Still, the nuances absent from the show inform the characters in ways that make the original book an essential part of Goosebumps lore and an important companion to what ended up on the screen.įriday nights may have lost a bit of their luster as Goosebumps moved to Saturday mornings, but this was one creepy story I was happy to view in burgeoning daylight.
The scarecrows are brought to life with all of the menace, animosity and practicality that one might expect out of the best episodes the series has to offer and, as a result, the show is able to achieve a more viscerally striking conclusion than the original text. The adaptation serves the source material well, unafraid to deviate from its narrative in significant ways, particularly in the third act. And, yes, most of all, it was a story about scary scarecrows. A story about the discomfort associated with change and how that might manifest in disturbing ways if left unchecked. Still, it was one marred with the pitfalls of engaging with people and places that are familiar but not typically one’s own. It was a story about summer, about that freeing feeling of adventure. Watching that come to life, even curled up in comfy pajamas on a Saturday morning, still felt just as freaky as reading the words had a few years before. The ragged school copy of The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight still loomed in my mind years later, a crease in the paperback slicing through the menacing scarecrow depicted there as though an attempt to destroy the evil thing.
Even in the comfort of the bright morning sunlight, I felt unnerved as this particular episode played out, its titular threat scaring far more than birds, despite what its name might imply. Stine creations carried over to the glowing tubes of so many a kid’s screen over the course of those fateful Saturdays, one always stood out amongst the rest in my youthful estimation. Superheroes and anthropomorphic talking animals were always welcome, but who wouldn’t want an infusion of lawn gnomes, ghosts and humanoid jack o’ lanterns alongside their crime fighting super-mutants?īut of all the eerie R.L.
Only one thing could’ve made Saturday mornings better and, in the show’s second season, Goosebumps did just that.Īn airy collection of brightly colored fun in need of a little slime soaked spookiness, the Saturday morning cartoon crowd was the perfect place for Goosebumps. All of the best shows were on Saturday morning, hours of pure entertainment spanning multiple stations all catered to entertain the oft underserved kid-mind. Saturday mornings held a breath of summer vacation to them, a freeing sense of nonexistent responsibility where the only thing left to do was to toast some Eggo Waffles and watch TV. Whether you liked to sleep in or not, every kid knew there was one day of the week where it was worth getting up early- and it wasn’t for school. The series adaptation later aired on Saturday, Novem(runtime: 22 minutes). The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight was originally p ublished in May 1994 (Spine #20).