Goosebumps: Every RL Stine story in the new series

The Goosebumps series on Disney+ adds a contemporary spin to R.L. Stine’s timeless horror novels. Here’s a compilation of each story featured in the episodes.

Between 1992 and 1997, Stine published a series of horror novels that centered on children or young teens and their encounters with the paranormal, occult, or inexplicable spooky events. Within that time, the author released 62 stories, and later various spinoffs that gained just as much popularity.

Anyone who grew up in the 90s remembers the chilling fear his books evoked. It only got worse when, in 1995, those stories came to life as an anthology TV series. Goosebumps has seen various adaptations from video games to on-screen blockbusters since then.

Disney+’s Goosebumps is the first time the stories have been developed into a new series since the 1995 original. The 2023 series takes five teens caught up in their parents’ past as a vengeful spirit is after them. Along the way, they face various horrors like Stine’s Cuckoo Clock, some squiggly worms, and more. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Goosebumps Episode 1 takes on one of R.L. Stine’s earliest stories

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The ‘Say Cheese and Die’ episode of Goosebumps includes the infamous Polaroid camera from Book 4 of R.L. Stine’s work.

In the series, Isaiah (Zack Morris) and his friends break into the once-abandoned Biddle house for a Halloween party. It gets broken up by the home’s owner, Mr. Bratt (Jason Long), but previously, Isaiah had gone into the basement where former owner Harold Biddle died and found his Polaroid camera. When taking a photo of his girlfriend, it was blank. Later on, he realizes the photos are premonitions of the horrors the subject will go through.

But only Isaiah can see the photos. A polaroid of his friend Margot (Isa Briones) depicts her passed out near a vending machine. It comes true when unknown forces switch her candy bar to a peanut one. She’s allergic and goes into shock before Isaiah injects her with an epi-pen. Later on, James (Miles McKenna) takes a photo of him, which reveals Isaiah with a broken arm. At a big game, Isaiah knows it will come true, and it does. His arm breaks, piercing through his skin and hindering his football career. He later destroys the camera.

R.L. Stine’s ‘Say Cheese and Die’ story was originally published in 1992. It follows Greg and his friends after they find an old camera behind a wall at the Coffman House. Greg takes a photo of his friend, who falls off a railing and hurts his ankle. The photo showed him falling. At home, Greg takes photos of his dad’s car, which later gets totaled.

Everything in the photos is coming true, but no one believes Greg. After a series of bad events, Greg and his friend decide to put the camera back and run into Spidey, the owner of the house. It’s revealed that his real name is Dr. Fritz Fredericks, and his partner invented the camera. Spidey stole the camera as his own, unaware his partner also dabbled in the dark arts. With the kids knowing the truth, Spidey goes after them, but his photo is taken and he dies. Greg and the others put the camera back.

Goosebumps Episode 2 is all about the Haunted Mask

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An eery mask gives its wearer courage and strength they’ve never had before, and is the storyline for Goosebumps Episode 2 ‘The Haunted Mask.’

All Goosebumps fans remember the one R.L. Stine story that was pure nightmare fuel: The Haunted Mask. In the 2023 series, Isabella (Amma Yi Puig) is a fly on the wall and no one pays attention to her. To get her kicks, she has a burner social media account where she posts scathing comments about the people at her school. The night of the Halloween party at the Biddle house, she bravely goes and finds herself in the basement.

There, she finds a white, doll-like mask that calls to her. Wearing the mask, she becomes a different person with courage and bravado. As the episode continues, the mask calls to her even more and begins to take control. Just like the story and original series, the mask morphs into her skin. By the end of the episode, she has gone mad, and only her younger brother is able to bring her back.

The Haunted Mask was the eleventh book in Stine’s collection, but also one of the most memorable. It was first published in 1993 and returned in 1995. Carly Beth Caldwell is a sweet young girl, but is constantly the subject of scares by her classmates as a “scaredey-cat.” By Halloween, she’s fed up with the humiliation and her mother’s duck costume. She finds a mysterious store, where the owner lets her in and finds herself in the back room. The room is full of horrid masks and Carly begs to buy one. With a warning, the shop owner allows it.

At home, Carly is excited and becomes a more daring version of herself. She soon goes on a rampage through town looking for her bullies and scaring kids. The second time she wears the mask, it fuses to her skin and takes over. She finds the shop owner and begs for help, but he reveals the masks were once living faces and became rotten and ugly over time. She ends up waking up the other mask with her screams, realizing that she must find a symbol of love to remove the mask. Carly soon realizes her mother’s plaster bust of her is the symbol, and is set free.

Goosebumps Episode 3 has James go cuckoo with time travel

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The Cuckoo Clock of Doom is the central storyline for James in Goosebumps Episode 3, modeled after R.L. Stine’s story from 1995.

By Goosebumps Episode 3, it’s James’s turn to feel the mystery of horror. In flashbacks, it’s revealed that at the Biddle house, James fell when Isaiah opened the basement door and struck his head on an old cuckoo clock. The night goes on as normal, but James gets rejected by his crush. All of a sudden, he goes back in time to the moment after he hurt his head. James soon realizes he’s in a time loop and has some fun with it. He later gets together with his crush and stops the loop by halting the mechanism inside the clock.

But he soon meets himself, and it’s revealed that every time loop creates another version of himself. These versions are somewhat evil and kidnap James. By the end of the episode, Isaiah, Margot, and Isabella find out that the copy versions burst into slime when they get hit, and find James in an abandoned coal mine.

The Cuckoo Clock of Doom was Stine’s 28th novel and more creepy than the series. Michael Webster has an annoying sister Tara, who always gets him in trouble. His father gets an old and expensive cuckoo clock after his 12th birthday and forbids anyone from touching it. Their father scolds Tara when she’s caught messing with it. Looking back at how horrible Tara was to him on his 12th birthday, Michael twists the cuckoo’s head in the other direction.

But he finds himself going back in time to his 12th birthday. Despite his best efforts, everything horrible happens again. Unlike the series, the cuckoo clock pushes Michael further back in time each day. He’s soon a kid in kindergarten, then four years old, and soon a baby. When his parents take him to the same antique shop, he sees a way out. He turns the cuckoo’s head back to its original position while also knocking down some numbers. Back to his 12th birthday, he realizes Tara’s birth year is gone from the clock and she was never born. It’s implied that Michael never goes back to fix it.

Goosebumps Episode 4 has worms slither and crawl like R.L. Stine’s story

Lucas is a daredevil dealing with the death of his father in Goosebumps, and finds worms at the Biddle house that mimic R.L. Stine’s Go Eat Worms novel story.

In the Goosebumps series, Lucas (Will Price) is a goofy daredevil trying to emulate his late father. At the Biddle house, he finds worms in the basement and decides to take some home. Later on, he invites Margot to his home to tell her the truth about their parents secretly dating. He also decides to eat one of the worms to cheer her up and almost chokes on it. But the worms are not normal, as they crawl their way into his body overnight. The worms cause him to crave rotten food, but also make him invincible and unable to get hurt.

Consumed with his new powers, he wants to attempt the same jump that killed his father. His mom appears and has an emotional moment with her son. As a result, Lucas vomits all the worms out, and they later join together into a mega monster that attacks them. They manage to destroy the worms at the old factory with a wood chipper.

The Stine story happens very differently than the 1994 version. Go Eat Worms? was the 21st book in the series and focused on a boy named Todd who’s obsessed with worms. He learns that his classmate is doing his science fair project based on worms and becomes angered. His sister sends him to an abandoned house to scare him, and Todd later learns the truth. To get revenge, Todd rigs her paper-mâché robin to puke worms out in front of the judges. Another student wins the science fair and Todd’s sister pushes him, causing his peer’s worm tower to fall on him.

When cutting open a worm, Todd realizes the other worms are looking at him. Worms start appearing everywhere, even in his food. Thinking it’s the worms getting revenge, he apologizes and gets scolded by his father. Todd soon learns his sister was putting worms everywhere and wants revenge again. At the baseball field, Todd and his friend collect worms until the earth cracks to reveal the giant mother worm. When Todd’s sister appears, her raven scares the worm away. Todd takes up a new hobby.

Goosebumps Episode 5 has no ties to an R.L. Stine story

The fifth episode of the Disney+ Goosebumps series has no ties to any of Stine’s stories.

So far, each of the main characters have faced one of the author’s infamous horror tales except for Margot. Margot acts as the main narrator of the series and uncovers the truth that Biddle wants her to see. The fifth episode focuses more on giving a glimpse of Biddle’s story and his connection to the characters’ parents.

Audiences learn Biddle died in a fire after getting trapped in his basement. The culprits? A group of teens dressed in all black, who happen to be the main characters’ parents.

Goosebumps Episode 6 reveals Biddle’s full story and connection to R.L. Stine’s infamous talking puppet, Slappy

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After Biddle’s spirit leads Margot and the others back to his former home, they are welcomed in by Mr. Bratt. Not knowing he’s really possessed by Biddle, he tells them a story dating back to New York in 1925. A not-so-good magician wants the real deal to be able to make money and goes to Madam Zelda’s magic shop. As the tale goes, he finds a creepy puppet and reads its Latin incantation. Slappy comes alive and becomes the magician’s golden ticket to fame.

Over time, he becomes consumed by Slappy and his newfound fame and neglects his family. Years go by, and his fame is dwindling. His manager suggests trying something new, which angers Slappy, who tells the magician to use another Latin incantation. The manager turns into a puppet. Helping Slappy find another puppet, the magician soon realizes he was used.

Ashamed by what he has done, he moves to Port Lawrence and stashes Slappy away behind a brick wall in the basement. Years after his death, the Biddles move in.

Slappy the Dummy is one of R.L. Stine’s most infamous creations and the main antagonist. He first appeared in 1993 at the end of Night of the Living Dummy. Like the series, he comes alive thanks to the incantation “Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano.” Slappy is only a side character in the book. Linda and Kris Powell both take up ventriloquism, but Kris’s dummy isn’t normal. They start to experience odd occurrences their parents don’t want to believe.

By the end, the sisters realize they’re not crazy when Mr. Wood is alive and tries to harm them. With no other choice, they use a steamroller to kill him. At the end of the book, Slappy is there waiting for them and asks if the other dummy is gone. Goosebumps doesn’t dive into the backstory of Slappy.

In ‘I Am Slappy’s Evil Twin’, a British man named Franz Maher moved to America in the 1920s to become a ventriloquist. He meets a sorcerer named Kanduu and they become partners. Slappy was created using the wood from his coffin. When the sorcerer died, he placed his spirit inside the dummy. Later in ‘Slappy, Beware’, Slappy’s origin story was changed.

Goosebumps Episode 10 introduces fans to Slappy’s origin story

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Disney+’s Goosebumps adds a unique twist to the backstory behind Slappy, while also sticking to R.L. Stine’s story of the famed villain from Night of the Living Dummy.

By Episode 10 of the series, fans meet the real mastermind behind the puppet. Mr.Bratt had ventured to find a hidden coffin with the hopes of resurrecting Slappy to help him write a worthwhile book ending. Unknown to him, the coffin housed Slappy’s real human body. The episode dives into who Slappy was.

It flashbacks to a war where Slappy is a Lieutenant and gravely wounded in an ambush. He falls into an underground temple with walls written in the local language. Having been taught it by the townspeople, he reads an incantation and magically heals and gains powers.

Years later, Kanduu ventures to New York and meets Franz Kahan at his circus. He vows to help him gain glory in exchange for something. Franz soon realizes Kanduu’s motives are sinister as he uses a spell to turn humans into puppets. He soon carves Kanduu his own puppet (Slappy) and uses a spell to trap Kanduu’s soul inside for good.

Slappy first appeared in 1993 at the end of ‘Night of the Living Dummy.’ Goosebumps follows a similar story of Franz meeting Kanduu and becoming partners. The only difference is that Stine’s books never give a backstory to who Kanduu is or where he came from. It also doesn’t have Franz betraying Kanduu. Instead, Kanduu put his soul into Slappy to become immortal.

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