Hurry, hurry, hurry! Step right up and get your tickets to the ride of your life! Okay, enough with the hyperbole. It's time to take on one of the most iconic Goosebumps books of all time. A book so iconic, it didn't just spawn a sequel, but an entire book series. Does the first book warrant that? Let's line up for One Day At HorrorLand AKA Goosebumps: The Ride.
COVER STORY
This cover is amazing. Another example of when Jacobus can get detailed, he really gets detailed. There's so much to look at on this cover. First of all, the giant HorrorLand sign with the monster looming over it. With it's curly horns, massive claws and glowing red eyes. It engages you, makes you want to see what the rest of this creature looks like. But Jacobus doesn't stop there. You get something that feels so scary in the HorrorLand sign, then look to see the fairgrounds behind it. It looks so wonderful, so inviting, you really want to go there, regardless of what dangers you'll face. Also, as not to waste space, Jacobus adds a creepy looking dead tree that twists and turns. This is why a cover like Piano Lessons Can Be Murder feels like a let down, because Tim's work is best when it's filled with stuff to look at and build up your imagination. Simply put, this cover is one of the best examples of how to sell Goosebumps.
STORY
Our protagonists for this book at the Morris family. Particularly Lizzy, her younger brother Luke, and his superfluous best friend Clay. Luke has a particularly annoying gimmick of pinching people that I'm sure will in no way play into the end of the story. The family are on the road, planning a visit to Zoo Gardens. However, they're also pretty inept and forgot their map, causing them to drive to the middle of nowhere. But on their way, they find a giant sign for HorrorLand with a monster on it. The kids convince their parents to go there instead. Because monster amusement park beats Animals in captivity any day. The parents ultimately agree, and they head to HorrorLand. They exit their car and start walking to the park, when their car suddenly explodes.
Panicked, the family enter the park in search of a phone. They meet the ticket master, a creature in green skin with curly horns and yellow eyes. He's a HorrorLand Horror, the creatures of the park. Since we're early enough in the book where everyone's still unassuming despite the FRIGGING CAR EXPLOSION, the family think the horrors are just people in costumes and move on. There's no phones at the park, but the horror allows them into the park anyway with free admission. The kids see signs in the park that explicitly say "No Pinching". I'm sure that's just a coincidence and nothing more. After visiting Werewolf Village with some realistic looking werewolves, the kids go to the Doom Slide. Its gimmick is that there are a series of slides, one of which is a slide that will cause you to fall forever. How that works is beyond me, but I didn't write the scary kids book for kids. Luke and Lizzy pick the correct slides while superfluous Clay got the unfortunate pick of the never ending slide.
The two kids take the same slide to find Clay and start going down at a rapid pace. However, it does seem like the ride was lying about the forever thing as the kids eventually make it back to the bottom to find Clay. The kids head to the hall of mirrors next, but not before a horror tries to warn them. Regardless, they press on. We get our stock fake out scare as the boys play a trick on Lizzy, pretending they've disappeared. However, the maze of mirrors is so massive that it becomes harder and harder for Lizzy to find them. It's made no better when the walls start to slide in on them, almost crushing them. But the floor gives under them and they end up sliding out. Luke and Clay are having a great time while Lizzy is finally starting to have her fill of this theme park.
More situations of peril ensue as the kids get attacked by tree snakes and evil moving statues. They end up running into an attraction called the Bat Barn which... is just a barn filled with bats. I dunno, I was expecting some sort of twist. After a few more attractions (and ones they don't bother to go to like the guillotine museum), they run into a horror who tells them that their parents left without them. But that was a lie as a little later on, they run into their parents. They confirm that there's no phones to be found in HorrorLand, but the horrors have been nice to them and said they can leave at any time. Lizzy wants to leave now, but since mom and dad haven't been exposed to any of the horrible stuff, they choose to go on the Coffin Cruise. A log ride of sorts that has the riders lay in a coffin. As you'd expect, the lids close shut on the family as they start to go through the ride. After a spider attack in the coffins, they open as the family are safe and sound. But shaken. Very very shaken.
They go to find a way to leave, but the front door is locked up. All the horrors then begin to advance on them. A female horror tells them that the whole family has been filmed for HorrorLand Hidden Camera, a television show on the Monster Channel. They offer the family a brand new car and their freedom, but only if they can survive the HorrorLand Challenge, a deadly one minute obstacle course. This involves the family fighting as many crazy monster concepts that Jovial Bob can pump out to pad the last few pages.
The family manage to survive (after a fake out that the parents had died, but it was all an error from the Monster Channel MC) and learn the truth that the horrors aren't just people in costumes, but living, breathing monsters. Since they didn't escape the obstacle course, the horrors get ready to throw them into bubbling purple liquid. But before they meet their demise, Lizzy remembers the "No Pinching" sign and pinches the arm of the MC. The horror then begins to deflate and die in front of them. The family manages to get out of the park with the horrors chasing them. But the family manage to find a bus and hop on, heading for home.
TWIST ENDING
CONCLUSION
One Day At HorrorLand is what I like to call a "ride story". the kind of story where we jump from set piece to set piece as fast as possible to pad out the story. And for the most part, it works pretty well. I can see why this book was eventually given its own book series concept. An amusement park with a bunch of deadly and exciting attractions is engaging enough for any young reader. And what we get in this book works pretty well. Even the Bat Barn, which is again, just a barn filled with bats. Ooh, spooky. The book is paced well, does have some suspenseful moments and Lizzy is at least tolerable. Luke is annoying and Clay is really unnecessary. Like, you could have made it just the Morris family and lost nothing in the process.
I do wish we could have gotten more personality for the horrors, or even seen more of how they exist. Hell, the concept of a cable channel centered around monsters sounds like an idea that would on its own be strong enough for a Goosebumps book. In fact, a plus to the episode is that they actually do have a bit more fun with the concept of a monster channel, with an actually funny ad for a monster music hits soundtrack. Hell, even the episode does a better twist with the Morris family in their new car, falling off a cliff to their death until a horror turns the channel. Seriously, this is a rare occasion where an episode of the show is actually makes changes that benefit the story.
Something else I liked about this book that feels fresh is that the parents are heavily involved in trying to survive in the end, even getting injured. We really haven't had that in these books. The closest I can recall is Dead House, but they were tied up until the conclusion. I'd say cherish it, because it really won't be happening again for a good while. In the end, it's a great cover, a decent story, and while not perfect, does hold up well enough as a really cool concept.
Ride on, you wacky monsters! One Day At HorrorLand gets a B.
No comments:
Post a Comment