I’m a massive fan of author R.L. Stine. From his teen-horror seriesFear Streetto his kid-horror booksGoosebumps, I love all things Stine. Or at least I used to as a kid… Nah, I’m still a massive fan, damn my old age. And thus I’m excited - and bummed - to hear that back in the ’90s, super-spooky directorTim Burton(Beetlejuice,Edward Scissorhands,Batman) wanted to make aGoosebumpsmotion picture - and almost did! But then, as they say, life got in the way. Stine himself talked about this abandoned project the other day, saying this.
“We had a movie deal to do a Goosebumps movie, and I can’t tell you what year it was. It was like at the height of Goosebumps, back in ‘94, ‘95, around there, and we actually had a deal with Fox to do a movie, and Tim Burton who was going to be the producer. We had a big meeting, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’ll be great. Tim Burton and Goosebumps. It’ll be great.’ And we had a nice meeting with him, and we had a great time and we talked about what we should do, and then nothing happened. Sort of a typical story out there, right?”
R.L. Stinecontinued with this.
“I think we were going to do a new story, but use some of the elements. But we never got that far, you know? It’s very strange. I don’t know. People couldn’t figure out for a long time which story to do, what should we do. And then Goosebumps wasn’t as popular, and then it came back.”
Bah-Humbug. So what the hell kept Burton away from what was sure to be one of the coolest films of my adolescence? Stine explains.
“He got involved in some Superman project that also never happened. He was going to do Superman, and then we never heard from him again. That was the end of it. And 20 years later we got a movie.”
Again, bah-humbug. I know Burton was only set to produce the adaptation we’re talking about today, but still. Maybe the man would have come around and decided to direct himself! And before you start getting all poo-poo on Burton, remember that this film was supposed to happen back in ‘94, ‘95. That was still when Burton was in his prime. To give you a timeline, ifTim Burton’s Goosebumpshad come to fruition, it would have fallen between his (arguably) best filmEd Woodand (arguably) his most inventive,Mars Attacks!. This team up would have been an utter classic. Evenif Uwe Boll directed it.
But here we are with the currentGoosebumpsseries of films. And I’m not complaining. The last entry was the delightfulGoosebumps: Haunted Halloweenstarring Wendi McLendon-Covey, Madison Iseman, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Caleel Harris, Chris Parnell, and Ken Jeong. The movie followed best friends Sonny and Sam who, while collecting junk one day, meet Slappy, a mischievous talking dummy from an unpublishedGoosebumpsbook by R.L. Stine. Hoping to start his own family, Slappy kidnaps Sonny’s mother and brings all of his ghoulish friends back to life – just in time for Halloween. As the sleepy town becomes overrun with monsters, witches and other mysterious creatures, Sonny joins forces with his sister, Sam and a kindly neighbor to save Sonny’s mom and foil Slappy’s plan. Ari Sandel directed the sequel from a screenplay written by Rob Lieber, based on theGoosebumpsseries by R.L. Stine, and Deborah Forte and Neal H. Moritz produced.Goosebumps: Haunted Halloweenwill be hitting Blu-ray and DVD August 11, 2025. This story originated atCinemablend.
