‘Goosebumps’author on balancing scary with funny

R.L. Stine has finally outdone himself. After close to 30 years of scaring kids and killing teenagers in the pages of his Goosebumps and Fear Street books, the horror writer has come up with his most gruesome scene ever. Spoiler alert, it involves horses.

On the heels of the infinitely less grim Goosebumps movie, we interviewed the monster maker whose books have crowded the shelves of young adult (YA) sections for years. The film brings almost all of his beloved Goosebumps creatures to life, from Slappy the ventriloquist dummy to the Abominable Snowman from Pasadena. And, yes, that even includes the ghoul maker himself; a character named R.L. Stine, played by Jack Black, is a major part of the film.

But before there were the slime-covered Goosebumps paperbacks, there was the bloodstained Fear Street series. A noteworthy horror series in its own right, Fear Street rode high on the great wave of YA horror novels, which also included the authors Christopher Pike and Richie Tankersley Cusick. Stine wouldn’t confirm rumours that a Fear Street film or TV project is in the works, but when the conversation turned to blood and gore, he was more than forthcoming.

Do you know right now how many books you’ve published?

If I say the number, I’ll have to go take a nap. I don’t know. I only guess. It’s around 330. ... There were a hundred joke books before I got scary, back when I was funny.

You even worked on movie novelisations as well, Ghostbusters II, Spaceballs?

There were days when I would do anything. I wrote GI Joe books ... I did Rocky and Bullwinkle colouring books. There’s a point in your career where ... you’re afraid to say no.

Why was it horror that helped you find your place in the writing world?

I think it’s because kids like it. I didn’t understand it at first. I did a humour magazine for 10 years and then my friend Jean Bridewell at Scholastic said, “I need you to write a scary novel for teenagers.” It wasn’t even my idea to be scary. Now, that’s embarrassing.

I wrote this book for her. It was Blind Date. It was a teen novel and it was a No. 1 bestseller. Then I did a second one called Twisted. Also No. 1. I’d never been anywhere near that list. I’d been writing for 20 years and I thought, “Wait a minute, forget the funny stuff, kids want to be scared.”

What have you learnt about what’s scary in your many years writing horror?

There are all these basic fears that we all have for one thing. Fear of the dark, fear of something in the basement, something lurking somewhere in your house, that kind of thing. For me it’s not just the unknown, it’s fear of being really surprised. Really shocked. That’s why I try to do so many surprises in my books.

You’ve killed off a lot of characters in really creative ways. Do you have a favourite or a ridiculous death scene that sticks out in your head?

Well, yeah. There’s a new Fear Street that’s coming out next month called, The Lost Girl. It has ... I should be ashamed of this one. It has, no seriously, the most gruesome scene I’ve ever written. It involves, I don’t want to spoil it for anybody. It involves horses eating a guy.

What?

While his daughter watches. Yeah. I’m actually very proud of this scene.

OK, that definitely tops Corky Corcoran’s being boiled in the showers (Fear Street’s Cheerleaders series The First Evil).

Oh, I know. Poor Corky. My brother-in-law is a doctor and when I was writing the Corky scene, I had to call him and say, “How would she die? Would she suffocate? Would she be scalded?” He said, “I’ll give you advice, but don’t let anyone ever know I helped you.”

Why did you decide to make Fear Street set in the same town?

When we had the idea of trying to do a horror series, the normal thing would be to have continuing characters, but that would get ridiculous if the same characters are being horrified book after book. You can’t do that. That’s how we got the idea that it should be a place. That there would be one street, one horrifying street in a very normal town, and then whoever would venture over there could get into trouble. That seemed to make more sense than continuing characters.

Do you think Goosebumps could ever become all one world, like it is in the film?

I don’t know. That’s too hard. When we started Goosebumps Horror Land, I took a break in Goosebumps. We did 67 of them or something, and then I did some other stuff for a while. Other series. Then we came back and started the Goosebumps Horror Land. It had a continuing serial in the back. There were two stories in every book, and it had a lot of the monsters showed up in Horror Land in this serial, but I found it really hard to write. It’s hard to keep track of what happened in previous episodes and get it right. No, I like starting all over again with every book ... Of course, there are recurring characters. I have to keep writing Slappy books.

How do you find inspiration when you’ve done this for so long?

That’s the real challenge. That’s why I’m so proud of myself when I think of the horses scene. I’ve thought of something new. It’s good. The thing about Twitter is, it’s absolutely the best way to keep in touch with my original audience from the 90s. It’s all twenty and thirtysomethings ... I’m nostalgia to them.

I always wondered if you and Christopher Pike were friends.

He actually was doing young adult horror before I was. When Scholastic asked me to do a horror book and I didn’t really know they are ... I ran to the book store. This is true, I bought a lot of Christopher Pike, and I bought Lois Duncan, and there were two or three other authors who were already doing it. I think Richie Tankersley Cusick. There are a whole bunch of people and I bought their books just to see what it was all about. I read them and then I tried to figure out what I would do that would be different from what they were doing.

What was it like watching the Goosebumps movie?

I have to say, it was really exciting. It’s very strange to be a character in the film. I enjoyed it. I think it’s a great kids movie for one thing. It’s a lot of fun ... and the special effects are amazing ... Jack of course is hilarious. He’s a much more sinister version of me.

Did you give them any advice?

No. Jack came in to New York. Actually flew in a blizzard last winter and we had lunch. He came just to look at me. It was kind of weird. We hit it off right away.

Pick another one of your books that you would like to see as a good, old-fashioned horror film.

You know I did those four babysitter books? They’re just called The Babysitter. Babysitter II. This poor girl Jenny, who’s terrorised. It’s your basic babysitter horror story. Those would be good.

What was the most important thing that you wanted the new film to capture?

The combination of scariness and funniness. When I read the script, I did give comments to make sure that it never gets too scary ... I think all my books have that kind of balance between funniness and scariness. I just wanted to make sure that the movie has that balance, and it does.