Tree for $1.25 each. Heard they get released in batches of 5 every few months. With 10 so far being out. And yes I have found all ten.

The Piano has a family who's daughter plays piano. They find a nice one for cheap while out one day and buy it. But this is a spooky piano. One that will just start playing one of two songs.

The piano and songs have a connection to  the mother. And one night when the parents are gone and a bad storm hits the piano's songs finally reveal their warning to the kids. To not move to a new home known as Treetops.

The next day the family is recovering from the storm and all that the night before and learn during the storm the new home they were considering in Treetops was hit and the owner crushed.

Sure this is written for kids 6 to 10. If I had been that age when these were out I would have read a few and then borrowed some King or Barker from my Uncle. 

Only paying a bit over a buck for it,this made for perfect "throne" reading. Yea I am one of those that likes to read while in the bathroom. The chapters being so short they are perfect for this.

From the bit of research I did on these books seems they are aimed at  a younger audience than the Goosebumps books. So maybe once I finish these 10 I should read a Goosebumps novel see how that reads to me. I didnt mind the TV show back in the day.

Creepers Book 1 The Piano gets a C-. 

31 Days of Horror Day 20 another Goosebumps 3 pack Thriller DVD set

TITLE-RL Stine's Goosebumps 3-Pack Thriller
SOURCE-Schoolastic DVDs

Yep I have another 3 pack of Goosebump DVDs. When I picked up the set I reviewed yesterday I also got this set. Unlike the previous set this one I forgot I had. Right after I bought it I loaned it out to some friends. And just got it back a few weeks ago. Like the previous set this is just a repackaging of Goosebump DVDs. Unlike the previous set each DVD in this set has 3 episodes on each DVD.

The first DVD is titled Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns. The first episode is of course titled Attack of the Jack O Lanterns. Lee and Tabby love scaring their friends each Halloween. But this Halloween four of their friends plan on scaring the hell out of Lee and Tabby. Being a episode of Goosebumps of course this backfires. Everyone is going to be scared this Halloween. The idea for this episode is a neat one. Everyone can remember trying to scare your friends and family on Halloween night. Sadly the acting and FX work in this episode are subpar. Maybe the budget was lower for the episode,which would explain why the FX work isn't up to the level of most episodes of Goosebumps. But wow the 6 main kids in this episode are just horrible actors and actresses. I doubt I ever watch this episode again.

The next episode is titled Vampire Breath.Cara and Freddy Renfield,I love their last name,find a hidden door in their home. This door leads them to a underground cave. The cave is full of bats...VAMPIRE BATS!!! Sure the premise is something that has been done to death. Cara is a damn good actress and manages to take a story that everyone with even a passing interest in horror fiction has seen before and makes it worth seeing again. The FX work is really good. So good it makes me think they went over budget with it so took some of the money budgeted for the FX work for the previous episode.

Final episode on this DVD is Let's Get Invisible.Noah and his best friend Max find a dark and mysterious mirror.This mirror has supernatural powers. It can make Max and Noah invisible. Of course being an episode of Goosebumps the evil mirror makes it where they can't control being invisible. This episode of one of the ones I know I saw years ago when Fox Family was reruning Goosebumps. I love the invisbile effect.

Up next is the disc titled The Headless Ghost.And yep you guessed it the first episode is The Headless Ghost.In Hill House,a dark haunted house,Steph and Duanne meet a headless ghost. The ghost is 13 years old and if our two leads can't help him find his head he will just have to take one of their heads. Normally I find most episodes of Goosebumps to be creepy. This episode is actually pretty scary. I am a bit surprised how dark and scary it is when the show was aimed at kids ages 6 to 12. It is the only episode I have seen of Goosebumps that I would recommend not showing to younger kids. It might cause them to have nightmares.

Second episode is titled Awesome Ants.Dave has a ant farm he loves. These two boys start feeding the ants real food. This has an unexpected side effect which causes the ants to start growing. And now Dave has to figure out how to deal with his growing,see what I did there,problem of giant ants. Really there is nothing scary or spooky about Awesome Ants. Sometimes there was an episode of Goosebumps that just totally misses the mark and this is one of them. Dave and Ben are fairly decent actors.  The FX of the ants is well done. But the whole thing just falls flat. Awesome Ants is another episode of Goosebumps that I do not see myself watching again.

The final episode of this DVD is Teacher's Pet.Becca is so happy that she is getting to go on an overnight nature retreat for science class. Expecting to have a fun time checking out all the wildlife and learning more about nature. Then she starts to question if she will survive this trip or end up being food for a bunch of snakes. Man this is another episode that isn't spooky. I get the feeling if I had seen this as a kid I would have enjoyed it. But as a adult it just has nothing to keep my interest. While watching it I was constantly checking to see how much time was left. That is never a good sign. Oh well not every episode can be a winner.

The third and final DVD in the set is The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. Which of course has up first the episode titled The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.Jodie and Mark are at their grandparent's farm,what is it about Goosebumps and grandparents having spooky homes? The kids realize their is something odd going on at the farm. Then it gets odder when a dozen new scarecrows show up. And these 12 scarecrows have more in mind than just scaring crows. I have always found scarecrows to be creepy. The scarecrows in this episode are uber creepy and add a lot to the episode.

Don't Go to Sleep is up next.Matt is not happy with his family. He wishes they were different. But after a nap in the attic he awakens to find to be careful what you wish for. Cause now his family is very very different. This is another Goosebumps episode that takes a old trope,this time they managed to take that trope and make it interesting again.

The final episode of this DVD and the last one on the set is Calling All Creeps.Ricky thinks he is super smart when he puts a mean annoying girl's phone number into a personal ad. Of course this backfires on him. Ricky starts to get scary midnight calls. While this isn't the worst episode of Goosebumps I have seen it is very very far from the best. Pretty much it is a very middle of the road episode. With nothing about it standing out.

This set wasn't as good as the one I covered yesterday. Too many of the episodes are pretty forgettable. And the best episode isn't as good as the best one on the previous set. Add in that the previous set had 10 total episodes and this one only has 9. Sure that is only a one episode difference.  Still maybe if they had added another episode it might have been a really good one.

Goosebumps 3 Pack Thriller DVD set gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 19 Goosebumps 3 pack thriller set

TITLE-Goosebumps 3 pack Thriller

SOURCE-Schoolastic DVD

When Goosebumps hit TV back in the fall of 1995 I watched it a few times. But that was  a period of time when I didn't watch much TV. What I saw of the show I enjoyed. And the few times I caught reruns of the show on the Fox Family channel I really enjoyed the show. But it is a show that I kind of forgot about. Which is odd cause I have always loved horror anthology TV shows.

Over a year ago I was at a junkstore in town that I hit up every month. This place had at the time a great selection of VHS and a decent selection of DVDs. I was looking through the VHS and the owner of the store came over to tell me that he had a box full of DVDs he had just got. "The ones with red paint on the spine I am asking $1.50 each. Or if you buy 6 or more you can have them 2 for a buck." I dug through the box and found a bunch of stuff. But the highlights are dvd pack pictured above. 

This pack  is a repackaging of the older Goosebump DVDs. So you get 2 to 4 episodes of the TV show per DVD. Earlier today I was wanting something to watch. And I wanted it to be something short. That way I could watch an episode or two between doing laundry and taking care of cleaning the house.

The first DVD I put in my blu ray player was the Night of the Living Dummy DVD. This was one of the discs that only has 2 episodes on it. They are two of the most popular episodes. What I don't get is from what I can find there is 3 episodes of the Goosebump TV show dealing with Slappy,Who is a evil ventriloquist dummy,but this DVD is missing the first episode where Slappy appeared. The disc starts with Night of the Living Dummy II.Amy's dummy,named Dennis,keeps literally losing his head. So her parent gets her a new dummy. This new dummy is Slappy and of course all kinds of crazy things start to happen once Slappy is in the house.This isn't a bad episode and it is one I have not seen before. 

The other episode on the DVD is Bride of the Living Dummy. In this episode 3 kids and one of the kid's doll,named Mary-Ellen, see a show with famous ventriloquist Jimme O'James. Jimmie's dummy is of course Slappy. At the show Slappy sees and falls in love with Mary-Ellen. Not long after the show Slappy shows up at Mary-Ellen's owner's home and of course strange things start to happen. Both episode are pretty good. But I do wish they had included the first appearence of Slappy.

The next DVD was titled Say Cheese and Die. Like the first DVD this is another disc with just two episodes on it. I did some research and when these DVDs first came out they were retailing for 20 bucks each. That is a bit high for what amounts to a bit over 40 minutes of programming. 

Like the Night of the Living Dummy DVD this DVD has two episodes that are connected. Up first is the titular episode. Greg Banks and his friends Doug and Shari sneak into an old abandoned house. They find an hidden cabinet and in this cabinet find a odd looking very large old fashioned camera. They take a picture using the camera and learn that the camera not only takes pictures of the future but also causes bad things to happen. I remember an episode of the Friday the 13th TV show that had a similar premise. Of course that show was a bloody show made for adults. But this Goosebumps episode is actually a bit scary. And is one that I bet frightened a few kids.

The other episode on the DVD is the sequel to Say Cheese and Die.This episode is titled ,and I love how much thought and effort was put into this title,Say Cheese and Die...AGAIN!!! LOL Greg does an oral report on the evil camera he found in the previous episode. His horrid teacher, Mr Saur,gives Greg a F on this report cause he doesn't believe Greg. So Greg has to find the camera. And like before bad things start to happen. This episode isn't nearly as good as the other one on the disc. A big part of that is Mr Saur isn't a good actor.

The final DVD in this pack is titled Monster Blood. Thankfully unlike the other two DVDs this one has 4 episodes on it. So you get 1 1/2 hours of Goosebumps goodness. The first episode is titled of course Monster Blood. Evan is forced to visit his odd Aunt Kathryn. In her home Evan finds a dusty can labeled Monster Blood.The green and slimy goop in this can is starting to grow. Will Evan be able to stop the Monster Blood from taking over the home? This episode is one I remember seeing back when Goosebumps was airing on Fox Kids afternoon line up of shows.

Our next episode is a sequel to Monster Blood,and it is titled More Monster Blood. Gotta love how creative the show is with their titles.Evan is heading to Atlanta Georgia to meet up with his parents. Having thought he took care of the monster blood in the previous episode,he is shocked when he finds out the monster blood is on the plane he is traveling on. Overall this is a way better episode than the first monster blood episode. 

Up third is the episode How to Kill a Monster.Clark and Gretchen are visiting their elderly grandparents. The grandparents are mostly harmless,but a bit forgetful. So the elderly couple forget to warn their beloved grandchildren about the monster locked in the upstairs part of the house. Now I haven't seen that many episodes of Goosebumps.I am guessing I have seen maybe 15 or so. But this episode is the worst I have seen. The premise is pretty decent. But the two kids are horrible actors. And unlike most  episodes of Goosebumps the effects in this one are really bad. They look like the FX work in a really bad Chris Seaver film. I kept expecting Teen Ape to show up. I would say skip this episode.

The final episode on this last DVD in the pack is The Girl Who Cried Monster.Our lead,Lucy,loves to tell monster stories. Then she encounters a real monster,Mr Mortman the local librarian. And to make it even worse her parents invite this monster to dinner.I wasn't expecting much from this episode. Then was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Lucy is a fairly good actress. And Mr Mortman is really really creepy. The Girl Who Cried Monster is a great way to end this DVD.

So I got 10 episodes of Goosebumps. Spread across 3 DVDs. Out of the 10 there is only one episode that isn't worth watching. And besides that episode the only other major complaint I have is not getting the episode with the first appearance of Slappy. Really for how cheap I got this set these are minor complaints. I looked on Amazon and you can get this set brand new for under 10 bucks. Which is a good deal. If you have kids that are into horror this is a great affordable DVD set to get. There is nothing so scary in any episode that would frighten a kid. But the episodes are creepy and worth seeing.

Goosebumps 3 pack thriller DVD set gets a solid B.