Goosebumps Premiere Recap: Stay Out of the Basement! — A Group of Teens Awakens Their Parents’ Old Ghosts
Looking for some Halloween fun that won’t send your kids into immediate therapy? Look no further! Inspired by R.L. Stine’s kids horror books comes a brand-new Goosebumps series that’s ready to conjure up some not-too-spooky scares for the PG-13 crowd.
This new iteration (the first five episodes are now streaming on both Disney+ and Hulu) follows five high schoolers who become dead-set on investigating what happened to Harold Biddle, a kid who tragically died three decades prior. In the opening scene, it’s 1993 when we meet Harold as a mysterious evil stalks him at his home. In his efforts to run and hide in the basement, he accidentally sets fire to the place and dies, while a ghostly face emerges from the flames.
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In the present, we meet high schoolers Isabella, James, Allison, Isaiah and Margot as they attend a pep rally and prep for a big party. Unbeknownst to them, Nathan Bratt (played by Justin Long) buys the home that Harold died in, which has been sitting vacant for years. He suspects Harold’s parents were responsible for his death, since they disappeared shortly after the fire. When Nathan cuts his hand trying to pry the basement door open, the blood mysteriously forms into a line, travels up the wall and eerily unlocks the door. That can’t be good!
Needing a new location for their party, the kids descend upon the former Biddle house (thinking it’s still abandoned), and since Isaiah’s dad is working on the home, he has the code to get inside. When the power mysteriously goes out, Isaiah heads into the basement where he finds a Polaroid camera. While he looks around, a cuckoo clock (OF DOOM!) goes absolutely nuts. The power strangely pops back on once the kids have the camera in hand, but Nathan shows up shortly after to kick everyone out. In her attempt to flee, Allison gets lost in the woods and that’s where Harold’s ghost appears and combusts right in front of her very eyes.
When Mr. Bratt (who’s conveniently the kids’ new English teacher) returns Isaiah’s backpack, Isaiah finds photos from the party inside, only now the photos depict his friends dying in mysterious ways. After, Margot accidentally eats peanuts and almost dies from it, Isaiah realizes that’s exactly what her photo from the party is now showing. He later tries to tell James what’s going on, but his friend doesn’t believe him. James takes Isaiah’s picture and the photo shows Isaiah seemingly dead and laying on the ground in his football uniform. So Isaiah does the only natural thing one can do in this strange situation: He lights the camera on fire and watches it burn. But what does he find that night in his locker? You guessed it! The camera, looking good as new!
During the game, Isaiah sees a fiery Harold on the field, and soon, he’s surrounded by flames and zombified players all rushing to attack him. He winds up falling and breaking his arm in the kerfuffle, only no one else sees the horror he saw. Except for Lucas’ mom, Nora. She tells Isaiah’s dad, Ben, that Harold is back to punish them for what they did to him. And all of a sudden, everything’s feeling a bit Nightmare on Elm Street!
The episode ends at Nathan’s house, where Harold turns to smoky ashes and possesses the poor, unsuspecting new teach’.
So did Goosebumps give you chills? Grade the premiere below, then sound off in the comments!
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