In January of 2000, Goosebumps came to an end after a consistent run of seven and a half years. The once meteoric franchise that had sold millions in the nineties was finally waning in popularity, and from within, things weren't as rosy. A battle between Scholastic and Parachute Press had left everyone sour and when came time to renew his contract, R.L Stine did not. As such, multiple Goosebumps books down the pipeline were cancelled. Stine moved on to other products like The Nightmare Room, Mostly Ghostly and Rotten School. It seemed like the once venerable Goosebumps was finally dead.
But, of course we wouldn't be talking about more Goosebumps if that were the case, obviously. In 2003, it seemed that tensions finally began to cool as Scholastic bought the rights to the franchise and rolled the series back out through new reprints. Slowly other Goosebumps products began to circulate, including a series of graphic novels called Goosebumps Grafix, which had classic stories retold through different comic artists. But we fast forward to 2008, when Stine and Scholastic felt it was finally time to bring Goosebumps back. And they were going to go big. And what better way than to use one of the franchise's most iconic settings. Thus on April 1st, 2008 Goosebumps HorrorLand was released.
A few things noticeably changed with the release of HorrorLand. For starters, Stine was no longer bound to a "book per month" structure from Scholastic. The first few books were released in that structure, but the series was allowed to be more lax as time went on, to the point that Stine puts out just around three books per year, allowing him to work on other things like a recent Fear Street revival. Also gone was artist Tim Jacobus, whose iconic artwork helped build Goosebumps into the franchise it became in the 90s. Enter artist Brandon Dorman.
What was in however was that for the first time, Goosebumps would have a continuing story arc. You see, the books were now split into two parts. The main event Goosebumps story, and a set of chapters referred to as "Enter HorrorLand", where the protagonist of the previous story would be invited to the theme park as a growing mystery begins to surround itself. Also, re-releases of many of the original books would also be released coinciding with each new HorrorLand book. Unfortunately, that means we're getting a lot of sequels throughout. 19 books were released in total. 12 that featured the original plot, and a second act that followed later on.
So, without further ado, let's look at the first book in the series, and wouldn't you know it? It's another visit to our old pal, Slappy. It's Revenge of the Living Dummy.
COVER STORY
This cover has an unenviable task put in front of it. You get Slappy front and center, making you realize that this is indeed a story about him, but this also needs to be a cover that introduces HorrorLand as a concept. So, it's filled with more distractions, many of which will play into later books in the series. There's some good detail, albeit the art is quite cramped, and Slappy still looks creepy, but lacks the fright punch that Tim's provided in the 90s. I will say that Dorman's Slappy isn't my favorite look for him.
Overtime he ends up looking more like Big Boy Caprice than the evil dummy we know and tolerate. Regardless, it's Dorman's first foot forward and for what it is, it does what's needed.
STORY
We open the book with Britney Crosby and her best friend Molly Molloy in a graveyard. They're digging a grave, yet are still being very vague as to what they're burying. As the two kids get ready to bury, a hand reaches up and grabs Britney's leg. But the story's moving a bit too fast forward, so let's kick it back to two weeks prior. Britney is in a particularly bad mood because her younger cousin Ethan is staying over for the foreseeable future due to his parents being away. Ethan is said to be a particular pain who likes to mess with Britney and Molly, particularly in the "kicking them in the knees" department. Ethan soon arrives at the Crosby house and he's not alone. He brings with him a rather familiar ventriloquist dummy. It's obviously Slappy, but Ethan has taken to calling him "Mr. Badboy", a name that only a nine year old or an author in his sixties could come up with. He even has a catchphrase of "I'm a baaad boy".
What is he frigging Egghead from A Day at the Zoo?
To ensure that Britney's claims of Evil Ethan are true and not hyperbole, he has Mr. Badboy swing his arm and clonk her on the head, saying that the dummy did it. Britney heads to Molly's, but is forced to drag Ethan along, who continues to be a pain. We learn a bit more about Molly's dad, who is an explorer who collects certain artifacts from the places he visits. He's kind of like a fat Indiana Jones. After checking out Mr. Badboy, feeling something is familiar about it,Mr. Molloy invites the kids to check out his latest find from Mumba (no, not Mumbai). This recent find is a wooden doll with a shrunken head attached. It's referred to as a mind stealer, and those who touch it can end up with their mind stolen. But it's okay to keep in his house because it's under triple thick glass. What could possibly...
Um, never mind.
Later after dinner, Britney has to move all her stuff to the sewing room while Ethan gets her room in the attic because reasons? After, she's forced to listen to Ethan's stand up routine with Mr. Badboy. She's impressed, even saying that she has to do art for the old people's home as part of the school's one hour of community service. She even throws Ethan a bone saying he can do some comedy. But then Britney starts to see Mr. Badboy move his mouth and head on his own, laughing and even burping. She tries to ask how Ethan made it move, but then he starts to well up with tears, telling her that Mr. Badboy is alive.
Britney laughs it off, since Ethan has been pegged to be a little scumbag for most of the book so far, and starts to continue to move her stuff. She begins to move her autographed poster of her favorite band Skullboy, professing her love for band member Buzzy, but Ethan says that Mr. Badboy would prefer that stay up, but she takes it to her new room instead. Yeah, that's an easy setup for that poster being trashed later. At dinner, Ethan has Mr. Badboy tell more jokes, which really crack Britney up, to the point she causes a scene. Her parents get mad at her instead of Ethan because... well Ethan's jokes aren't that funny, dude. After visiting Molly's the next day, she heads to her room, and le gasp! The Skullboy poster is destroyed! What a complete and utter shocker. Also, a painting she worked on of her dead dog has been ruined, so yeah, this is a complete attempt to break her. She goes to yell at Ethan, but he's nowhere to be seen. But Mr. Badboy is there and he tells her that he doesn't like her. She goes to tell her parents about everything, but of course they don't believe her and take Ethan's side because Goosebumps parents. Yay, new era, same bad parenting!
She wakes up the next day, ready to go to school, but gets shoved down the stairs. Ethan again claims that it was Mr. Badboy, who soon tells Britney that snitches literally get stitches. At school, Molly tells Britney that she's tired of having the mind stealer in her house and the two need to bury it. So, click click, there's what the first chapter alluded to. And yes, the hand that grabs at them was Ethan. Regardless, the kids bury the mind stealer, but Britney is still concerned about the whole possible evil dummy situation. Next up, Britney goes to paint for the elderly, but is of course forced to take Ethan with her. He performs with Mr. Badboy who makes a bunch of vulgar jokes, then starts throwing paint at everyone. Well, it's different from pea soup or stinging soap I guess.
Britney heads to Molly's and wants to know if her father knows anything about the dummy, but her father is in Australia, so they have to find answers themselves. Conveniently, there's a photo of Mr. Badboy, with writing on the back that reveals what we all knew. The dummy is indeed Slappy. We get the same origin story from Bride of the Living Dummy, and the words that awaken and put him to sleep are there as well. They head back home as Ethan and her parents are out. They approach Mr. Badboy and say the six words Karru Marri Odoma Loma Molonu Karrano. The dummy slumps down, and Britney thinks she's won... except that Molly finds a remote control in one of Ethan's jeans pockets. A remote control that makes Slappy move and say stuff. Yes, somehow this kid is so evil that he managed to fully automate a ventriloquist dummy for the sole purpose of physically and mentally torturing his cousin. Right down to the point of destroying a beloved autographed poster of hers and graffito tagging a painting of her beloved dead dog. Holy crap. So yeah, screw Ethan. Oh, and Slappy's now actually alive since she said the words. Oops.
Later that night Slappy grabs at Britney and calls her his slave, saying that she is to go get the mind stealer for him. But Britney refuses since, you know, he's still just a dummy and all, so he decides to go get it himself. She chases after the dummy and the two make it to the graveyard. Before Slappy can grab the mind stealer, Britney scuffles with him and holds him over her head, just as her parents arrive. Slappy goes limp, and the parents yell at Britney for supposedly trying to bury Ethan's prized dummy. Britney, not letting Slappy win, slams him into the mind stealer. A green light flashes and Slappy is lifeless once more.
TWIST ENDING
Britney reburies the mind stealer and is about to leave, but she hears Slappy's voice calling to her from the doll, promising he'll be back because...
ENTER HORRORLAND
Britney gets an invitation to go to HorrorLand, so she brings Molly along with her. There's no Ethan this time because screw that kid. It seems that HorrorLand's gotten a bit more popular lately, since some of their friends have gone before and came out fine. They're all excited when they arrive, despite not knowing how exactly Britney got the free invitation. I blame the NSA. Then suddenly, a purple and green creature attacks Britney... Oh wait, he was just pretending. He introduces himself as a HorrorLand Horror, one of the guides of the park. He says that the only way they can enter the park is if they scream, since the screams are used for identification for later. And he does so by burning their luggage with a flamethrower. Well, it's a step down from blowing the car up.
The four take the Last Ride Cab further into the park, and see some of the attractions including Dancing With The Squids and the Vampire State Building. Then the driver's brakes go out and they almost crash, but gotcha! It was all a ruse. Britney's already bored of this, and says she's just going to chalk everything up as being fake around here. They bump around to some other oddly specific attractions including Madame Doom, a fortune teller that says that Britney has no future, and a mask shop that sells creepy monster masks that seem so real. It even has masks that look like Britney and Molly. They get accosted by a horror who tells them to escape the park now, and hands Britney a note that says to find the other park. Regardless, they head to the Stagger Inn and are greeted by a horror named Druella who takes them to room 1313, their room. Britney and Molly gush over all the neat HorrorLand Swag they've gotten from this free invite, but then realize that Britney's parents have disappeared. The Horror at the front desk says that they left the park. Confused, Britney goes back to the room and finds her dad's camera. They look at the last photo taken, and recoil in horror as they see a picture Slappy sitting on their bed. Dun dun dun!?!
CONCLUSION
So, for the HorrorLand part, I'm going to abstain from reviewing it yet, since it's part of a fuller story later on, so this will be entirely on Revenge of the Living Dummy. In the end, it's kind of meh. After some more fresh takes on the dummy formula back in Series 2000, we're right back where we started from with similar beats from the others. Only this time feeling more rushed since the story itself is barely 90 pages. Though I do like the concept of Ethan being this massive hell spawn kid. Somehow both malevolent enough to constantly try to physically assault Britney (at one point SHOVING HER DOWN THE STAIRS), then torture her with the destroyed poster and a ruined painting of her dead dog. All this after she legitimately tries to be nice to him, laughs at his dumb dummy jokes and isn't ever cruel to him. Move over Tara from Cuckoo Clock of Doom. Oh right, you still don't exist. The actual Slappy stuff is super rushed to the last few brief chapters, so he's back to feeling less important. In the end, this feels like a safe story to bring us back to Goosebumps proper. Not horrible by the standards of the series, but not one that feels super memorable. As middle ground bland as you could ask for. Welcome back, Goosebumps. Revenge of the Living Dummy gets a C.
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