While it wasn’t until 2015 that the books made their way up onto the big screen with a hit feature film, the heyday of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps franchise was unquestionably in the 1990s. That’s when the books arrived on the scene and changed the game for kid-friendly frights, and it’s also the decade that gave birth to the television series based on Stine’s books.
The 1990s also saw the opening of the Goosebumps HorrorLand Fright Show at Disney’s MGM Studios in Walt Disney World, which opened its doors on October 8, 1997. Unfortunately, the attraction would be open for only one year, closing its curtain in November 1998.
Named after Stine’s popular book One Day at HorrorLand, the Fright Show also featured monsters from various other Goosebumps books including The Haunted Mask, Night of the Living Dummy, Monster Blood II, and A Night in Terror Tower. The live stage show was hosted by Amaz-O the Magician, who brings all of these Goosebumps icons to life on stage.
The official Wikipedia page for the Goosebumps HorrorLand Fright Show recaps, “The show starts like the TV show opening, with a man in black clothing walking with a suitcase as the theme song plays. After the man goes behind the curtain, Amaz-O the Magician pops out to start his magic act.” All hell breaks loose when Slappy the Dummy is conjured up by Amaz-O…
“Amaz-O tries to make Slappy disappear, but instead makes Curly the Skeleton appear. Curly then announces the arrival of the Mummy of Prince Khor-Ru as he appears from the stage. Slappy and Khor-Ru attack Amaz-O, throwing him into a cage. The monsters then do a little magic trick of their own on the cage which makes Cuddles the Hamster appear from the cage. Curly announces that he and his monster friends will keep the audience prisoners, until the Terror Tower Executioner and two Haunted Masks come out from the curtain and scare Slappy, Curly, Prince Khor-Ru and Cuddles away. It is then revealed that the Executioner is actually Amaz-O in disguise and the two kids take off the Haunted Masks as they are safe.”
The reason we bring up the Goosebumps HorrorLand Fright Show this week is because a fan by the name of Joe Souza has shared with the Instagram account Razors in the Night his old family photos from their trip to Disney World back in the late ’90s. Joe and his family attended the Fright Show and snapped some incredibly nostalgic photos during the show!
Razors in the Night explains, “Photos of this are insanely rare to come by so thank you Joe for providing me with these. The first pic you can see 2 audience members in BOTH Haunted Masks facing the executioner; if this was at Disney nowadays peoples heads would explode.”
“The show was aimed at kids, but still carried that late ’90s haunted house energy Disney experimented with during the MGM era,” the account details in a second Instagram post. “It blended horror comedy, live stunt style performances, and walkthrough haunt aesthetics into something that felt closer to a HHN house than modern Disney entertainment.
“It only lasted about a year, but the HorrorLand Fright Show has become one of those strange forgotten pieces of Disney MGM history that people barely remember unless they were there.”
Check out Joe’s vintage photos down below. Underneath, you’ll find actual video footage from one of the Goosebumps HorrorLand Fright Shows that was filmed back in the 1990s!
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