Editorials
[31 Days of Halloween] Day Twenty-Six: All Monsters Unleashed in ‘Goosebumps’
The last Saturday in October is here, and so too is the last Family Fun day in our 31 Days of Halloween lineup. Since the 31st is rapidly approaching, today’s entry is dedicated to a family-friendly horror movie that goes big in terms of serious monster content. I mean BIG.
Every possible monster from R.L. Stine’s popular Goosebumps book series is unleashed on screen in this one. From pint-sized garden gnomes to a gigantic praying mantis, and everything in between, this movie offers nostalgia for older fans of the original series and a new introduction to the world of monsters for the young horror novice.
If you want to keep the Goosebumps party going, hop over to Netflix after and hit play on Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween for a seasonally appropriate double feature the whole family can enjoy.
Synopsis: After his father’s recent death, teen Zach Cooper and his mother relocate from bustling New York City to the quiet small town of Madison, Delaware. He befriends his next door neighbor Hannah, but finds her father is extremely overprotective. Moreover, her father happens to be famous author R.L. Stine. When the demons and monsters are accidentally freed from his books, the teens must team up with the author to save the town.
Key Players: Jack Black plays R.L. Stine and also voices evil ventriloquist dummy Slappy. Dylan Minnette is protagonist Zach Cooper, and Odeya Rush plays Stine’s daughter Hannah. Amy Ryan and Jillian Bell play Zach’s mother and aunt, respectively. Look for R.L. Stine himself to cameo as the high school drama teacher, Mr. Black.
Why It’s on the List: Have I mentioned endless monsters? Werewolves, evil clowns, the haunted mask, scarecrows, ghouls, and the list goes on for a long while. Fans of Stine’s original series could spend a while picking out all of the creatures and nods to the books. But none of it would really work without a story that connects with viewers, and Goosebumps offers up a sweet family tale of first love, growing up, and acceptance. The feel-good kind of story that offers up humor and heart to balance any potential scares for the young’uns.
Baby’s First Werewolf: For the young target audience this film is aimed toward, there’s a high probability that the demographic hasn’t experienced a werewolf before. Making Goosebumps “baby’s first brush with a classic horror monster.” A perfect introductory werewolf to lure a budding fan further into the genre; it’s both spooky and funny.
Where You Can Watch: Goosebumps is available to stream on demand through internet TV app Fubo TV, to rent on digital, and of course, Blu-ray.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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