Goosebumps HorrorLand-Enter HorrorLand

Hello, Spongey here.

Well, we finally reached that point in the Goosebumps Horrorland reviews. We’ve covered the first ten regular books in the first arc. But before we move on to the final two books, we have one….interesting thing to deal with.

One of the most interesting aspects of this new series, is that not only would we be getting new goosebumps stories, but each book in Arc 1 would have a story AFTER the main story, where the main character goes to HorrorLand. This would start a story arc that would be concluded in the final two books.

This was huge because typically Stine doesn’t do this too often. The closest would be some of the trilogy’s in Fear Street, but this is a big story arc building up an actual mystery. Granted, this sounded just as terrible as it did amazing, but let’s focus on the amazing part.

The experiment payed off, as he did something similar for Arc 2, but we’ll get to that eventually. As I said, these arc bits were 30 or so page stories at the end of the main book, which lead to the main story being a bit shorter than a typical Goosebumps story.

Which may be have caused some of the pacing issues in some of them, but ah well. Now, I could have done them in each review, but it would have disrupted the flow and I wanted to just focus on the story at hand,.

But now that they are done with, I think it’s finally time to do them all . Before we start, I would like to use this chance to go over other Horrorland things. Each book not only has the two stories but a bunch of other minor things to build up the mystery.

Like advertisements for the park, and left by ….certain characters we’ll get to later. Stuff like that really made this a more immersive experience. Heck ,there’s actually a separate book that serves as a HorrorLand “Survival” Guide, which collects a lot of the stuff I mentioned, along with new stuff.

It’s not really a story, so can’t review, but it’s cool. Some of that stuff came from a website called EscapeHorrorLand. It’s now defunct and just redirects to the main Gooosebumps site, sadly. It was cool though, and I;ll bring it up later.

Speaking of websites, there was also Enter HorrorLand which was a big game full of little mini games, that would update with each new book. It’s down too, but it was pretty cool. The most interesting thing about it is that for most of it, you don’t know who you are playing as.

It doesn’t quite matter, but during the “Boss Battle” with Slappy, it is revealed that you were playing as Mr. Wood. Yes THAT Mr. Wood. It has no bearing on anything in the game or books…but that’s amazing, since it seems like Stine forgot about him after that first book.

But yeah, that’s all the supplementary crap done with. Now we can jump into the bits that make up the overall story. I’ve never really read all of these sections in a row, so let’s see how the story builds up.

These, are the Enter Horrorland sections.

#1: Revenge of the Living Dummy

You may recall that this book was…a disappointment. So let’s see if our sub story has a better start.

We start with our old  friends Birtnaey and Molly, with her parents, on the way to HorrorLand. Right off the bat, we have something interesting to discuss. We find out that HorrorLand is big now, and people go to it all the time and come back alive.

Which is quite the contrast to how it was in the original book. And spoilers, we find out that events of One Day at HorrorLand did happen and it doesn’t seem to be long since then. So exactly how does this fit in?

I’m not too sure. The HorrorLand Mc is never mentioned, so I just assume she was usurped so the monsters can genuinely bring joy to humans or something. We don’t get too many signs of them being evil to normal people, so that could be be it.

But whatever, on to the story. Brit and her family were specifically invited to HorrorLand which they find odd, but don’t question for now. Yeah, this is our first little mystery.

“This is one of the biggest theme parks on the world”

Dang, they REALLY grew since last time. Are there many locations or only one? Cuz being the biggest thing ever but only having one location usually doesn’t’ turn out well, unless you’re the Krusty Krab.

They go to the ticket booth, and we are reintroduced to the park with decent descriptions. The ticket monster does the normal stuff, like recording their screams for later and lighting their suitcases on fire.

Hey, this is the same place that blew up a car. It’s not too odd.

They are worried at first, but then brush it off as a prank since they do have reason to believe so given how this place is. They go on a tour of the place full of terrible puns like The Vampire State Building and Dancing with the Squids. Yes.

They get a false scare when the driver of the tour car seems to have to jump out, but of course it’s just a prank. Odd how the bigger the place is, the more horribly cruel pranks they pull. How has this place not been sued yet?

They partake in a few jokes, and Brit sees a Madame Doom machine and puts a coin in.

“You have no future Britney!”

Well, it’s honest at least.

They eventually go to check in at the Hotel, when a Horror runs up to them. Like that one guy in the original book, he tells them to get out of here. I can’t recall if this leads to anything later. He gives them a slip of paper that says “Find the other park”. THAT leads to something, I know that much.

A woman leads to them their room, which is on the 13^th floor.

“Naturally”

Okay, that’s funny.

They like their big room, even if it has nothing on a good attic. However, they notice there are no mirrors. Yes, this is important for later.

They go the parents room (they get separate rooms due to being the Very Special Guests) but find it empty. They go to the front task, but are told that Brit’s parents checked out. Dun dun dun, I guess.

They figure this is another prank, but if so, this is one strange prank, even by their standards. They return to the room to search for clues, and find a camera. They take a look and see the most recent picture taken.

The picture features none other than Slappy’s ugly mug. DUN DUN DUN! The End. …Yeah, that’s it for the first section. This one mostly serves as a set up for everything with the park and mystery.

There isn’t much else, but it does an okay job setting the stage, and Brit is way more tolerable here!

#2 Creep from the Deep

Each of these starts with the invitation they got, which I will mostly skip, but this one has an amusing opening line.

“You are in deep trouble now!”

Roll credits, sort of!

We start with Billy and Sheena walking around the park, just excited to be there. We do not know how they got back home after the events of the book but it doesn’t matter too much. They bump into Brit and Molly right away at the hotel, as they are still worried sick about their parents.

Yep, we got that crossover action right away and it only gets better. Billy and Sheena say their parents are missing too but don’t really explain further. They say it’s no big deal, making them way more chill than most kids.

…And they say they overheard a horror saying they sneak the parents to a hotel of their own. Okay. Seems a bit cruel even by their standards, but fine.

Brit shows them the picture of Slappy, but somehow it’s gone and replaced with a picture of all the kids, with Slappy behind them. This….doesn’t make much sense and I don’t think it’s explained.

They shrug it off anyway and try to go have fun. They head to Quicksand Beach and Sheen points out how dumb it is for Billy to suggest things related to Beaches and water, after what they went through.

But he says that he’s fine with it because he thinks all of HL is a joke, so it’ll get their minds off the horror. That…makes perfect sense. Dang,

Long story short, the beach is very much quicksand, and they get sucked down under. The way it’s written actually kind of makes it creepy, good on you Stine. Billy gets sucked down…right into a tube, which sends him back to the surface. Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous due to complicated stuff I don’t wanna explain.

This kind of reminds me of the Doom Slide, which is absent here. Actually, some things from HorrorLand are kept, while some are gone in favor of new stuff. That’s fair, I guess. Billy meets up with Sheena, but Brit and Molly are missing.

And nothing of value was lot.

They ask some workers but they say they haven’t seem them. They plan to try the hotel, but get distracted by an arcade. While there, they see a kid winning some games….as in, every game he plays, even ones that the horrors view as impossible.

So much so that some guards call out for him, and he runs away, giving Billy this card he has. Not sure what to say here. Nothing dumb really here. What do you want from me?!

They run away and make it back to the hotel, wondering what the hell is going on. But before they can wonder further, they bump into the boy, which is amazingly convenient. He explains that a random Horror gave the card to him, saying it would take him place.

He took it to mean it could help him win the games. I’m not sure how he came to that conclusion but whatever. Oh, and it turns out this is Matt from Monster Blood for Breakfest. That’s right, he’s popping up BEFORE his section and before his book even came out!

Now this is really interesting, and they actually do it one other time. It builds more mystery and his presence hear adds something, so I’m cool with it. Although that card is mostly useless. That horror does become important though.

They chat it up and suddenly find a big glass window in the hall. It shows none other than Brit and Molly at a cafe. The door won’t budge, and the girls can’t hear them. Matt’s card opens it but it suddenly becomes an empty room.

They just find a mirror…which lacks Sheena’s reflection. Sheena herself vanishes…but….

“I’m Invisible!”

DUN DUN DUN! The End. That section was very much about mystery as it mostly just throw in unexplained plot points. It works fairly well but doesn’t have too much outside of that and a few scares.

Most of these sections will be about that, so hopefully I can find more jokes in the next few.

#3 Monster Blood for Breakfast

We pretty much start where we left off, only now it’s Matt’s POV. Sheen says she just touched the mirror and randomly this happened. So now we have a Let’s Get Invisible tie in?

They find some Monster Police and tell them what happened, and they are more surprised at the mention of a mirror than the invisible thing. But of course, the cafe has vanished when they drag them to it.

Eventually they listen and decide to take the kids to a detection chamber that can see if Sheena is really there. They can’t hear her for some unexplained reason. I don’t know, I don’t recall every mystery and which ones get explained or which ones are just pointless.

“You have something that doesn’t belong to you”

Gee, I wonder what object Matt has that they might be talking about.

They refuse to admit they have something and because they forget to run away like a smart person, the horrors strap Billy to an X Ray Machine to search for the card. I guess a body search isn’t allowed here?

Matt slips Sheena the card so they don’t find on either of the boys. Uh, shouldn’t the card be floating in plain sight since Sheena is invisible?

“She hid it in her fist and it became invisible too”

…How does that work?

They escape and hide in a lab themed attraction. Suddenly, Matt spots a box of Monster blood randomly there and it manages to escape and attack them. Then a Horror named Byron pops up, who turns out to be the one who slipped Matt the card to begin with.

He pulls out a mirror, which sucks up the Monster Blood. Well, there’s a weakness Evan didn’t think of. Byron tells them they gotta get out of here, as they are in real danger. The Monster Police show up and drag him away. But not the kids for some reason.

Sheen has vanished…as she’s gone. Byron dropped his mirror and the pieces suddenly melted…except for one. They look into and…see Brit and Molly. But of course there’s a scary twist and here it’s that they are on a carousal covered in flames.

That’s a badass concept if I’ve ever seen one. The end. This one was certainty more suspenseful and interesting,even if it doesn’t’ reveal too much.

#4 Scream of the Haunted Mask

Carly Beth was pretty happy to get her invite to Horrorland since she’s no longer scare-able after all that haunted mask stuff. So she happily drags Sabrina there and we join them taking a seat at The Haunted Theater. No mention of vanishing parents at hotels or whatever.

Billy and Matt appear, looking for Byron as he was dragged to this location.

“They’re kind of cute”

….GooseBumps Crossover Shipping is now a thing. 10/10.

The girls overhear their plight and Billy tells them all about it. He’s very lucky that they believe him. Although after The Haunted Mask stuff, I suppose nothing sounds impossible to them.

Also, jokes aside, the mere concept of Carly Beth and Deep Trouble billy meeting is just…the best thing ever. This is first real GB Crossover now, which is just amazing.

A magician comes on stage and does tricks worthy of Amazo. Then one of his tricks somehow brings Sheena magically on stage. Dun dun dun!

They pull her aside, and she explained that she was sucked up along with the monster blood, and found herself in a place with the burning carousel. She got back through a random door that appeared. Given what we found later, this makes…enough sense, I guess.

They go backstage to look for Byron and find her nametag lying around. More dun dun dun worthy twists! They then find a flier advertising that flaming carasoul and they figure they should find it since all signs point to it.

They look around at the rides.

‘The Doom Slide..”

Shit, I was wrong. Sorry.

Carly Beth and Sabrina get separated from the group and end up in a mask shop where there’s a Haunted Mask theme false scare. They then spot two masks that look like Brit and Molly.

I don’t think this goes anywhere, so ignore it. Unless I’m wrong. But since they just leave like nothing happened, I will assume I am right.

They walk around and overhear two horrors clunkily expositing to each other, that the guests are in for bigger scares.

“Two are already gone. We’ll take care of the rest’

If you guys are trying to take care of them, you could have tried easier ways. And so far after 4 sections, you’ve only offed 2, so you better get off your ass and catch up!

The girls walk away and find themselves lost in Werewolf village. After a pointless scene in a cottage, they find a gate that leads out, but it is locked. Doesn’t make too much sense at this point, unless it’s another insanely cruel Horror prank…or part of the mystery, which is likely.

Then suddenly, a creatures leaps out of at them! The end. …Yeah, that was a weaker one. Not too much and happened the mystery didnt’ get that much deeper. But whatever, let’s see what this creature is.

#5 Dr Manic Vs Robby Schwartz

Robby took his Horrorland invite despite that strange warning from his comic charecters, that was never explained. He says he no one would pass up this chance, but I would if that crap happened to me.

Right on his first day, he ended up in Werewolf village and bumped into Carly Beth and Sabrina. Yep, that creature was just him. Lame.

They quickly explain their gate problem but they get out by having robby just give a hole so they can go under. The ground must be very weak if a boy can just do that.

The girl explain everything and once again, Robby buys it even if he has no reason. Remember, only one creepy thing happened to him since the book was all a story. That will bite the story in the ass later on.

They escape and Robby gets distracted by a huge arcade, almost like he’s in a strange trance. He is drawn to a game called Dr Maniac’s World of Pain. Dun dun dun. It’s just a typical game, only Robby somehow feels everything that flies up at the screen.

Another cool idea that isn’t really explained. Most of these sections have stuff like this that aren’t really explained in the end and just serve as creepy filler.

He ends up being stick at the game, unable to quit it. These girls come in and he asks for help, but the game isn’t in plugged in, dun dun dun. But he just gets free not too soon after with luck so that dun dun dun was worthless.

The girl say they gotta take him to somewhere face, and also they are Brittney and Molly. Now that’s a good dun dun dun moment!

They tell him they must get to the “other park”. They pull a coin which almost hypnotizes Robby until he swats it away. Then Slappy shows up because….why not. He demands that Brit hold the coin up to Slappy.

Well, if a bad guy wants it, then this other park is bad news and Brit should be having second thoughts. She complies anyway and Robby feels himself almost getting sucked into the token. Then he wakes up on the floor of the arcade, with Carly and Sabrina like nothing happened.

I don’t think this is explained but Robby still thinks they should get out of here and get to the other park. The name of park, Panic Park, was on the coin Slappy wanted you to look into. You sure this is a good idea?

He thinks he could be a dream…until he sees that coin on the floor. The end. …Wait, what’s it? Not much a cliffhanger. A better section but still nothing too special except for Slappy’s special cameo. But let’s move on.

#6 Who’s Your Mummy?

4 Months after Abby’s Mummy adventures, Granny Vee is now stronger. And that’s all we are told about that. If you recall, she was feed mummy guts in order to get her to live longer. Don’t ask, it’s a long story.

It’s good to know she’s better, at least.

Abby got her HorrorLand invite and took it…but Peter did not, as he was too shaken up by the hair eating mummies to want more scares. So that characters existence was pointless, woo hoo.

At her first night in HorrorLand, she has a dream which we are told is a dream before hand, kind of making the scare pointless. Also, no mention of parents vanishing again. But the scare don’t stop after waking up, as she spots footprints in her room along with some gauze.

Someone knocks on the door but of course it’s not a mummy, it’s a boy from next door who heard he scream. This boy is Micheal Munroe. That’s right, the kid from My Friends call My Monster. Told you it happened one more time. It’s more pointless this time though.

They talk about each other, and Micheal just mentioned that he face real monsters once. He’s lucky she meet mummies or he would look insane right now. We cut to the next day as they meet up again to hang out.

While walking, they spot a mummy themed game, because of course they do. It’s nothing too special, so they focus on a Egypt themed RIDE, called the…A-Nile-Ator. Booooooo. They get on it, even though Abby’s a tad skeptical about the idea.

Aside from a false scare, nothing really happen. Meh. But afterwards, they bump into a Horror who turns out to be Byron. He just gives them a piece of paper and runs off it. It says “ESCAPE HORRORLAND, YOU ARE IN DANGER”.

You know, people like this really fail to realize people won’t obey advice from creepy people, at least without explanation. You didn’t have time to write more there, buddy?

Abby is shaken up by this but Micheal thinks it’s a joke, especially when a random Horror they bump into sees then note and flat out says it’s a joke. But his laugh sounded fake and he took the note in an odd way so he’s clearly evil.

They go back to their hotel, and in her room Abby finds another note, this time it’/s an invite to lunch at Vampire Cafe with other Special Guests. Before she goes, she notices there are no mirrors. Trust me, it’s leading somewhere.

Also, phones and computers do not work which isn’t too shocking. She goes there and finds all the guests so far. The others explain their plight and are more than a bit excited to hear about her meetup with Byron.

Robby mentions his coin adventures, and the coin has that trance effect on Abby, until a vampire waitress takes it as a tip. Totally not suspicious at all. Before they can get angry, Bubba (the horror that talked about things get scarier) appears.

He actually just takes them to a meeting that was also mentioned in the invite that I failed to mention because I suck. It’s in the haunted theater, and a Horror named Ned and just says all the scares were in good fun and he wants them to tell all their friends how amazing Horrorland is.

Man, even this is just a big cooperate whore.

Then Byron is brought ot in to give them special HorrorLand tokens to show that they are special guests, and it will let them cut in line and such. And the tokens have images related to their scary adventures, like Abby’s having a pyramid.

The cool thing is, this was foreshadowed. On the bac of each books is part of one of those tokens that will match up with the next part that is on the next book. So this has the 2^nd part of the mummy one while it also has part 1 of the next token. Not sure I said that perfectly, but I think you get it.

It’s pointless ubt a fun way to get kids to get all the books and get sucked into the mystery more. Anyway, the kids are told to go to the Bat Barn. Yay, more callbacks!

They get there, and first find a flier on the ground, for the Mirror Mansion. Hmm, not sure if that was the name of the place from One Day but similar idea, good enough. Then of course when they go in, they are met by a bunch of bats.

The end. Bit of a lame ending, but this one was way better. The crossover starts to really form and it’s more interesting even though not a ton happens.

#7: My Friends Call me Monster

Like last time, they kind of has to start right where he left off, only with Micheal explaining what happened after his books twist, which I explained in that review. He’s able to ward the bats off with his dog whistle thing, because bats respond to dog whistles, I guess.

They leave and argue over if Byron is their enemy or was just forced to do this stuff by the horrors. But before a fight can break out, some monster police see them and give chase. But they escape easily, so that didn’t really matter too much.

They gather back Stagger Inn and basically recap everything, even though each of these sections now starts with a recap of the story so far. Through this, they recall that there are no mirrors and think it’s connected to how they see Brit and Molly in a mirror preice.

Told you it comes back, and it is explained. They split up to find one and Micheal keeps bumping into dead ends, until he sees an empty guilding that says STAFF ONLY DO NOT ENTER and randomly decides it might be worth looking into.

It turns out to lead to an underground place which turns out to be where the place’s mechanical crap is run. But before he can look into it, a guard catches him and tells him the sign was not lying and kicks him out.

Nothing too creepy really, it makes sense that high tech important stuff is hidden. But it’s a creepy place so eh, maybe something bad is going on. He meets up with the others who have found no mirrors.

They try to do internet research on this Panic Park palce but as you recall, there is no internet. But Micheal recalls all the tech stuff back there and figures they could go there to find a computer, as there were some in there. Okay, there’s a plot reason, not a mystery reason. Got it.

They sneak in there and Micheal just uses his laptop as it turns out there is wi fi down there. Conveint! First, they look up HorrorLand and we find out it’s proper history. It was founded in the 70’s by Kit Katzman. Seriously.

He was a man who happened to be a big horror fan so he made this park, and filled it with the horrors, thinking they were people in costume. Then before we find out more, Matt makes them skip to Panic Park. Because I guess Stine didn’t think that far ahead into the backstory. Or maybe we find out more later, I know we get PP’s history.

…What an unfortunate acronym.

They find out a bit on Panic Park, on a list of Vanished Amusement parks. It was founded in the 50’s by Karloff Meance and that’s all we get because mystery. They stumble upon a blog by kids who spend time in HorrorLand and are warning people about something.

Hmm, I wonder who those kids are…

But of course they are interrupted by simply being caught by the park staff. They run and end up in a room full of weird gorilla creatures in cages. They let some out to distract the guards, hoping that they get dumb luck and the creatures don’t wanna kill the kids.

This is the case, as they kids take this chance to escape while the horrors take care of them. I don’t think we ever find out why they are there to begin with.

After they escape, they decided to locate the back of the park so they can escape Horrororland. Uh, what about your parents? They might be in danger too, since you haven’t even seen proof of this other hotel.

Micheal gets lost along the way and bumps into two Horrors named Clem and Benson. They tell him to stop making trouble and that just makes Micheal want to leave even more. But another horror appears, shooing them away.

He tells Micheal that he will help him escape…and he pulls out a mirror. Suddenly, he sucked into the mirror and is spat out. But of course is now somewhere else. He’s now in an amusement but a very different one, and there’s a sign saying PP.

Yep, he seems to have found Panic Park!

“But…where IS Panic Park? And…how do I get back to my friends?”

The end. Now that’s a cliffhanger! That whole section built up the mystery way better than the last few and was pretty enjoyable, with a nice ending. I like that they got rid of Micheal like with Brit and Molly, adds a bit more urgency to the story.

#8: Say Cheese-And Die Screaming!

Hopefully the logic from the book carries over until this section. As I said in that review, the twist is forgotten as Julie heads to HorrorLand ready for some fun. But while she’s walking around, those gorilla creatures end up in the main park and cause all kinds of terror.

They just run by and Julie conveniently bumps into the remaining Special Guests who are looking for Micheal. Before the kids can explain everything, some monster police pop up so they run off and get separated, after a quick scene on a ride I don’t feel like recapping

.

Before Julie can try to get back to them, Byron jumps her and gives her a small mirror before running off. He is drawn to it but throws it away before it can pull her on. She does bump into the other guests and they explain everything and figure mirrors are the way to Panic Park and must get that mirror back.

But a horror throws the trash can in this big grabage truck before they can get it. I didn’t know they just did that in the middle of a park during the day but whatever stops the plot from moving, I guess.

They decided to just leave out the front gate, which is just crazy enough to fail because a horror sees them. But after stamping their hands, he lets them leave. This sounds too good to be true, and of course it turns out that vines grow out of the stamps and capture them.

I just expected a shock, to prevent them from leaving but that works too.

“Is…The End?”

Well, if you mean the end of the section, then yes. Yeah, that’s actually the end. Kind of abrupt. Not too much happened in this one, but there was nothing dumb enough to mock. Kind of dull and pointless, honestly. Good ending though.

#9: Welcome to Camp Slither

After escaping from Snake Camp, Boone started to have a dull summer, and I guess the snake he gave Heather at the end of the book just vanished.

“Can you imagine a kid so lame she cheats at Croquet?”

Can you imagine a kid so lame they PLAY Croquet?

So she was happy when she got that HorrorLand invite but of course her fun doesn’t even start since she sees the vine covered kids in the parking lot. Given the book itself, Boone is used to creepy things happening almost right away..

Some Horrors appear and say this is what they get for trying to escape. Now that’s actually pretty creepy, making them think they are free and puling this. A bit much but it’s effective. They free the kids and force them onto a bus where Boone gets acquainted with the ever growing group of kids.

They plan to take the kids to The Keeper, who I imagine is less scarier than he sounds. Thankfully, Boone gets them out of there by tricking the Horrors into thinking there are snakes on the bus.

They fall for it and the kids manage to escape. I love that monsters are afraid of freaking snakes. They spot a ride that they think may get them to the tunnels they were in, but it just leads them back to Ned, who somehow made it all the way there in time and knew they would be there.

They are taken to a room full of strange junk connected to their adventures, like a camera or a painting of Captain Ben. Then The Keeper Enters, and he is…DR Maniac!

….Wrong book to have it in but AWESOME! He’s every bit as insane as he was before. I kind of want him in the Goosebumps Movie Sequel, but no anger could capture him without basically being annoying, same goes for The Purple Rage.

They are taken a room for some torture when-

“It’s Can’t Be! The Purple Rage!”

“Do you know what CRUCNHES my POTATO CHIPS?!”

…

10/10, best book ever.

They think this crazy guy running in will save them but he’s actually teaming up with The Manic, for some reason. Also ,HOW THEY ARE ALIVE GIVEN HOW THEIR BOOK WENT DOWN?!

From this teamup, they assume all of their old foes are teaming up. Eh, we have enough hints for that to be possible, with Slappy appearing. So yeah, a leauge of Goosebumps villains. ….I change my mind, this is an 50/10.

They spend the next couple pages exchange dumb jokes and threatening the kids. That is until The Purple Rage starts twisting Boone’s arms, threatening to make a balloon animal out of him.

“How about a nice poodle? Or should I twist you into a giraffe with a long long neck?”

The end. …Wait, what’s it?! Nothing happened! They got onto a bus, meet The Joker and The Hulk’s lost cousins and ….that was it! Fun but very uneventful. Hopefully our last one has more to it.

#10: Help! We Have Strange Powers!

In spite of Madame Doom’s creepy warning, Jackson and Jillian went to HorrorLand anyway hoping to get a break from the Dr. Cranium stuff and given the origin of the warning, they think this place could connect to their powers.

Huh, a better reason then “lol it could be fun”, I guess. Upon getting there, they decide to have a bit of fun before going snooping and of course bump into Madame Doom. They try the machine just for fun and now the card says “Escape HorrorLand”.

Dun dun dun?

Then suddenly, Crainmum pops up out of nowhere!

“Sometimes babies grow up fast!”

Oh yeah, he has that kind of power. Maybe try a longer term solution before you leave forever, Nina and Artie?

He gives chase and tries to get into their brains. Then the Madame Doom machine flies up and knocks him out. ….What.

I don’t get it, how does that work? It’s never even explained! Plus, he gets up just a moment later, so it was pointless. He chasing them to the doom slide where the kids jump in to escape.

Thankfully, they do not pick the doom slide, or at least it doesn’t have that fire crap from before. Upon arriving at the bottom, a horror appears to take them to the other special guests, who are still with The Keeper.

Which means we get more of Manic and Purple rage! Right away, a fight ensues with them and Purple again fires off his alliteration.

“That PARBOILS MY PEONIES!”

…He’s not even using words anymore. And like in his book, he get so mad be blows up. Still amazing. But Dr Manic is still so he keeps torturing the kids, by doing stuff like making the floor really hot.

This is all kind of creepy, actually. It’s the closest we’ll get to actual torture in Goosebumps, and it makes for a good and suspenseful scene.

In a last ditch effort, Jillian has Robby pretend he’s dead, which actually worries Maniac, since he wasn’t supposed to actually kill anyone. This is the most humanity he will ever show, which is kind of cool even if it’s not really worried about Robby himself.

This plan works as he just runs off, leaving the door unlocked so they can escape. That was easy but actually took decent planning. I guess the logic from Say Cheese somehow ended up here.

Once they leave, the other explain the whole thing to Jackson and Jillian who figure this is all true given what just happened. They make it back to where the cafe used to be just to see if there’s any leads there, and Jackson is able to use his powers to uncover the previously missing cafe through means that are explained better than I am saying in my summary.

A few steps into the mirror to get there, but some others just slam into it, leaving them there to be chased by some monster police that pop up.

They manage to escape from them so easily, I wonder why these guys seem to suck so much. They bump into these two kids have popped up a coupel times in this section, but in the middle of a scene so I had to skip them before.

They seemed to spying our main duo so they wonder what the hell their deal is.

“My name is Lizzy Morris. This is my brother Luke”

WHAT A TWIST! That’s right, Luke and Lizzy from the original One day at HorrorLand are here! Who would have guessed except everyone because Stine spoiled in various promos.

Yeah, they run that site I mentioned, and each GBH has various notes from them and sometimes their names were mentioned. It was cool but I wish this twist was…more shocking.

Still, I love that they showed up, since this seemed to be light on Crossover stuff up to this point. It does make the timeline more confusing, but we’ll get to that some other time.

All they say off the bat is that they think the kids should STAY in this place. This is why they think Luke and Lizzy may be working for the horrors. There’s not to much suspense because it would make no sense for the main characters of a previous GB book to now be working with them…unless they are on the good side, which is possible given who the real villain is.

Still, seems too smart for these books for them to be evil. Jillian reads Lizzy’s mind…and says she is lying.

Well, shit, can’t argue with that. And so this trip finally ends with them conering the two ,asking what the hell they want. Now that was a good section to go out on, especially with Luke and Lizzy.

But yeah, glad to be done here.

Final Thoughts:

A bit hard to review this as a whole but here we go. This is a mixed bag, mostly due to having the issues most mysteries have. Blatant Red Herrings, not explaining enough, and having mysterious elements for the sake of it.

And sometimes the characters might not get enough to do it, and there’s a bit too many in here. With that said, a lot of it works. It keeps you invested with the creepy things going on, and some plot points are interesting and build up cool ideas.

It makes you want to keep going, like any passable mystery. The sections can be hit or miss, since some reveal nothing and waste time, while some are fast paced and a ton of fun. It’s clear Stine has trouble filling ten parts to this, especially when you read them all at once.

But overall, this was a fun experiment, even if it had ups and downs. But it all depends on the ending, so we’ll see it the following books make these bits all worth it.

Seems odd to grade these, but meh:

Grade: B

So what will happen? Are Luke and Lizzy evil? What is Panic Park? We’ll find out….way later, as next is the book BEFORE the finale, which is bound to reveal as much as most part 1’s of s bigger story.

Find out sometime in late May or So!

See ya.