Open The Book, See What's Inside

[00:00:02] The most thrilling, spikingly series ever From the pages of R.L. Stine's best-selling books And the screens go on forever and ever We now return to Goosebumps

[00:01:06] Greetings Goosebumps fans, young and old, big and small, living dead and undead Welcome back to the Goosebumps Crew Podcast And as always, I am your host, Isaiah Vargas I'm joined by my good buddy, Nick Shaw We are the Goosebumps Crew and we're back to talk some Goosebumps And maybe some things that are in between As always, if this is your first time joining us here on the Goosebumps Crew Podcast I want to sincerely welcome you all If you ever have been a fan of the Goosebumps series of books Or the monster franchise those books spawned I have a feeling this podcast is going to be right up your alley

[00:01:34] Because I always say, me, Bjorn, and Nick are some of the biggest Goosebumps nerds on the entire planet We can talk about Goosebumps for hours on end And that's exactly what we do here on this podcast Every week we've got a brand new episode talking about everything Goosebumps Whether it be the books, TV shows, movies, video games, merchandise, whatever it is If that's Goosebumps in the name We're going to talk and talk and talk and talk about it so much You're going to want to rip your ears off Because you don't want to hear about Goosebumps no more So with all that said If you end up liking today's episode Make sure you have a like and comment If you're watching us on YouTube

[00:02:03] Subscribe to our YouTube channel Hit that bell notification to get updates When new episodes go up every Wednesday at noon central 1 p.m. Eastern If you're just dying to get those episodes early However, don't worry You can catch the audio-only versions On our audio platforms We're available on platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio Or wherever you get your podcasts And of course you can follow us over on social media We're available on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook As well as our new social medias Over on Blue Sky, Tumblr, and Threads

[00:02:32] You can also follow Bjorn and Nick at Goosebumps Aussie Fan and Sean respectively To their social medias and their YouTubes All those links are in the description below So check them out Join the Goosebumps crew today Become a crew member And we thank you in advance as always For your support Now, as I said You know, we talk about Goosebumps a lot Here on this podcast But sometimes we've got to branch out A little bit We've got to talk about some of the other things That kind of wiggled their way Into our childhoods That were horror-related And, you know, whether or not

[00:03:01] It's, you know, a show that's meant for Younger audiences Or if you were five years old And started watching R-rated horror movies The second one I would question What your parents were doing at that time But whatever the case Everybody's had a brush with horror At some point And there's always new horror fans Coming into the mix Coming into the genre And most of the time It's through those experiences they have When they're younger

[00:03:30] And there are many instances Where there is a show Or a movie that is horror-centric But is not super gory Or super violent It's a little more On the safe side But still on the spooky side of things Now, we've done episodes in the past Talking about shows Like horror anthology shows We've also talked about You know, sort of Other shows that sort of Influenced Goosebumps Or were influenced by Goosebumps In that sort of sense Today we're going to delve back Into the world of Gateway Horror

[00:03:59] But before we get too deep Into things I want to introduce Both of our special guests Here tonight First off I want to welcome back Our friend Horror for Kids To the podcast He's been on here I believe twice before Horror, how are you doing tonight, man? Doing good Love being on the podcast, guys Thank you so much for having me It's always a blast Chatting goosebumps And all the spooky things From our childhood Absolutely And hey, if we ever have to talk About anything spooky From our childhood I don't think there's anybody That we could go to Other than you, my friend

[00:04:30] Thank you, thank you Absolutely And also Making his first appearance On the podcast Somebody who I'm actually familiar with Because he's part of Channel Awesome The group that inspired me To want to get into Online video creating It is Mr. Walter Benasiak Of Channel Awesome Walter, how are you doing tonight? Great, great Thanks for having me, man Really looking forward to Talking about this stuff Absolutely Now, Walter You know, you've been a part Of Channel Awesome You've done your own shows Such as Awesome Comics You've done

[00:05:00] Marathons of reviews Such as Batman Where you review Every episode of Batman the animated series As well as Twilighttober Where you review Every episode of The original Twilight Zone And of course You had supporting roles On the very popular Internet show Nostalgia Critic Which is hosted by Doug Walker A show that I am very much Familiar with So it's a very great Pleasure to have you Here today Because you've also Talked about You know, many Sort of gateway Horror shows Including Goosebumps And Are You Afraid

[00:05:30] Of The Dark Would you say A lot of these shows Sort of had an influence On your career And sort of your Love for film And the medium In general Absolutely I mean, I think A lot of the things That strike you When you're younger Are the scary things That you watch Right? Goosebumps And Are You Afraid Of The Dark Are definitely The top two things That I think of first Whenever I think of Horror gateway Type stuff For younger kids And they're still Popular I think a lot of people

[00:05:59] Who would watch them Now would still Get into them At a younger age So it's good to see That they're Multi-generational At this point We're getting Different versions Of them For both of those shows So that's kind of Where it started For me And then I have a couple That we'll talk about When we get Into our top fives Definitely And you know As I say We always talk about Goosebumps And how unbelievably Influential it was But we gotta give Some highlights To some of the other shows That sort of Treaded the lines Of scarring us For life When we were younger

[00:06:29] Now of course We do gotta give Mention that Goosebumps Is among The top Of this list If we were to Recommend any show That you could Introduce to You know A younger audience Or just watch 90's show Is definitely Up there It is Classic Spooky fun For all ages It's a show That you know Even us as You know Adults We can go back And just watch And have a Fantastic time Whether it's You know

[00:06:58] Good entertaining Or just Wow this is bad Sort of entertaining And there's A great mix of both In the show Definitely For sure But we're gonna Give highlights To some of the shows That we feel For anyone Who's looking To get into The horror genre If you are A parent And you're looking To introduce Some shows To your kids Or if you're Just looking To sort of Dip your toes in You don't want To go into

[00:07:28] Like the straight Slashers And you know The paranormal Thriller Or something like That Just to sort Of ease you in Some people Aren't ready To watch You know What was it Child's play At eight Or built Different Let's just Say that So what We're gonna Do today Is our Top five Horror Gateway horror Shows and Movies That we Recommend To new Horror audiences

[00:07:57] Now this is Just our Opinion If you have Any shows That you Recommend Personally Leave them In the comments Down below We'd love to See what you Guys Personally Grew up With And all That It's always Interesting To see What Shaped Who And for What Reasons So we're Definitely

[00:08:13] Going to

[00:08:43] And I Remember While I Certainly Enjoyed Goosebumps More It was A show That I Just can Never Ever Forget Because of How much It pushed The boundaries So my Number five Is going to Be R.L. Stein's The Haunting Hour Another R.L. Stein show The Haunting Hour Is basically If you want An actual Modern Goosebumps Take Nothing That's like A continuing Story like We've got With the Disney Plus Show If you Want a True blue Kids Horror Anthology Set in The

[00:09:14] Haunting Hour Is Unique Because I think It is Legitimately Scarier Than Goosebumps The Haunting Hour Deals With a lot Of the Same Things Evil Dolls Clowns Ghosts Zombies That sort Of thing But it's A lot Darker And a Lot Of these Episodes Don't End Very Well Especially For the Main Characters In fact For a Channel Like The Hub Which Is What It Was Airing On At Least In The US

[00:09:44] And The Sort Of And Just All Around Scarier Darker Themes So I Feel Like If You Want A Modern Goosebumps That Even Ups The Annie A Little Bit I Would Personally Say The Haunting Hour Is

[00:10:30] Oh Go Ahead Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry I Just Want To Say Let Me Go On Like Official Record In Saying That The Haunting Hour Is By Far The Scariest Kids Horror Anthology Of All Time There's Nothing Scarier Than It Like Honestly There's Nothing Scarier Than It There Are Truly Episodes Where As You Said Kids Die Like Straight Up Like It's Not Even Like Implied Like They Die I Remember Just A Couple Off Top Of My Head Like There's One Called

[00:11:00] RV Where This Girl's Whole Family Gets Into Like A Car Crash And They All Die And It's Just It's Really Horrifying By Far It's It's One Of My Favorite Series But I Don't Have A Problem With Giving It The Title Scariest Of All Time Another One I Can Definitely Recommend Because It Messed Me Up Something Fierce Was Mascot That's Definitely The

[00:11:39] Leave You Creeped Out By The End So But Yeah Haunting Hour Is My Number Five Nick Let's Move On To You Uh Well I'm Trying To Figure Out How To Do This In A Not So Much Like Ranking As Far As Like I Think This Is Better Than This One Probably Just Go

[00:12:09] So I Know At At At At At At At Number Five I Don't Know If Anybody Remembers My Pet Monster But I Love The Kids You Know I Again I Was Brought Up In A House Where Child's Play Was Around When I Was Six So You Know What I Mean It's Like Not Scary To Me But Like It's A Very I Could See Where It Would Be A Very

[00:12:40] Gateway Centric Horror For Some Kids Not So Much The Cartoon But If You Guys Ever Watched The Movie That Had Colin Fox In Who We All Know As The Shopkeeper From Haunted Mask He He Was Obsessed With These Statues Of Monsters That Were Said To Bestow Power Upon Someone Who They Felt

[00:13:09] Was Worthy To Have It So He's Obsessed With This Kid Max Who Ends Up Getting That Power And The Whole Time Trying To Figure Out Capturing Him And How He Did It And Getting That Power For Himself So Got This Creepy Guy Kidnapping Children Put Him In Dog Cages And A Bunch Of Other Things It Can Be Scary I Would Think For Some Kids But I Loved It It's Something I Recommend I Mean It

[00:13:55] It It Was One Of His Earlier Ones But I Remember He Hated That Movie Yeah That Was Great To A People I Remember That Ended With Him Calling The Director And He Got So Depressed Because He

[00:14:25] It's Always Funny It's Funny That's Good It's Definitely A Very Sort Of Goofy Movie In A Sense So If You I Would Say If You Like The Cheesier Aspects I Mean You Probably Couldn't Get Better Than That Because It's A Cheesy Movie To Me It's As A Kid I Loved It But I Rewatched As

[00:14:55] But So It's Only On VHS But It Is On YouTube You Can Watch It I Did Rewatch It Does Not Hold Up Sadly To Me Still I Remembered Everything The Nostalgia To It Because The Girl Played Max's Sister And I Can't Remember His Sister's Name Right Now But She

[00:15:25] I Think She Voiced April O'Neil In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles She's Done A Lot Of Stuff I Mean I Was It Jubilee Oh Jubilee And X-Men That's What It Was Jubilee And X-Men That's Quite The She's She's She's She's Up There But It Just It It's Amazing When You See That Because You Never Know That As Kid But Sadly Does Not Hold Up It's Pretty Rough Most Things Never Do Horror What Do You Got For Your Number Five Number

[00:15:55] Five I've Got Courage The Cowardly Dog That's A Great Pull There One Of Cartoon Network's Gems Right I Mean The Show Is Pure Surreal Horror More Times Weirder Than It Is Scary And You've Got Episodes Like King Ramsey's Curse And Freaky Fred That Stood Out To All Of Us And Just Scard An Entire Generation There's Still People Now Today That Reference Return The Slab It's Such An

[00:16:25] Iconic Show On So Many Levels And It's Even Carried On Into Crossovers With Scooby Doo And All That Now Which Is So Cool To See So Yeah I've Got Courage At Number Five It's A Great Pick Man I Loved Cowardly Dog When I Was Younger I Have Not Really Revisited As An Adult Too Much But I Mean The Mix Of Comedy And Horror In There Because It'll Be Funny And Then They'll Just Randomly Throw Something Like A Scary Image Or Something It's Like What Did I Just See

[00:16:55] Obliminal Kind Of Thing You Yeah I Think All That's What Helps To Make A Horror Show Appealing To Kids You Gotta Mix A Little Bit Of That Comedy A It Can't Totally I

[00:17:26] Mean You To Have A Humor adventure, heart, and horror. And that's the recipe there, right? Definitely. I think that era of Cartoon Network, you can't not have Courage the Cowardly Dog.

[00:17:56] It's Dexter's Lab, Courage, Powerpuff Girls. You know, like Courage has to be in there. So, I mean, it's important in that respect as well. I don't have it on my list, but I do want to give very quick mention to Billy and Mandy because that was a show I loved growing up. I guess you can say it's an honorable mention for me, but I loved Billy and Mandy. It was more comedy focused than horror, though the first season definitely had a lot of horror aspects and it kind of continued into the

[00:18:26] later series. It was one of those shows where they really took advantage of the episodic nature of it. So, like, they could do anything to these characters and it didn't matter because they'd be back to normal the next episode. So, you could have them the one in particular I remember they all end up, like, knocking over their hourglasses, which is basically, like, their life. So, they knock them over and then they, like, reverse age and Grimm lets the kids, like, revert just to fetuses and then disappear and then

[00:18:56] shortly after. And then that's it. The episode just ends with all the characters being erased from existence. Wow. So funny. It's dark, man. I'll have to revisit that. Oh, it's so good. I got into, like, a kick it. And actually, recently, because they did a I don't want to get too off topic, but recently, they brought back those characters for the Jellystone crossover. So, you got Greg Eagles, Greg Delisle, and Richard Horvitz all reprising those roles, which was pretty cool.

[00:19:26] Yeah, very cool. Did Billy and Mandy, really quick, did Billy and Mandy start as a cartoon cartoon short and then they adapted into a whole series? It actually is a really weird story because Maxwell, so Maxwell Adams, he's the creator of Billy and Mandy. And the whole show was actually based off his college thesis film and it was, I think it was called Trepanation of the Skull and You. And it was basically a cartoon with Billy and Mandy.

[00:19:56] Talking about Trepanation and that's the process of drilling holes in your head to like, release evil spirits, essentially. Oh my gosh. So that's like all it is. And then yeah, Cartoon Network got a hold of that and was like, let's make this into a kid's show. Yeah, okay, okay. Love that. But yeah, it was interesting. It was a cartoon. I don't know how many you guys are with Trick or Treat, the Michael Doherty Halloween film. I just watched that last year for the first time. I love that film. It's easily my favorite Halloween movie.

[00:20:26] film and because I'm big into Halloween, but that's funny because like Michael Doherty had a similar situation in that stand. Like he made a short film in college that had a rough version of Sam at the time and that would later be taken by Legendary and made into an actual film. So that's, that's pretty cool. I like hearing stories about the same things. College, you know, students are just like doing this at the time, but still bring it forward for newer generations,

[00:20:54] but kind of reimagined it a little bit. I mean, obviously, I don't recall ever, you know, Billy or Mandy having Grimm like drill holes in their heads or anything. I mean, I could be wrong. That's the uncut version out there somewhere. Honestly, you know what? Considering how dark that show got, they probably could have gotten away with it in some sense. They probably could have. Yeah. That was when Cartoon Network had some, had some grit to it. Yeah. Oh yeah. They were going hard

[00:21:24] as the alternative to Nickelodeon at the time and they were like, you watch Cow and Chicken and Pork Butts and all this weird stuff. The red guy. Yeah. The red guy was just always showing his ass the whole time. Let's out weird Red and Stimpy somehow. I never knew it, but the guy who plays the voices, I think he does all of them as a matter of fact. All three main characters. Yeah. Same guy. Red butt. Cause like, he's kind of a buff old dude, but like he posts videos

[00:21:54] like on Instagram and he's like in the gym, but he just starts doing those voices in the gym. It's so weird. It's like an old guy in a gym, but it's him. He's the voice. That's great. That is great. It's weird. Yeah. Like, Ooh, it's like cow and chicken. It was like very flamboyant almost. Oh, so good. But, uh, it's good before we get too off topic. Uh, Walter, what do you got for your number five? So this is going to be a little bit on brand for me, but I'm going to go

[00:22:24] with the original Twilight Zone series. So from 1959 to 1963, uh, it is really the, the, the base and, uh, sort of the ground level for a lot of the anthology series we got later. I think goosebumps is at least partially inspired somewhat by Twilight Zone. Um, when you think of anything that's kind of scary and meant for even, you know, an older audience as well, but for younger audiences, I think that the Twilight Zone really, uh, was kind of the forefather of a lot of those kind of shows or that genre in general.

[00:22:54] Um, there were anthology series before Twilight Zone, but never like nearly as popular. Um, the funny thing about that series is that it connected with kids. It's so weird to go back and read all of these, uh, you know, excerpts from the time and, um, you know, writing from Rod Serling and stuff that like that show was really, he was aiming for like the adult kind of perspective and it still did hit adults and everything, but kids were like infatuated with that show. Um, so I think it could be a little bit difficult to introduce

[00:23:23] to kids now because, you know, black and white photography or cinematography can be a turnoff for a lot of, uh, younger audiences, even like older audiences, people my age sometimes, I'm not going to watch that because it's in black and white, but number one, it's your loss. Number two, um, you just gotta, you gotta get over that. Um, if you are going to introduce a kid to this, I mean, I would say maybe like eight, nine, 10 would be a good, good way to, to get them into a few of the episodes. Um, watch it with them and I think that that could be kind of a bonding experience

[00:23:53] and also, um, the black and white can add to the creepiness of it. And I think it does like make things age a little bit better on the scarier side of things because it's, it's shot in an old way. It's, you know, old film. Like, there's just something creepy about the tone of everything. Um, there's like, you know, not every episode of the Twilight Zone is scary. I mean, there are very heartwarming episodes of the Twilight Zone. There are like social commentary episodes of the Twilight Zone. Um, it really is a wide ranging series, but if you want to

[00:24:23] get kids into it that are, you know, more of the, um, on the scarier side of some of the stories, I think the Hitchhiker is a great episode to start with. Um, something like Elegy where these guys are on a different planet and turns out to be a big, um, like cemetery. Uh, Mirror Image is a classic. Um, a lot of these archetypes that you see in horror films now have a lot of their basis in some of these stories, like the After Hours with the mannequin coming alive and all that stuff. Um, a lot of the original, um, pieces are here.

[00:24:54] Yeah. Um, so Twilight Zone, I feel like that's a home run. If, if you can get kids into it, like you just gotta, you gotta like kind of guide them in a little bit, but once they get hooked, I think that this will be a great sort of way to start them off on the genre. That you hit the nail on the head because I, I was the same way and my grandparents, uh, used to love, they're used to, I don't remember what channel it was, but there used to be like 24 hour, I think New Year's marathon of Twilight Zone.

[00:25:23] On Syfy. Yeah, that's it. So like there would always New Year's Eve, it would just be nonstop Twilight Zone and I would just be mesmerized. And that's from a time because this was the fifties, like this was early TV. Um, but it comes from an era of horror that was not reliant on, you know, gruesome special effects or, you know, stuff like that. It was very much based on, uh, you know, journey into the unknown, paranormal suspense sort of things. And a lot of

[00:25:53] Twilight Zone episodes focused more on the suspense rather than like the flashy sort of, um, effects. And I, it's funny because Twilight Zone, and we should clarify, we're talking about the 1950s version because there's been other, uh, Twilight Zones. There was one from the eighties, which I, I hear some people really like, um, then there was one from the two thousands, which Forrest Whitaker was the stand-in for Rod Serling. Strange hosting choice. Exactly. It was just like, how do you go from Rod Serling? Hey, look, I like Forrest Whitaker,

[00:26:22] but he's just doing Forrest Whitaker. Like he's not, he's not Rod Serling. Let's just say it like that. Only one. And then, I mean, good actor. Maybe it was just the eye thing. They were like, it's kind of weird. Let's throw it in here. Let's throw it in here. I don't know what. You got the job, Forrest. The two thousands one I just don't think was that great in terms of story ideas. The only one I actually really liked, ironically, is the one where they went back to an original episode and that was the sequel to It's a Good Life. Everyone talks about that.

[00:26:52] That's like the one standout from that series. It's the only one that feels like it has, uh, you know, connection to the original series, ironically, because it's a sequel. Um, but they, you know, they even got back, you know, Bill Mummy, who was in that original episode. So it was like, you know, you're seeing the progression of time. So that's the only one I feel is like worth it. And then you had this, this reboot that I think was on like CBS all access and it just kind of came out. Yeah.

[00:27:21] I didn't, I don't hear anybody talk about it now. It just like completely for under the radar. Uh, and that was, I wasn't very well received. Yeah. And I got two seasons though. And that's a shame too, because it was Jordan Peel was doing it. And I think I was so I remember like seeing the, the Superbowl commercial for it. Like this was like the first advertisement for the show. And it was such a bad-ass way to introduce, uh, like the new, the new show because they had Jordan Peel, like on an empty field. Like they, they like pretended there

[00:27:51] was like glitches in the Superbowl feed. And then he showed up on the field and he walks through the door and I was, and he just disappears on the other side. I was so hyped for that show, man. And then like, I got like four or five, six episodes in and I was like, I can't do, I can't do it. I tried so hard. I think one of these days I'll go back and just for a completionist sake, finish, you know, the rest of the first season and the second season. But man, I was, uh, I was really, really let down by that last series. Unfortunately, I think just the moral here

[00:28:20] is that you just can't beat the original. The original is always going to read in Supreme. It's tough. You don't have Rod Serling. I mean, like he's the guy who made everything. Um, he didn't write every episode or anything, but I mean, he was the showrunner. He wrote 92, I think of the original 156 episodes. I mean, like he was the force behind it and without him, it just doesn't feel the same. Yeah. And all the reboots, like, you know, had to have some sort of like, you know, reference to Rod Serling. But it's like, you know, at that point, you know, you know what you're

[00:28:50] missing, you know what the key ingredient is and it's missing. So it's like, unless you can find a really good way to bring it back, maybe don't. Right. Might just leave it lie. Yeah. See, that's objectionable though, because to them, they may have thought this is great. These are great ideas. You know, yeah, no, this is just not, you're not trying to reinvent the wheel, but they're just trying to make something flashy for a newer generation. And sometimes that doesn't work out. You know, take Creepshow, for example, you know,

[00:29:19] I love the films in the show that ended up on Shudder. Actually, it was really good. Like, at least I enjoyed it. It's really good. I love that show. Right. So, I mean, you can get home runs. It's just, I think sometimes that you just have to have those people that know the source material where it came from to kind of keep it still in the same lane. The closest we'll ever get to a new film. You know, this is what we talked about with the Goosebumps Disney Plus show too. You know, we give the new season, you know,

[00:29:49] a rating of maybe like, you know, 6, 6.5, something like that. But as a Goosebumps show, we only gave it like a 4. You know, it was very low on the score of what a Goosebumps show is. Unfortunately, I think that's just what happened with Twilight, man. I just, I think they just go too far off the rail. Not Twilight the movies. Not Twilight the vampire movies. That's actually my number 3. No. Yeah, yeah.

[00:30:18] That was my number 1, actually. If it's not, if you're not Team Jacob, okay, he's coming back on it. God, remember when everybody, one more thing before I get to my number 4, but remember when everybody was, you know, complaining about Robert Pattinson being Batman? Because they were like, oh, he was the Twilight guy. And then that movie came out and everyone was like, honestly, I think he's my favorite Batman. He's so good. Because people forget he is an insanely

[00:30:48] talented actor and he's unfortunately bogged down by the reputation of the Twilight movies. Yeah, he still hasn't gotten that stink off him, I think. I mean, like it's still, even though he's done Batman and like the Mickey 17 movie that's out now and everything, I mean, like there's still kind of, it still lingers on him a little bit, unfortunately. It's unfair to him. I tell you what, like anybody who had doubts about him being Batman and just comparing it to Twilight, how many years ago was that though now? You know what I mean? Like actors, actors grow if you stay in the business and you,

[00:31:17] you know, work on your craft because then he did a movie with Willem Dafoe before this. Oh, The Lighthouse, right? The Lighthouse. The Lighthouse is crazy. Watch that. Hey, you want to talk about, you want to talk about black and white adding to a movie? The Lighthouse. And that was a great use of black and white and I mean, I love Willem Dafoe anyway so I'll watch pretty much anything that dude's in. Yeah. But Pattinson killed it in that and I was like, oh my God,

[00:31:47] I was like, some of the stuff he did in that film made me think, yeah, this dude could totally do Batman. He'll be fine. He's got range for sure. Waiting for that damn sequel. Yeah. When's that going to come out now? It's coming. What he just said is like, I'll be, I'll be, I'll be 27. Funny enough, we talked about Giancarlo last night, but there's rumor that he's going to be playing Mr. Freeze. So that's interesting. Giancarlo Esposillo? Is there anything? I think so. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. I've heard,

[00:32:17] I've heard Mr. I even heard like people wanting the Court of Owls and I'm like, that would be really interesting if they did that. Everyone keeps saying that. Yeah. Cause that's more of a modern Batman tale that they could adapt. I could see that. Mm-hmm. Just please. I think it's just too. Please don't be Joker again. I don't, I want to see anybody else do Batman. They did such a great job with the Riddler. Like do something other than. I loved. We're getting a Clayface movie. Yes. We're getting a Clayface Nolan movie. I'm excited about that. Please give Clay. Yeah. I heard about that. Wow.

[00:32:46] That's long overdue. We needed Clayface for sure. Definitely. I know they're like, they keep trying to go for like this realistic route of Batman, but I think that's why I liked it about the BVS version of Batman. That was very comic book-esque, but I mean like Ben Affleck, in my opinion, killed it. He's, I think he just sadly just got screwed out of his movie. It'll never happen. I'm sure. But he was a killer Batman, but the thing is they were going in that universe because you had killer Croc who showed up

[00:33:16] in Suicide Squad. Right. Which was an okay version, not the version I would have liked, but it wasn't terrible. I would have just liked to see more interaction with Batman and some of those types of villains in that universe. So I'm hoping that we'll get that going forward, but. Oh no. I don't know, man. With, with James Gunn at the helm now, I'm not super. We'll see. I mean, I'm wearing a Batman Beyond hat. So I mean,

[00:33:45] like Batman Beyond, Batman, I'm a big Conroy fan. So. Oh, me too. Love all that, man. I got a huge collection of animated series. Yes. So trust me. I loved the house. The first thing I noticed when I popped on here. Well, moving on to my number four on my list is another show alongside Billy and Mandy that I watched the hell out of when I was growing up. And that's invader Zim. Invader Zim.

[00:34:15] I love that show. And it honestly, that is a show that is even more darker than Billy and Mandy. I mean, you have kids getting their eyes ripped out. You have, you know, you have episodes where they just kind of like, I remember the baloney episode where they turn themselves into balonies and that's just how it ends. Like there's no, they can't cure themselves. There's no hope. Like they're just stuck like that forever. And even the Christmas episode,

[00:34:45] like Santa Claus is turned into like a giant spider demon that comes down to earth every year and tries to kill everybody. Like it's so imagination. Well, it makes me think of Futurama when they had the Christmas episode with Santa Claus that would like kill people. Well, at the center of it too, again, is that element of humor, but this show does it very dark humor.

[00:35:13] Like it's very like this whole world that occupies an invader Zim is actually almost kind of like post-apocalyptic. Everything's robotic. Everything's bleak. Everyone's dumb. Like everyone's really dumb. And it's just kind of like, I guess it's sort of like a contrast between Oh, maybe, you know, that's not, I mean, I've never seen it, but no, it's definitely a show that does

[00:35:43] a really good job of blending like humor and, and the horror dark humor and horror. Like some of the episodes are absolutely just disgusting, like harvesting the organs of kids and stuff like that. Oh God. Yeah. That one. Wasn't that, wasn't that a good one? But yeah, but then again, like there's like, like the comedy behind it's just genius too. Like Joan Vasquez is just a genius with that. So great pick. Yeah. I mean, I even read like Johnny, the homicidal maniac,

[00:36:12] which is what he did before invaders in. And again, another thing where they're like, how did they go to this guy and ask, Hey, you should make a kid show even more so than Maxwell. I'm like, dude, this is literally about like the most violent thing you could ever see in comic form. But now, no, invaders in was so great because you would have like, again, the, the harvesting organs of children. And then you'd have an episode where it's just, uh,

[00:36:42] is him eating waffles with Gurr and this like a bunch of crazy shit's happening. It's a quirky show. It is. It's, it was always just so fun. Every episode was something new. Uh, and again, you know, it's an episodic show. So you don't, it doesn't matter what happens to the characters at the end. You don't need happy endings, everything. The whole world could blow up and the next episode would be fine. So, right. Everything resets. It's so true. It's so true. Actually, I just posted a clip from that, uh, from invaders in yesterday.

[00:37:11] The poop dog one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? I love the, I love the, the video that they show in classes. Like, so a hundred boxes, you'll get up adhesive medical strips because they, because they couldn't say band-aid. So they had to actually like in post put in just the robotic adhesive medical strips. No, it's cool. It's, it's, it's comedic genius through and through.

[00:37:41] Um, this guy, uh, Matthias replied in like to the post and said that, uh, like you're welcome and that he worked on the show. And so I was like, Oh, I was like, what did you do? And he was like, Oh, I was joining the basket was like right hand his assistant. So I'm going to ask the guy like a bunch of questions now and see like what he knows. Cause it's super cool. Yeah. You get, you got all these interviews falling into your lap. No, no,

[00:38:11] no. This is just like a weird streak of luck, but Hey, I will take it. All right. Take it, man. You never know. Buy a lotto ticket while you're at it. Yeah, I know. Right. Why couldn't lotto numbers? God. But, um, uh, yeah. So invader Zim, I mean, if, if you're looking to get into something, it was a Nickelodeon show, definitely the darkest, uh, right up there with, uh, Ren and Stimpy. Uh, I would definitely recommend that as a, my number four, uh, Nick, what do you got?

[00:38:42] I'm going to check out invader Zim now. that was kind of after my time because I'm much older, but I'll have to, I'll definitely check it out. I feel like you would love it. Yeah. I think you'd like it. Love it. Love it. I think that sounds right up my alley. I'm going to check that one out. Uh, so I don't really know if it's really considered horror, but it does have horror theme to it in a way. Gargoyles. Oh, that's a great idea to put that in there. All right. Yeah.

[00:39:11] So when I was like going through like my stash of old seasons that I've got and I was like, you know, gargoyles for a kid, I could totally see that being kind of dark and, you know, scary at times because I mean, you had to Mona who had the red eyes and she looked demon ask. Uh, they literally killed a ton of gargoyles, uh, when they did the opening, uh, you know, back in the past. Scenario and why they all got turned to stone. And, uh,

[00:39:39] of course Xanatos then later comes in all the voice actors are phenomenal on that show. Um, if you look any of that up, a lot of them for star Trek, the next generation, but yeah, isn't it weird? I don't know how that's my favorite star Trek. So, but then you had David Keith as Goliath and that's amazing. That's the best voice you could have had for Goliath. Um, I, I will, as much as I love him and other projects like the thing and stuff like that. If I got to meet him at a con, um, I probably get something

[00:40:09] gargoyle sign. I'm not going to lie. So the gargoyles man, like the opening theme song to, yes. Do you just see the claws going into the stone? Like everything was about, that was great. They had that episode too, uh, that shooting episode where like they got the sense of the blood and all that, right? Like that was a, that was a dark, uh, quite progressive. Yeah. That was pretty cool. Pretty cool to have. Yeah. I mean, it definitely among like, you know, the Disney animated shows,

[00:40:39] especially for the Disney afternoon, like all those shows were, you know, bright, bouncy, colorful, like very non-threatening in many ways. And then you have gargoyles, which is like the complete polar opposite to all of that. And it was bad-ass. So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I remember people talking about how it was like Disney's answer to Batman, the animated series to go with a darker, more Gothic route. Um, yeah, it's, it's just so memorable. Just the, the concept in general,

[00:41:08] it just so fertile for stories and you could get so much great imagery out of it. I know, speaking of Jordan Peele again, there's all those rumors that going back years now about him making a gargoyles movie. I wonder if that's ever going to happen. I would love to see something done with that, that series. Again, either as a streaming show or a movie, just like, there's more to mine from it. Definitely. Do something like they did for X-Men 97. I'm all about it. That's a great idea. Yeah.

[00:41:37] They can do something like that. Just like 97. Yeah. Yeah. The, these, these episodes, the not episodic story driven shows, they could definitely, if X-Men 97 proved anything, they could do continuations and not skip a beat. Like it was, it really worked for X-Men 97. They could definitely do it for gargoyles. So, I mean, here's hoping it was a great show. I mean, they brought back duck tails, like, so, you know, they could do gargoyles.

[00:42:07] Yeah. No, I don't think that's a misplaced pick at all. I think that's a perfect pick actually. So. Horror, what do you got for number four? Number four, I've got a show called Martin Mystery. Now, I'm not sure if you guys have heard of that show before. It's a, it's a, well, it started off as an Italian comic and it got adapted as a Canadian cartoon. Um, essentially it's a brother and a sister who are secret agents

[00:42:36] and they work for this secret agency, but they're in high school. Uh, and every day, uh, the top agent whose name is mom calls them up to like remote parts of the world or like just weird parts of the world where like there's some weird stuff happening and the show tackles everything from like creature features, supernatural, uh, sci-fi. It's got one of the most horrifying, uh, depictions of Mothman that I've ever seen in like a kid's cartoon. Um,

[00:43:05] and just every single episode is just, just nonstop horror. It's actually like fantastic and I, I wish more people saw it, but, um, it's super, I think there's full episodes on YouTube. Uh, but Martin Mystery is one of my favorite, favorite kids cartoon horror shows for sure. Interesting. I, I haven't heard of this before, but actually I'm, I'm looking at it right now. Maybe I've seen it and I probably just never connected the dots. I've posted, but so it's actually the same animation team that made, uh,

[00:43:35] totally spice and they had a crossover episode too. Hmm. That might be where I'm thinking about it cause it looked very similar in the lives. Cause I, I do, I didn't know about totally spies. Martin Mystery was a lot more horror rooted than totally spies. Like every single episode, I'm talking like possessions, uh, abductions. It was really cool. Absolutely. I'll have to check that out cause that sounds awesome. 100%. Uh, Walter, what do you guys remember?

[00:44:06] Yep. Um, so I have to put this in here. I I've gotta, I've gotta put in, are you afraid of the dark? I know if that's sacrilege and goosebumps. Hey, Hey, I knew it was going to come in at some point, but I mean, are you afraid of the dark? There are so many actors from goosebumps who did, are you afraid of the dark or vice versa? Canadian production. Yeah. Right. Practically. Exactly. speaking of pool, we had, uh, Marcel Dean and who played the pool monster,

[00:44:35] uh, episode. Yep. Yeah. He, he came on our show and he did a whole interview with us. Like that was, that's our, that's so far has been our only non goosebumps related episode. But I gotta go back and see that. We hope not the last. We want to do some more in the future, but, uh, but yeah, so we have plans for some more, but yeah. So you pick, not a sacrilege is your number four. What, uh, what about that show? Did, did you like personally, you know, when I have,

[00:45:04] when I think back to like those times when I was younger, I, I mean, I always think of the intro to, are you afraid of the dark with a creeping door with the empty swing? There's something about like the absence of people. In that intro, just in the introduction and the music. And, and you're seeing that doll in the attic and everything. It's, it just perfectly encapsulates what you think is scary as a kid or what, what I thought was scary as a kid. Just no one's around. There's no one to take care of you. You're just a little kid. I mean, like we're like, what is what's behind this door? What's in the attic?

[00:45:34] I mean, it's just like pitch perfect. It nailed like the mentality of a kid at that time. Um, and going back to watch, I did. So with this, I did revisit these episodes as an adult. And, um, some of them are goofy kind of like, you know, where goosebumps gets goofy sometimes, but I think, are you afraid of the dark? It does get pretty dark sometimes. Um, there's the episode, I think it's a tale of the 13th floor, uh, that still freaks me out. I mean, I had nightmares. I,

[00:46:01] I still remember the nightmares that I had as a kid about, but like the faceless alien. I mean, that, that was an episode that ended on an unhappy note, um, where one of the kids is one of the aliens. This is just crazy. Um, it's something you wouldn't think about as a kid. Um, so it still has that, that aura to it that, um, I think kids would still connect and it goes across generations. Um, this is a great one I think to, to introduce like either your, your kids to,

[00:46:30] or family members, um, to watch together. Um, I think they gotta be in a specific age range though. I think it's gotta be like nine, eight, nine to like 13. If you introduce them to it, like after that, if they're like starting high school, like it's going to be too late. You gotta get in, get it like that sweet spot. So, um, but I mean, they're, they're just like some really terrifying episodes. That show as a kid, like when you think about it as a kid, tail of the night shift with that, uh,

[00:47:00] vampires, like the creepiest designs. It's a kid show. Yeah. Just the idea of a vampire being in a hospital and like, yeah, just seeing all the, the, you know, the, the people turn into vampires and they have, and they show like the, the neck bite with the blood on it. They weren't afraid. Um, same thing with midnight man. That was another vampire doing a cable show over a network television show. That is true. Like we talked about with, with Ron Oliver, you know, when he was on, uh,

[00:47:30] he had directed some or written some or both. I can't remember for, are you afraid of the dark as well as goosebumps? He directed Gastly Grinner. He directed Gastly Grinner. But he, okay. So he wrote, I thought he wrote that too, but, um, but he did, he did, he did, uh, the tail dead man's float too, if I'm not mistaken, cause that's how him and a legend. Oh my God. That's a great one. Yeah. He, he did welcome to camp nightmare with Kai. And then he ended up doing that same tail dead man's float with Kai as well.

[00:48:00] So I'm pretty sure. Even in the latter seasons. Yeah, totally. And he, like so many people kind of fell off before like the latter seasons, but they're great too. They're really scary. There's an episode called, uh, the, uh, the gruesome gourmets or gourmet gruesome, something like that. But it's essentially cannibalism, uh, in a kid's show. And these people are going into like, uh, this apartment and they're showing up like, like they're hanging in the freezer. Like it's,

[00:48:29] it's terrifying. It's terrifying. And that was like, I think season like seven or something like that, but it was one of the later ones. And it's just like through and through, are you afraid of the dark? I know we're on the goosebumps podcast. I promise. I have it higher than are you afraid of the dark on my list, but are you afraid of the dark is my person. Favorite kids anthology of all time. I do say goosebumps is the greatest. Um, but are you afraid of the dark for me is more like the personal favorite for sure. Right. I mean, this is goosebumps crew,

[00:48:57] but I will say that are you afraid of the dark is 100% welcome here because it's just as awesome. As I said, I basically, because of how much production and cast members and crew that they shared with goosebumps, they're basically sister series. I personally feel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny that you said the midnight madness, cause I interviewed, uh, the creator of the show and he said that that was his favorite episode. So that's pretty special. It's a great one. I love how it ties back to NASFERATU, the original like silent film. I mean, it's great.

[00:49:27] I mean, if you, if you like going to the movies too, I mean like, that's just like a perfect way to kind of incorporate a horror element into that. But yeah, I mean, we're talking about like tales of dead men's float, uh, the fire ghost. I mean, like they're so good. Like there's the designs of the monsters and the ideas of them are just so memorable. Like they're hard to forget. And like, that's why we're still talking about them years later. Even if like the episode around the villain, wasn't the best, like the kids are never really written that well or whatever, but it's the concept of the monster.

[00:49:55] Don't stare into a flame for too long. Otherwise the fire monster is going to show up. I mean, like that's hard to forget. ghastly Grinner, of course, my goodness. I feel like that episode is not the best, but that design is so scary. Oh, yeah. That's like my favorite episode as much as I love like tale dead man's flow or, uh, all the, uh, laughing in the dark, laughing in the dark. I really enjoyed it. You know, that one had Amos Crawley, uh, playing the main character in that one,

[00:50:25] but the design of that jester, like the ghastly Grinner was just crazy. And the way that the actor portrayed that in the jello show, whatever coming out of the mouth. Yeah. The shiny red, I remember the red bicycle was like really creepy because of just how like the go. Yeah. It was a, it was a dark episode. Cause it was about a kid. And like, he's being haunted by his ghost. And that's like, it's not only scary, but it's actually kind of tragic. Uh, there,

[00:50:54] there are several. I mean, the tale of the prom queen, like that's a classic. We love that. Frozen ghost. Yeah. Yeah. Like resurrection Mary kind of thing. Um, but like tale of the crimson clown too. I mean like there, we can go on and on about this tale of the dark music, which people don't talk about as much. Yes. Creepy. It's still creepy. Dude, he kills the bully at the end. He feeds it to the fucking. I know. I know. The angel doll thing. And it's a full size doll.

[00:51:25] The doll thing. It's not about dolls. That's why I like mannequin. Horror is also, I think very popular. Just something about mannequins. Yes. It's this uncanny Valley thing where like, they should be moving, but they're not, they know something. Right. The thing about, are you afraid of the dark too, was that it had the midnight society. And yeah. So you had this reoccurring cast of characters that kids could relate to because, you know, they are also kids. And also it sort of gave every story like that urban legend field.

[00:51:55] So it was, you know, you're, you're sitting around the campfire, you're telling scary stories. And then, you know, the bookends at the end, sometimes like, you know, sometimes they could be happy and, you know, sometimes maybe they leave a little bit of the mysterious aspect. I even remember there was a, the later seasons you were talking about, there was a whole three parter that was just about the midnight society. And like them going up against a real ghost, like a real supernatural threat. Um, yeah, I swear to God,

[00:52:24] that was another example of, I think really good re interpretation. If you want to say that a reboot when are you afraid of the dark got those compartmentalized, uh, seasons, like they're all one story, but they're like eight episodes or something like that. Um, I thought those were pretty good, especially that first season with the, carnival. I thought that was fantastic. Um, I will say that third one was trash, but the first two were really good.

[00:52:54] So I, because it's my third one, I was going to, you know, since we've covered it so extensively, I was just going to say, uh, just talk about the reboots for me, but yeah, you, you covered it great. The first two, I really loved, especially the second one. I felt like some of the scares in the second one were pretty much like on par with what you'd see in like an insidious movie or a conjuring movie to be like, quite honest, if they were that intense. Um, the third one I thought was good. I, I know I might be in the minority. I liked it, but, uh, the,

[00:53:24] the first two were like classics and, and they're a great way to introduce kids to modern day. Uh, if you don't want to show them like the nineties series, it's a great modern day way to introduce them to horror. Mm-hmm. It was a reboot that came close to capturing the original spirit. Like, uh, maybe, maybe we have to do this sort of discussion someday, but just in the comparison of the reboots between goosebumps and are you afraid of the dark,

[00:53:49] are you afraid of the dark was the example where it took from the original show and it modernized it in a way that made sense. Um, so yeah, definitely I would recommend the reboots. Um, but, uh, yeah. Are you afraid of the dark? I mean, we could, we, we could talk about it all day. Uh, and you know, we, we will cover it more in the future. We, we definitely, we, I mean, we have to, um, but I think that's, that's a given pick. Uh, I was hoping,

[00:54:17] praying it was going to show up somewhere because it's not on my list personally. I only left that and goosebumps off my list to highlight ones. Maybe people don't consider or haven't released out of before. Um, because you know, like Walter said earlier, these are easily the two biggest names and kids horror. Probably I'd have to say is goosebumps and are you afraid of the dark? It's what even the most like common person who doesn't have all that much knowledge. They know those names of those shows.

[00:54:46] Some of them can even hear the theme song when you tell them the name of the show, because the, the, it's just so iconic. I mean, goosebumps theme while not scary was a, yeah, it's still to me, it's a bop man. We're still, we're still in the new series. Like I was always waiting to come around. I never do it. I tell you all. I went to a haunted house here, uh, near Indianapolis called necropolis. And when you're waiting in line, they play music and stuff,

[00:55:16] you know, sometimes it's a scary music or sometimes it's just music music. But at the moment they turned on the goosebumps theme song, everybody in that place was like, Oh shit. Yes, I know. It's like, no man, that's not what you want to get up and dance. Like, I'm just like, when goosebumps bounce, everybody was like, yes. So, and are you afraid of the dark? Like that? Like you guys said, scary song, uh, for a kid show. Uh, when you hear that,

[00:55:44] I could hear that in a horror movie or like a haunted house, you would know it's, are you afraid of the dark? Of course. But like it fits still like, that's the crazy part. I can't play goosebumps in a haunted house when I'm actually trying to get scared. Yeah. Like I could play. Are you afraid of the dark? It can probably scare some people because it's half sound effects and it's just, yeah, it's all atmospheric, you know? Yeah. It's almost like the child laughter, the squeaking of like a tricycle and yes, the whole thing,

[00:56:12] the sloshing of the water on the boat like that. So yeah, it's great. It's fantastic. Uh, moving on to my, the voice thing that they do. I don't know who does that for that, but they do. Oh yeah. Like the little job making almost. Yeah. I can't do it. Cause my voice sucks for that, but still, you know what I mean? Well, moving on to my number three, I have a movie and it's a movie that scared the hell out of me as a kid. But as I got older, I just loved, I love this movie.

[00:56:41] I watch it every year and that's going to be monster house. Uh, monster house is such an, an incredible concept for a movie. Um, because it's about a house that is a monster. The monster is the house. Uh, and it's basically like these three kids find out that they're the house. Next door is haunted by a ghost. And basically the whole house comes to life and he eats anything that comes onto the lawn. Uh, you know,

[00:57:10] whether it's people or dogs or, you know, really anything, it eats a whole cop car. Uh, it's such a great movie. It's such a great concept. It was one done by Robert Zemeckis is, uh, image works. It was that sort of motion capture era of animated films. And because of, uh, because it is sort of a more scarier movie, I feel it actually kind of works because it adds to the uncanny value of it all. Um,

[00:57:37] unlike something like polar express where it's uncanny and it kind of distracts from, you know, some of the more charming aspects of things, but here nor there, um, monster house is also great because it's unbelievably hilarious. The writing, I believe it was written by Dan Harmon, who you may know from like Rick and Morty and stuff like that and community. Um, and it's phenomenal. It is such a hilarious movie. It actually is kind of like that PG writing.

[00:58:06] Cause they talk about like beer and drug, like stealing drugs and stuff like that. Uh, it, I don't know. It, the, the casting was so great. You got Steve Buscemi, uh, and he's always great. The kid actors I felt did a really good job. Um, the, the effects on the house, like you wonder like, how can you like make a house come to life? And it's so incredible because like you, you shape the house to look like a mouth. Uh,

[00:58:35] you have the door here, the two windows are the eyes and then just how it like morphs into a moving face. Uh, or like manipulate the trees, almost like arms. It's, it's so good. I can't stress enough how just unbelievably imagine if you have to be to come up with a concept like that, but it's a great movie to watch around Halloween. It is technically a Halloween movie. It takes place on Halloween. Um, it's always one that I remember was playing on Cartoon Network.

[00:59:04] So it was like a yearly tradition to watch it. And, uh, like I said, it's funny. It's imaginative. It's actually kind of, uh, you know, tragic and has an emotional ending. Uh, and I just, I think it's really, really well done. So monster house is my number three for recommendations. Yeah. Another tie into trick or treat because Douglas pipes, who did monster houses score also did the score for trick or treat. Mm-hmm. Well,

[00:59:31] because I already loved monster house and he loved the score. No monster house. Like for anyone who loves a Halloween theme or even like a fall theme, nostalgic vibe to a movie. It's like the Holy grail. Like I, I, one of my favorite scenes isn't even like horror related, but it's when, uh, that kid is playing in the, like that nine vintage, the arcade. And like, he's playing the game. I don't know. I forget if it's pinball or something like that. And we're just like, Oh yeah. Uh, a skull.

[01:00:01] Yeah. Yeah. Like that was the vibe, man. That was the vibe. That was Napoleon dynamite. Uh, John. yes, that's right. That's right. So good. So good. Oh man. I could sing the praises of the movie.

[01:00:30] I've watched it like a thousand times probably. Cause it's one of my favorite Halloween movies. Um, so yeah, monster house. That's my number three, uh, Nick, what do you got for number three? Well, when he says Steve Buscemi, that I'll, I'll throw an honorable mention out there for people. It's not an older film, but it is, I think a good one. Uh, again, it depends on the age range because there is some adult humor in it. Cause it has SNL cast, but who be Halloween's actually an honorable mention for,

[01:01:00] for people. I'm just saying like, uh, I thought it was hilarious. It was funny. It just had a lot of, you know, good humor in it, but some, you know, scares, but some were funny scares to good humor in an Adam Sandler movie. But I don't know. It doesn't. I'm giving them shit. I was going through like a mental breakdown, but I watched that movie like every, every single day for like the entire year it came out. I, I kid you not.

[01:01:30] I watched it. I went to sleep to it every single day. Hubie Halloween. Great pick. I love it. So honorable mention for that. Um, but actually my number three is, ah, real monsters. I didn't think of that. That is one of my like all time favorite Nickelodeon shows. I like have the complete season. Cause like when it came out, I couldn't believe it was only like 15 bucks. I was like, you guys should be charging way more for this show. It's so damn good.

[01:02:01] I'm glad it was only 15 bucks too. So, uh, Mondo even just released like figures for it. So I don't know if it's making a comeback or something, but like I had to buy the figures too. They're amazing. Um, but, Oh man, all real monsters. Like it's, it's one of those shows. Like, I don't know, like the art style is a little unique and it was like Nickelodeon at time. It's like rug rats artwork. I don't know if it was the same. It was the same company. Was it? Okay. That makes total sense then. Uh,

[01:02:30] because there were similar things like, you know, not a complete straight line on some things like it gets his mouth or something had like little spriggles or something, but it's really interesting to have a kid show where like, you have this tall slinky female monster who's black and white, but she pulls her insides out to scare you. And that's okay. Uh, a kid show, you know, whatever. But, and monsters, monsters going to scare kids came out before monsters Inc. Yeah, that's right.

[01:02:59] True story. They had a crossover with the rug rats too. I was going to bring that up. Yeah. There was a rug rats, monsters crossover episode. It was a rug rats episode, but yeah, they did have it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, uh, it gets crumbling, uh, a Buena, uh, make an appearance. Yeah. I forgot about that. They even had like, um, like a Scooby-Doo homage scene of them all running through the rooms and all that. That was really fun. I just think back to fairly odd parents is just like, meh, it's a chase scene.

[01:03:31] Literally. Oh, that's a good pick though. And that, that was a great show. Had some great voice actors. Um, some great stories. Um, I mean, it wasn't all scares, obviously, you know, it had some heart to it, um, for monsters. So it was, uh, it was, it was a really good show. And, uh, I'm, I'm really hoping it's making a comeback. I don't know if I want like a reboot of it by any means, uh, like they're doing with a lot of things nowadays, but I wouldn't be opposed to, you know,

[01:03:59] having some new merch for it or something at least. But, oh man, like that show back then I think was completely underrated. Um, I think it's because there wasn't like the, like we've talked about before, like the, the nineties market was flooded with horror for kids, like flooded. Uh, I think there was an oversaturation, so it didn't get as much love as some other things. Uh, but I think it's getting that love now, which is really cool.

[01:04:28] But yeah, number, number three, ah, real monsters. It's an imaginative show, like great designs. Uh, I mean, just the, how they scream the title. Ah, real monsters. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. That's a weird title to say just in earnest, but yeah. Mm. That's funny. Uh, what's your number three? My number three, like I said, was, are you afraid of the dark, but I'm going to pivot.

[01:04:57] I'm going to pivot into a movie and that's going to be Scooby-Doo on zombie Island. Um, I think that's the, that's one that was such a turning point for the franchise. Uh, you know, and shifting from the classic formula of unmasking fake monsters to actually dealing with like real supernatural threats. Um, and like, just the whole, like the whole vibe of the movie, which is, it just took such a turn from the usual lightheartedness of Scooby-Doo, uh,

[01:05:27] into like a genuinely creepy, creepy visual all around that the zombies, the music, um, the music was just awesome. Uh, it's, it's, it's my favorite Scooby-Doo movie outside of like the real ones, uh, the live actions. And Scooby-Doo on zombie Island was, was such a, was such a scary like event. And like, even the promos for it, if you look back, like they really advertised it as like a, like a zombie movie. Right. And so it, it was unbelievable. The monsters are real.

[01:05:56] Like that was all. A lot of hype behind this movie. I remember seeing it. I remember, I remember sitting down to watch this is 1998. It says here. 1998. That's right. So I was like nine, maybe 10. I mean like that was, yeah, this, this was an event. We all sat down to watch this and it was, yeah, these are real monsters. What is going on? You got them like rip. They're trying to, the scene where they're trying to like take the mask off, but it's not a mask. And they rip the zombies head off. Like, Oh, the whole Louisiana swamp vibe. Like,

[01:06:26] it was crazy, crazy. It was a great animation studio. It was a Japan studio. Yeah. And they just, they did the, those four movies. So you had zombie Island, then you had witches, ghost, alien invaders, and cyber chase. All done by the same Japanese. Yeah. It was, it was a quadrilogy and like, they're all super nostalgic movies. I'm a little mixed on the last two, but the first two zombie on, which is ghost. Those ones are top of the line.

[01:06:56] Like those ones are for any, any zombie Island gets probably the most love out of all those for sure. Um, yeah. You know, it's funny. Like everything you guys pick, I swear I can just, like, cause Mike Doherty is a big Halloween guy. Guess what? I showed up in trick or treat for a second on TV. Scooby doo zombie. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just how popular it was though. Such a, like 90s. Like why,

[01:07:24] why was it such like the original Scooby doo show? It went through such a Renaissance. It became more popular than when, than when it was first on. Like, I wonder why, I guess maybe it's part of that horror boom for kids in the nineties, but I was just about to say the original show came out with 60, 70s. And then the nineties was on all the time. It was on all the time. Yeah. And, uh, I guess a slight spoiler over, uh, cause I'll be able to explain a little more about that when I get to my number two. Um, but, uh, no,

[01:07:54] it really did. It really, really did. And I, I think it was just because cartoon network was becoming so popular and mainstream at that point that because they were having such great success with their original programming and that they still had, you know, the rights to all the other, you know, Hanna-Barbera. Um, I think they were just like, Hey, Scooby doo's doing well in video sales. Like we're, you know, we're, we're releasing all the old episodes on, on video.

[01:08:22] Like maybe we should try doing an original movie. And it was, even though it was direct to video, it was still very, very popular. Um, uh, you can watch the like retailer promos that they would send to like video stores. And they talk about like, these sell like millions and millions of copies. So like it, it was, it was very popular. It was a gambit that paid off because Scooby doo is, I mean, is a household name. Like he's like one of the most iconic cartoon characters ever created.

[01:08:52] Um, so yeah, 100%. So, uh, Walter, what do you got for number two? Uh, number three, I'm sorry. For, for number three, I'm also going to go to a movie. Um, I'm going with Raiders of the lost arc because when you talk about an adventure, an adventure series that has, uh, such an iconic character in it, um, the things that he goes through are, are horrific. I mean, especially in Raiders of the lost arc. The,

[01:09:20] the image that I think of the most is when, um, that wall falls over when they're in that, uh, that tomb and it's just all snakes and skeletons and everything. And you see that shot of this giant snake coming out of this skeleton's mouth, um, completely freaked me out as a kid, but I couldn't look away. I mean, it's Indiana Jones, such a likable character. And we talk about how we like the blend comedy and heart and, and horror. I mean, Indiana Jones did that, but for the adventure genre, um,

[01:09:49] and just even the ending, you know, there's something uncanny about, um, when they open the arc and it's how they shot all that stuff is underwater, you know, like they shot everything underwater with those ghosts and everything. And it, it, it shouldn't hold up, but for some reason it's still creepy. Um, and you know, you can even talk about maybe like, last crusade as well. I mean, there's some stuff in there that that's pretty spooky. Um, even, um, temple of doom is more of a gross out kind of horror film. Um,

[01:10:17] but Raiders really struck that chord between the shocking images and just creepy stuff happening around a character that we're fully invested in the whole time. Um, um, so that kind of sparked my interest in some of that as well about, you know, what if we stayed in that tone a little bit more and then, you know, watching other films and, and, and stuff from there. So I think this is a perfect thing for kids to get it. Cause Raiders of the last arcs, one of the greatest movies ever made. I mean, like anyone could still get into it nowadays. Um,

[01:10:46] and I think that this is perfect to introduce to kids, you know, like they could be seven, eight, nine, even if high school, I think that this is perfect for that and it could have them go down the adventure route and more of like those kinds of movies or down a more horror route. So yeah, Raiders, I think is a, is an easy pick for something like this. I agree. Oh yeah. The melting face. Totally. Yeah. Melting face. The most iconic. The monkey brain.

[01:11:16] Yeah. Temple of doom. That always grossed me out. The monkey brain. I feel like people don't talk about Indiana Jones. As you know, horror for kids as much as it should be. Cause yeah, there are some really, really great, great scenes from those movies. Mm-hmm. Tearing the heart out. I mean, the, the whole thing, the whole. Yeah. I mean, that is horrific. That is, I mean, you're pulling somebody's heart out. Yeah. That's the thing. Taking them into a fire pit. Like it gets,

[01:11:46] it's just as bad. It's like, yeah. Sacrifice. Okay. It's like, huh? Yeah. We're not afraid to just have some, again, movies and shows were not afraid to have some balls back then. Yeah. Like, absolutely. They didn't care. They didn't care if they had a PG PG wasn't like, you know how it is today with right. Cause there was in an inside out. It was, it was like gremlins. It was like ghostbusters. It was those kinds of movies. Um, so yeah, I feel like Raiders is,

[01:12:16] I mean, pure viewing, even if you're not getting into the horror genre, it's just pure viewing in general. Yeah. Totally. It's a hundred percent enjoyable visual pleasure the entire time. Um, while temple of doom falls on a lot of people's lists as like the worst of three, mine included, cause I really enjoyed the last crusade. I think more than my favorite temple of doom to be honest. Um, uh, but I mean, it did have some like graphic imagery in it, uh,

[01:12:46] that, yeah, I just never thought of those as horror, but so that, I mean, that's, I like, that's why I like these lists though. And getting, you know, uh, guys like you on that just, you know, think outside the box of a little bit, something like that. Cause I would have never considered it more horror based. I always think of it as action adventure. Yeah. But I mean, when you really boil it down. Yeah. Yeah. I can see now there's a horror element. Yeah. The threats are horror in that film, especially the first one. Yeah, definitely. Well,

[01:13:15] moving on to my number two, uh, of course we already sort of covered on it with Scooby-Doo, but it is Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo was not only the first horror thing I got into, but it was the first franchise ever that I like really, really latched onto as a kid, like as a really, really young kid. Um, if I have to specifically say what, uh, we already covered zombie Island. So I'm going to go with the, actually the original Scooby-Doo, where are you? Um, because many people forget they think about Scooby-Doo.

[01:13:44] They think it's like, you know, harmless kids, uh, you know, show, but actually the original Scooby-Doo, where are you? Is pretty creepy. it was done with, you know, the creepy mystery aspect in mind. Um, the backgrounds are very, there's never a scene. Well, I shouldn't say never. There's very rarely a scene during the day. Every other shot is at night in a spooky house or a swamp or like, uh, you know, an abandoned building, like some sort of thing. It's always abandoned.

[01:14:14] And, uh, the monsters, while not graphic, they are, they can be creepy. Um, the phantom shadows from night of fright is no delight or the spooky space kook, which is definitely, uh, talked about a lot. the creeper, uh, like a lot of these, like, uh, you know, iconic monsters from Scooby-Doo came from the original show. Um, the music was fantastic. It was like, it could be, you know, joyful at times,

[01:14:43] but it could really lay on like the sort of, spooky nature of it all. Um, it was just, it was a vibe. It's something that I don't feel like really any other Scooby-Doo show or movie besides something like zombie Island was ever really able to catch. I feel they leaned too heavy on the comedy. And then nowadays the Scooby-Doo is very much a kid's franchise. And I mean that like, it's pretty sanitized. It's not really that threatening. Um,

[01:15:13] another show, a Scooby show I liked was what's, new Scooby-Doo. Uh, and that was sort of like the 2000s version of Scooby-Doo. And I love that show. Um, it's so catch. It's great. That was simple. Another banger. That was simple plan. Another banger. It's actually funny. Cause they did a, an album, uh, version of it a few years ago. So they came back together to do that song. And I think they even do it at concerts. Like every once in a while when they're performing live, they'll just be like, Hey,

[01:15:42] anybody remember that one show we did the theme song for? And they're like, yeah. And then they play Scooby-Doo. And like, everybody starts freaking out. Like, it's so cool. I would go crazy. I love it. It is just so cool. How awesome, like they are to have not left that theme song behind. Like they're just embracing it. Cause yeah. As they should. But, uh, but what's it just sounds like one of those, like two thousands fun rock songs that you'd see in like a movie, like,

[01:16:11] like one of those movies that are listen, like, I don't know, Tony Hawk pro skater or something like that. Where this, this like the soundtrack is just really, really cool and fun, you know? Yeah. Just the riffs in it. Like it was just, it's very punchy song. I just can't explain it, but it's just such an amazing bop. Um, if I didn't have such a nostalgic attachment to the, where are you theme song, it'd probably be my number one for Scooby theme songs. But, um, what's this Scooby-Doo, uh, was great. And I love that show,

[01:16:39] but I don't think it was that scary per se. The original show. I, I did have nightmares about because it just, it had that atmosphere to go alongside it. And there's people who do videos about like, you know, why was Scooby-Doo like secretly kind of terrifying, um, in that sort of sense. Um, and even, even the fact that it's an old Hanna-Barbera show, like everybody associates Hanna-Barbera with the limited animation, you know, reusing assets and cells and stuff like that.

[01:17:09] And it's definitely there in Scooby-Doo as well. Um, but I never, I never really caught onto that as a kid. I was just kind of like sucked in by the story. I love the mystery. I love the monsters. I definitely love the monsters. Like it was one of those things where I'd get scared by them, but I wanted to see more of them. Um, so that was always just a fun time. So I could go on and on and on. If I had to, if you had to squeeze my arm or force me to choose a specific thing from Scooby-Doo, I would say, where are you?

[01:17:38] But I think Scooby-Doo in general is like a fantastic place to start for horror. Yeah. Absolutely. Especially for young kids. Yeah. Yeah. Like very little kids you can introduce. I got into it when I was like three. Uh, yeah. So I was, I was a young buck on that one, but, uh, definitely. I feel like if you were to introduce anything at a very young age, it'd be Scooby-Doo. Do you know if it was like, like how popular was it when it was first on? Because we, like we mentioned earlier, it was like, like exploded in the nineties,

[01:18:06] but when it was on in the late sixties and seventies, was it like as iconic? It was, it was, uh, it's a very interesting story. In fact, actually, uh, somebody we have on occasionally, uh, his name's Sid. He has a channel called Dr. Wolfiel and he's a huge Scooby-Doo fan. Oh, I just talked to him actually. Oh, you did. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. We've had him on a few times and he's great. Uh, great friend of mine. And, uh, he, he loves Scooby-Doo and he did a great video talking about the history,

[01:18:35] how they were basically trying to do something that was akin to something like the Hardy boys. Uh, and especially Archie, which was very big around the time. Um, and it, somehow it just, it was one of those shows that just clicked like, uh, the formula. It's one of those shows that has a formula and it just kind of works. And I, I don't know like how unbelievably popular it was, but it was doing really good in the ratings. It beat the Archie show. It beat the Hardy boys, uh,

[01:19:05] very, very quickly. And it just kind of caught on. Uh, I mean, they did all these different spinoffs. They added, new characters, scrappy. Um, and, uh, by the nineties, I mean, old cartoons in the nineties, you know, Looney tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, they were getting an explosion. You know what? This is a little bit off topic. Let me talk about this for one second. So it was like, it became so self-aware in the nineties. Like we talking about the recycled background and stuff,

[01:19:32] they would point that out in those original commercials for Cartoon Network. Do you guys remember the big game that they used to do where they have footage of like the Looney Tunes against each other and they would be scoring touchdowns or whatever. And they would make all these graphics that look like the Superbowl and stuff. Yeah. That was an age that I don't think we'll ever get again because it's, they put such a spotlight on those old shows and made you love them in a deeper way than when they were first aired or showed in theaters and like the Looney Tunes case. Um,

[01:20:00] because it just brought you into like the tropes and you were a part of the joke and also appreciated it for what it was as an art piece. Like we're never going to get that again. Um, and I feel like a lot of people our age are connected to those shows because we were exposed to it at that time period when they were like delving deep into like the behind the scenes. Of it all. you know, like those Cartoon Network, like, you know, like, I guess they're exclusive, like ESPN specials or whatever, but like, you know, they would see them, you know, like getting lunch or something or get in coffee.

[01:20:30] And then all the characters are just hanging out together. They made it feel real. You know, that was going to see that again. That was the great thing. And you're totally right. We aren't going to see anything like that again. It's just, it's a bygone era. I feel like the nineties was the first decade that really had like nostalgia for something in the past. Like nostalgia really came into the public conscience by the nineties because stuff like that, you know, the kids who grew up with those old cartoons, you know,

[01:20:59] suddenly they're adults and they have kids of their own. So they're like, Hey, wait a minute. We should reintroduce this. And that's even what the whole idea of Cartoon Network was at first. Yeah. Was that like, we want to make, we have access to all these cartoons. We want to reintroduce them to a new audience. And that's why the Cartoon Network got made in the first place. In terms of Scooby-Doo, I mean, I think it was just, you know, it reached popularity in the sixties and seventies.

[01:21:26] It kind of died out by the eighties because you had a lot of sort of out there oddball ideas that didn't really land. But by the nineties, it was like, we have a chance to not only reintroduce this, but reinvent it. I think that was just the era where they really, really got like into the kick of what's actually bring this back. And thankfully, because zombie Island was so popular, honestly, if it weren't for zombie Island and pup named Scooby-Doo,

[01:21:54] I don't think Scooby-Doo would really be as popular as it is right now. Like it probably would be among like the Flintstones and the Jetsons is like, yeah, we remember that, but it's not really like as popular, but Scooby-Doo got lucky. It got really lucky. Frank Walker. I mean, he's been doing the voice of Fred since 1969 and he's still doing it. That's commitment. Still killing it. Yeah. It's a long run. Oh man. Yeah. I mean,

[01:22:23] all the voices he's done though. I mean, he's still doing quite a few going through. He's still doing stuff for transformers. I'm aware of. He may not be playing Megatron anymore, but I think today, the day of recording this, I think is this 79th birthday. I think so. Happy birthday. Yeah. Happy birthday. Frank. Yeah. So yeah, Scooby-Doo. I love that whole franchise, but I have to say, where are you is my personal recommendation for that.

[01:22:52] So that's my number two. Nick, what do you got for number two? Uh, it's a movie and I'm sure you guys have heard of it. Whether or not you've watched it, I don't know, but it seems to fly under a lot of radars anymore. Um, but the witches from 1990. So, but terrifying, uh, because of what they were able to do with the special effects at that time with the movie, you know, a lot of it again was prosthetic stuff.

[01:23:22] So, you know, that's there. It's like, holy shit. Like, Oh my God, that's terrifying. So the witches was a fantastic movie. Uh, again, maybe it's just a generational thing. Like I could totally see a lot of parents nowadays who didn't grow up maybe in that time period, you know, like for instance, like we talked about earlier, I was watching, um, you know, child's play at a young age, you know, totally far left field from everything else we've talked about, but, you know,

[01:23:52] the witches not too far left, but I mean, it's really getting close to that fence, I think for some kids, especially nowadays, but I could totally see this being something that a lot of kids could still really enjoy. Like I had my daughter watch it, um, when she was, I think eight, I'm not mistaken. I can't remember. It's been a while. She's, you know, 15 now, but tell you anything. So it's been a minute, pretty sure she was around eight though, but man, that, that film, like she loved it.

[01:24:20] So I really think it's just the household. You come up in and like what you think your kids can really handle. Um, but I highly recommend the witches. I really think if you got a kid who's interested in, um, you know, a little bit of horror stuff, but you want to like kind of boost them up a little bit from like, say, uh, Scooby-Doo or something, the cartoon, um, or even the movie because the live action movies weren't, you know, super terrifying. Obviously they didn't want to make that. That's not what Scooby-Doo is.

[01:24:51] Um, I think this is maybe the next level up. I think that'd be okay for them. Mm-hmm. It is. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you kids horror movies are as like boldly terrifying as the witches. Um, Angelica Houston's nightmarish, like transformation scene in the way she like just peeling off all the, all the witches is peeling off their disguises, the body horror elements of the kids turning into mice. Like all of that, all of that was just,

[01:25:20] just made for a fantastic movie. I agree. Absolutely. It was always a movie. I see clips. It would freak me out. Have I seen it? Did you ever watch it? Yeah. Yeah. I've seen it. I remember as a kid, I remember as a kid though, I would like, cause I would get those Scooby-Doo tapes and I would see clips for that movie and it would always freak me out. I remember it was one where like one of the kids is in like the bag and just like, hello dad. And then she's like, ah,

[01:25:51] yeah. That always freaked me out. Personally. I'm just like, what the hell is that? Oh, but no, the witches is great. Um, I don't know really what anyone thinks about the remake. Cause I saw that too. Um, the remake I thought was just kind of, it's okay. It's all right. It was an interesting, was that the one with Anne Hathaway? It was Anne Hathaway as the main villain. Okay. Yeah. That's what I thought. I thought that was her in that.

[01:26:20] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So good pick. Very good pick. All right. Pick. What do you got for number two? Um, at number two, I actually had haunting hour, uh, just because as I said, it's, it's, it's for me, the scariest kids horror anthology of all time. Uh, some truly terrifying episodes. We covered that, but I'm going to pivot into a movie. Uh, I'm going to pivot into Coraline. I think that Coraline, which came out in 2009, uh,

[01:26:51] one of the most effective gateway horror films. Um, because you know what? I don't feel like it relies on like such cheap, like jump scares. It's just deeply unsettling from like start to finish. There's so many elements of horror, like that just outside of the obvious ones being like the other mother and, uh, the doppelgangers. There's so many other elements of like horror, family trauma, um, that, that come out in that movie that just, it resonated with a whole generation of, of kids,

[01:27:21] um, that credit to kind of piquing their interest in, in horror. Um, and there's some truly terrifying scenes in it. And like, I remember I covered this one scene. It's like a split second scene where the other mother's trying to get to Coraline and she kicks her and her face actually like splits open for a split second before like forming back together. It's just so, so like intense. And, uh, that, that whole movie is just like the idea of a parallel world that seems perfect,

[01:27:50] but it's hiding something even more sinister, just taps into so many childhood fears in a way that's so thrilling. The fact that it all devolves into like a big spider web, at the end, it just kind of like, you know, it just shows like how much of it is just a trap and like, you know, then it's too late, you know? Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, my niece is about 12 years old and that's like her favorite movie right now. I mean, it's, it's still reaching people.

[01:28:20] Yeah. That's one of my daughter's favorites too. And you still see stuff in store. Like I was in Walmart the other day and, uh, they have a section in electronics that has like NECA and some other stuff, but you see some like four line stuff and you're like, wasn't that like forever ago, but they're still making it up because it's just popular still. And that's the song, right? The song is attached to it and everything. Oh yeah. It's so creepy. Yeah, definitely. Walter,

[01:28:50] what you got for your number two? All right. This, this still, I think he sticks with me and gives me nightmares sometimes, but for several reasons, return to Oz guys. Return to Oz. It's such a wolf in sheep's clothing. I grew up like watching the wizard of Oz. I love the wizard of Oz when I was a kid. I mean, like so many kids did growing up, but it's for, you know, for all ages, my parents loved it. Like, you know, my brothers and sisters loved it. I mean,

[01:29:20] like everybody loves the wizard of Oz, right? When I heard there's a sequel to the wizard of Oz as a little, you know, six-year-old. I'm like, Oh, yay. Let's, let's rent that from Joe's video and throw it in the VCR. And what I saw, I have never forgotten. And it's, it's climbed up the ranks of one of my favorite movies at this point, because of the market left on me. Yeah. A part of my soul is in that film.

[01:29:50] Just from, it's, it's just the fact that it is a sequel or a purported sequel. It's made by Disney, by the way, to what I thought, you know, it was like, Oh, it's, you know, Dorothy, it's like a sequel to that, but it's, it's more kind of off the books and also just dives into the creepier elements of Oz and everything. And it's this melancholy feel that I've been trying to recreate in like anything that I've made that has that kind of tinge since then. Um,

[01:30:18] because you return to Oz as the title says, but everything is destroyed. People are frozen into, uh, into concrete statues and everything. And you don't know what's going on. Um, it's kind of like this alternate take on this bright and colorful world that all every kid is used to. Um, but I just became infatuated with that and seeing the, the eighties effects with the claymation, everything with the, the, the gnome King. Um, it's,

[01:30:46] it's so unsettling when you have Dorothy about to go into shock therapy, this little girl, and they have the fruit, for who's a bulk, I believe, uh, play Dorothy there. And she's actually a little kid. I mean, she's not like a 17 year old like Judy Garland was, um, she, I think she was like 10 or 11 or 12 or something. Um, and seeing a kid like that in peril is like, oh, you know, it gets to you, um, seeing that. And then, you know, the, the flood that happens after that. I mean, like the, the production design is incredible in this film.

[01:31:16] Um, and this is pre CG. So all of this, all this practical effects work that's done, uh, Jack pumpkin head, the puppetry done there, the, even the moose, the gump. I mean, every, all the characters are super memorable. Um, seeing the scarecrow come back was like this light in the, the darkness for me because I'm a huge scarecrow fan. I love the scarecrow from the original film. Um, to see him come back at the end was like, yes, something, something good finally happened. Um, uh, so like all of that stuff, uh, tying it back to the original,

[01:31:46] but like, uh, a distorted lens of that, um, princess Mambi with the heads in the glass chambers. My goodness gracious. Like she wakes up and there's a headless person. Uh, I could talk about this movie for hours. Um, I love how weird it is. I remember I would, I would turn it on sometimes with like my dad and my sister and my mom would be like, why are you watching this? That's ugly. That's the wizard of Oz. Yeah. It's my wizard of Oz, ma. It's mine. Yeah. It's mine. Yeah.

[01:32:16] It just, uh, it has stuck with me in a way that I didn't think would when I first saw it. Um, because it was like, oh, I just want to go back to the original and the bright colors and everything. But that's what, you know, when you experience something that dark as a kid, it leaves a, a, a very deep impression. Um, and I've just never forgotten it since. And I, I love it. I love the themes. I love, uh, the effects, like I said, and the story and the, even the acting is weird. It's just like, it's not a conventional acting either.

[01:32:46] Um, everything about it is great. And it's also that the director's only movie, unfortunately, Walter Murch. So, um, yeah, I would love to make another video about return, just about return to Oz one day and just delve into all of that stuff. It's a, it's a fantastic movie. It's, it is such like a pivot from the original movie. Uh, you know, the original 1930s movie. And honestly, it's, it's so horrifying that Dorothy would be put in shock therapy,

[01:33:13] but to go from the ending of the original where it's like so hopeful and happy. And then like, just, and after that she got strapped to a chair and it was about to be shock therapy. Like, I mean, to be fair, maybe that's the more realistic ending, but it's, it's sort of like that cold splash of reality. And, uh, it's a very pessimistic sort of story. And, uh, but you know, it's still, you know, Oz, you know,

[01:33:41] you still get those occasional moments of whimsy. And yeah, by the end, when like the scarecrow comes back, it's just kind of like splash of cold water. Cause it's like, Oh my God, it's something I actually like. Right. So yeah. Take it out. Amazing. I think that falls in the line. Oh yeah. The wheelers. Holy wheelers. Yes. How could I forget about God? Those things are terrifying. I feel like if anything from that movie I hear about, it's the wheelers. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:34:11] I think bulk a career, like linear path, you know what I mean? Like we all know her as the crazy chick later. So maybe that shock therapy, you know, it's what turned her into all that, you know, she ended up becoming a witch. Right. So it's so true. Yeah. I found an interview she did where she talked about almost drowning on set. Um, I think she said that, uh, in one of the scenes where she's going down like a river or something,

[01:34:41] uh, she was supposed to hang on to something and she missed it. And she was like gasping for air in the water. And her mom who was on set, I had to like get involved in some, some capacity. I think I posted on horror for kids too. I'll have to go back and look, but there was definitely something that happened there on set with her. Well, they're continuing the tradition of near death experiences, filming movies. Right. Yeah. Wanting to get into all the horrifying things that happened on the original movie. Yeah.

[01:35:11] It's raining asbestos. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's raining as Jesus Christ. I mean, that's what they used for everything back then though. I mean, geez. Yeah. Oh yeah. It's just like now. Yeah. Anyway, now it's time to get to our number one. So my number one, so this is the only one in my list. That's not primarily made for kids, but I feel like the show is seen by families as a whole.

[01:35:40] And I saw it as a kid, so I count it. I'm going to go with the Simpsons tree house of horror. And I'm very glad that twilight zone got brought up because if there's anything that took inspiration from twilight zone, very much directly, it was tree house of horror. Now I love the Simpsons. It's probably my favorite show of all time is absolutely satirical. It's funny. It's timeless. I can watch any of those episodes from like,

[01:36:09] I would dare to even say like the first 10 seasons. Everybody says first eight. I say first 10 because I think nine and 10 are okay. Um, but I love, love, love the Halloween episodes. The Halloween episodes are key traditional watching every Halloween. I have to binge the tree house of horror episodes because they were so, they're so unique to the entire series and it's an anthology. So again,

[01:36:36] you can take these beloved characters and put them in horrifying situations just for the fun of it. Cause it's Halloween. Let's have some fun. Um, and there's so many good ones. I mean, I'm thinking like King Homer and the, the crusty doll episode, which was based off of twilight zone. Another one was the, the one where Bart's on the school bus with the gremlin. Um, the, the, the, the fifth episode, the fifth tree house of horror, you have the shining parody, the shinning, uh,

[01:37:05] you have the time travel toaster, and then you have the nightmare cafeteria, which is legitimately terrifying. I think that might be the scariest tree house segment. It's just like the, the teachers are cooking and eating the kids in the school. Cause they run out, they're down to grade F meat, which is like mostly circus animals. Um, it's so good. You have classic lines like, uh, you know, Homer staking the vampire, Mr. Burns.

[01:37:33] And then you just have like a Lisa coming. It's just like, dad, that's his crotch. It, it, Oh my God. I, I don't want to go like too deep into it because I could be here all day quoting like just my favorite moments, favorite segments, favorite episodes. But like, if you want the perfect Halloween specials to watch her on Halloween and there's an abundance, there's got how many seasons of Simpsons now. And they've done a Halloween episode every single year. You have,

[01:38:02] you have prime, you know, viewing binge viewing pleasure, uh, in tree house of horror. So that is my number one. Personally. I think it's absolutely perfect. And it may introduce you to, many classic horror movies and stories. Uh, 100%. That is so cool. I remember I was never, I was never allowed to watch the Simpsons, which was a huge bummer. But I knew because my friends in the schoolyard,

[01:38:30] I knew that they had some kick-ass Halloween episodes and you best believe I was like sneaking in my basement to like watch those. Right. So, uh, so I did, I, I tried to catch as many as I could as a kid, but I, I know they were, they were awesome. Great pick. Mm-hmm. 100%. That they, you can watch them now, sir. Get to it. Oh, and I do, I do. Yeah. Honestly, I've collected a couple of them. I think I stopped at like,

[01:38:59] like 11 or 12 or something, but there's so many of them. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The, the all there's like 30 something. Uh, and I, I still don't, I don't really watch the new episodes of the Simpsons now, but I do still tune into the tree house of ours. Like that's the only time I will go out of my way to turn on Fox and watch the new Simpsons is for the tree house of ours. Um, but the, the classics, I mean, you got like the Raven, uh, that was, uh,

[01:39:27] narrated by James Earl Jones, rest in peace. Um, but that was, I mean, that was perfect Gothic, uh, you know, and at the same time you have the humor with, cause it's Homer and Bart, you know, fighting with each other. Um, I don't know. I could go on and on and on, but I love the Simpsons. I love Homer. Is it a tree house of horror where it was like, Bart gets killed by sideshow Bob. Yep. So I, that was one of the later ones.

[01:39:56] That was like just a, an alternate thing, but like, I still remember that tree house of horror. That one was always like so freaky me. Cause they, he actually killed Bart. It's like, Holy shit. There's actually, the way it ended was still messed up. because you know, spoiler alert for a moment. Okay. So the whole, the, the whole thing like, is they're trying to catch a killer, uh, Bart, you know, died, but sideshow Bob's in jail. But now there's another killer killing,

[01:40:25] like all these other people from, uh, Springfield that like have grown up now, you know, like Nelson is a cop, which is hilarious. Um, but you're thinking about the one that came out last year. Yeah. Was it last year? Okay. It was last year. Like, cause yeah, like I said, I just watch them every now and again. And I was like, Oh, when did, I don't know when this one came out, but it was good. Like, it turns out like Lisa had a psychotic break. She didn't realize that she was the killer, but Maggie's a prison guard.

[01:40:55] It helps her. It's an elaborate plan. So that Lisa could kill sideshow Bob as revenge for killing Bart. To kill sideshow Bob as a means to kill sideshow. So, I mean, it feels great. Something that Simpsons does a lot now is they try to recreate the four by three, like cell animation that they had back in the nineties. And that was one of the instances where they did it because it begins with the scene from Cape fear where sideshow Bob is singing the HMS pinafore,

[01:41:23] but it's an alternate reality where he like in the middle of it just stops. And it's like, wait a minute, are you stalling me? And Bart's like, yeah, kind of am. And then they just kill. He just slashes him right in front of Lisa's face. But there is another one that came out a few years prior where sideshow Bob kills Bart, but then he finds that he has no meaning in his life. So he basically resurrects him and kills them again and again and again. And it's really morbid because he's just keeping this dead kid in his basement. Uh,

[01:41:53] like his, his family finds him and he's just cut up in the pieces inside. So Bob's a seller. It's really, really weird. Um, I mean, there's one more I'll bring up that's recent is that Homer one where Homer eats himself. Like he becomes addicted to himself and he just starts like cutting off his fingers. And then eventually he's just like eating his own flesh and he's left just being like a head on a torso with no arms.

[01:42:22] Holy crap. It's so messed up. It's, it's gross. I love it, but it is disgusting. Uh, I think it's from the 28th episode. Um, but yeah, like March, March comes in, in the middle of the night and he's got his whole leg sitting on a skillet over the stove. And he's just like, Oh my God. Oh, it's dark. Anyway, I won't, I would say watch them all for yourself,

[01:42:50] but tree house of horror Simpsons, Halloween specials. Those are my number one pick. So Nick, what about you? Fantastic. Great. Uh, well being from Indiana, I left my number one to be eerie Indiana. Nice. Nice. The goosebumps. Uh, take, you know, cause I think this was early, earlier nineties. Uh, goosebumps being 95. I think this came out in like 90, 91, somewhere in there. Um,

[01:43:18] but it had Omri cats who most people know from hocus pocus, another good children's horror, obviously, but that's so famous at this point. There's no reason to put that on the list. Um, cause you know about it. Uh, but you might not know about eerie Indiana and it had some great episodes. Uh, I had a great cast and, honestly, it was kind of freaky for what it was. I mean, again, this was a network television show, not a cable one. So, uh, they were a little more limited,

[01:43:47] kind of like goosebumps was compared to shows like, are you afraid of the dark? But what they were able to accomplish was great. Uh, you know, I, I, I really enjoyed the show as a whole and trying not to spoil too much, even though at this point it's like a 30 plus year old show. Yeah. I mean, that's such a iconic show. That's up there with all the nineties, uh, kids, no horror shows. And it, it, it, it always felt like to me,

[01:44:14] like a twilight zone for kids kind of live. Like it was just so like, it, it, it didn't, you know, it was horror, but in a way that was like, kind of like, uh, atmospheric kind of thing, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's what I remember is like the vibe from eerie Indiana. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Did you ever watch it? Uh, Isaiah, I did watch it. Uh, I do, I do know that it was, uh, it was airing alongside goosebumps on Fox kids.

[01:44:43] I don't think it was new episodes. It was reruns. And then I believe, uh, they had a, another eerie Indiana series called the other dimension come out. And that was new episodes. That's right. Um, yeah, I liked it. It wasn't. Yeah, it was, it, it, I really enjoyed both shows. I thought it was a good companion to goosebumps. Um, it wasn't anthology, but it still had that sort of feel to it. It was very sort of like silly campy style horror for kids. Um, and I enjoyed it. I,

[01:45:13] I really thought of, I do think it's up there with like the most iconic of the nineties. Um, I do think so. So I think it's a good pick. Definitely. I think it's another show again, that gets kind of overshadowed because it came out before goosebumps did. I mean, are you afraid of the dark? It also, but it did have its own life, uh, that really took over despite not having much merch out there. Uh, you know, Nickelodeon being as popular as it was, you know, uh, thankfully I think had the audience,

[01:45:43] uh, and area, Indiana kind of, I feel set the tone a little bit for network television stuff to give other ones a chance. I don't know really too much about like why it ended. Um, cause again, I, I did, wasn't very long lived. Uh, unfortunately. It says 19, 19 episodes online here. Yeah, it was, it was a very short run, but I don't know why though.

[01:46:12] I don't really know why. Well, yeah, no, that's a, I would say that's my number one. And to my knowledge, I believe you can watch them on some streaming. So I can't remember what it is though. Um, probably to be everything. Yeah, it says everything's on TV though. So yeah, TV, the Roku channel and goosebumps now. So yeah, watching both. That name is I'm proud. That's true. Oh, Amazon prime too. Okay. There you go. Awesome.

[01:46:44] Wonderful. Alrighty. Horror. What's your number one? My number one is goosebumps. It's already been covered. So that's okay. But as we all know, goosebumps is the ultimate, right? Like from the book series to the television shows, to the movies, to the reboots, like there's so much that kids can get into, um, that spans over like decades. Right. And in so many different mediums too, there's the graphic novels, the books, but there's just so much that a kid can submerge

[01:47:14] themselves into. But since that was taken, I'm going to throw in a little bit of a personal one here, which is night books, which came out in 2021. It's a movie. Uh, Sam Raimi was the producer behind this one. And, uh, Kristen Ritter plays a witch. It's essentially the story of like Hansel and Gretel, uh, told in like a 2020 is version. Right. And, uh, the, the, the scares in it are top notch, top notch. I mean, the, the whole, like,

[01:47:43] witch trying to cook the kids and running around the house. It's just, it's, it's such a great movie. There's scenes of, uh, there's these like nightmare sequences, uh, where, Oh, sorry, not nightmare sequences, but sequences where the kid is reading from a book and it plays out kind of like a nightmare sequence. And like, there's like three of them, I think. And they're all so terrifying. And I, it's the movie just hit me by surprise. I wasn't expecting, uh, such a great kids horror movie out of this.

[01:48:13] And I was just blown away by what I got. That's awesome. I'll have to check that out. I've never heard of that before, but Sam, Sam Raimi, if it's Sam Raimi, then I gotta check it out. Yeah. It's awesome. I gotta, yeah, this looks pretty cool. Totally. On Netflix. All right. I'm going to add that. Yeah. Awesome. Check it out. And Walter and the soft, what's your number one? All right, guys. So this whole list is about trying to introduce kids or, or, you know, maybe young teens or,

[01:48:43] whatever into the horror genre. I got one word for you. Thriller, the music video. Yes. That's awesome. Around every year. There's the extremely popular song that's attached to it, but the short film that's, you know, made from it, um, directed by John Landis, all, all the, the dances in it. People are still dancing. The thriller dance. Um, the, the makeup effects are incredible. Um, it has like Halloween down to its essence.

[01:49:13] It's in that music video, that short film. Um, so for kids who are younger, uh, it's not too scary to where it would be off putting, but it's scary enough to where it could creep kids out to be intrigued to watch more of something like that. Um, it's short. It's, you know, it's not like it's a half hour episode of TV or anything. It's a short film music video. Um, and the music that's attached to it, everyone knows the thriller song. So, I mean, like everything is just, it's made for kids to get into that kind of thing. Um,

[01:49:43] I don't really have too many other details about it because it's just, I feel like it's kind of a mic drop moment. Yeah. yeah, no, I, I wasn't expecting that one, buddy. Yeah. It's honestly, I didn't expect it either, but honestly, the fact that you do bring it up, I'm like, I'm so glad that you did because I love thriller. The, the song is so good, but the music video, I mean, the music video was unbelievable when it dropped. It was, it was,

[01:50:13] it was a big deal. Uh, in, it's like a 13, it's a, I think it's like 13 minutes long, but it's an entire short film just around. This song, which is an amazing song already as it is, but you throw in like, uh, you know, werewolves and zombies and really good looking like makeup effects. Oh yeah. was it Rick Baker? I think it was Rick Baker. Yeah. So he worked alongside John Landis on American world from London,

[01:50:43] which also dealt with werewolves and living corpses. So there's so many things you could branch off from this. So like, cause Vincent price does the voiceover like the, you know, like he's a horror icon. Everything is in, in this like 10, 13 minute short. I mean, you could branch off so many different directions and it's just perfect for kids. I feel like this is, this is the way to go to a Halloween party or anything like that without hearing this song at some point in the Halloween season. It's, it's incredible. Um,

[01:51:12] it's for sure on my playlist, obviously. Uh, I mean, it's, it's so iconic and easily probably one of the best, if not the best music video of all time. Uh, I don't, I mean, there could be an argument made there that it is for sure. Honestly, I, I don't, I don't have any objections to that sort of claim. I think I don't have any objections to it. I think like, it's, it's such a, like, especially in my household, I just remember it being such a rite of passage.

[01:51:41] If you could like sit there and make it through the whole thing. And I have like a bunch of older cousins who used to taunt and tease me because like, I was like, man, like, I was proud of myself for making it through like the movie feeder scene. And then, oh, Michael Jackson's turned into a werewolf. I'm out. And then I could stomach that. And then it's like, oh, the zombies, I'm out. It's like, there was like, I just had to watch it in sections until I could like overcome the whole thing. But when I did, man, I'll never forget that moment. And just, just loving the entire thing.

[01:52:11] The ending where, one of the greatest thing is I went to, uh, IMAX to see house with the clock in its walls. And the only reason, which by the way, another great honorable mention for potential horror film, FYI for kids. Uh, that was a great film. Uh, actually had some really scary scenes compared to what I thought it was going to have in it, uh, for kids. But I only went to see it in IMAX because it was the first time they were going to have thriller in IMAX,

[01:52:41] uh, before the movie started. Wow. So I didn't know like much about the movie itself. I only went for thriller thoroughly enjoyed the film though. I mean, that was a plus, but I really went to see thriller in IMAX and that was a damn cool experience. Um, so I'm one I'll never forget. They need to do that every year for people. I don't know why they don't. Yeah. That that's that again, primary viewing for anybody. Cause that is an amazing music video.

[01:53:10] Michael Jackson just absolutely killed it at that era with all of his music videos. I mean, they're all of Michael Jackson's Jackson music videos. My personal favorite. I mean, it's, it's still smooth criminal. I mean, my goodness. Yeah. So much. They made a whole movie about it. Moonwalker is so weird, but that's also kind of like return to Oz. It really is. I, I personally love Moonwalker because it's such a frigging acid trip of a movie. It makes no sense,

[01:53:39] but no, you get to hear awesome music and that I feel is a great trade-off. So definitely. I would also say as kind of a quasi sequel to thriller, if you guys have never seen the ghosts short film that he made in like the early two thousands, that's also like way out there and weird. And like, it goes back to the thriller or spookiness of things. If you've never seen that, like that's something to check out too. That was a John Landon. Definitely check that out. I don't know if I've ever seen it before. I'll check it out. So yeah. Yeah. It's, it's something I didn't expect.

[01:54:09] I remember like it was on when it first aired and I was like, this is creepier in some ways, but like there's more of a storyline. That was like dangerous era, post dangerous era, Michael Jackson. So what did you say it was called? The ghosts? Just ghosts. Ghosts. Okay. I'm going to have to look that up then. Cause if it's Michael Jackson, it's going to be peak. Yeah. It's yeah. 1996. So like, I guess a history era, Michael Jackson, but yeah, it's, it's really weird. It goes on for a little bit long. It's 40 minutes.

[01:54:38] So it's more of a movie ish. Oh, dang. Wow. Check it out. If you guys get a chance. Absolutely. Thanks for that. Yeah, for sure. Definitely. But yeah, thriller. That's wow. That, that did, that is a great pick. I got to tell you, man, that is what a way to cap it. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Oh man. And seriously, there are so many other movies and shows that we could have covered here tonight, but for the sake of time and just, you know, because we just can't cover them all.

[01:55:08] You know, I'm glad we were able to, you know, talk about the ones that we personally felt affected by and felt were a great jumping off point. Cause the horror genre is such an elusive genre, um, even medium of film. And so many people love it. So many people get into it and there's new fans every day. Why not, you know, find a great place for them to start. So, uh, gateway horror is always the great place to really jump off into the horror genre.

[01:55:38] So, uh, but that is going to do it for tonight's episode of the Goosebumps crew podcast. I want to give a sincere thank you to both our guests, Walter Benesiac and horror for kids, both for joining us and talking some horror with us. Thank you guys both for joining us. It's always a pleasure being on the show. Thank you guys so much for having me, uh, keep me posted with any future episodes that you'd want me on. Cause you know, I'm down. Absolutely. And, Walter, thank you. This was so much fun guys. Absolutely. It's been an absolute pleasure.

[01:56:08] Uh, Walter, where can our audience find you? Um, you can find me on my personal YouTube channel as a Walter culture. Um, that same handle on, uh, X or Twitter, whatever it is, Instagram, Facebook. Um, yeah, well, I'll be having some more, uh, content going up soon. I've been taking a little bit of a break as I'm working on a bigger project for channel awesome. So if you want to see some channel awesome videos that I'll be producing, tune around the tune in around the summertime. Awesome. And, uh, of course,

[01:56:38] horror for kids, you can catch him over on social media is on, uh, Instagram, Twitter, uh, any others I'm forgetting. Facebook, but that's about it. You can catch them on the three big main ones. So you'll find them there. But, uh, if you ever want to get just, uh, some awesome info or even just see some nostalgic, uh, horror for kids clips, uh, he's the guy to go to. So you can check them both out. I'll leave links to both of their social medias in the description below. And as always, you can follow Bjorn and Nick at Goosebomb, Sox, and Sean respectively. If you liked today's episode,

[01:57:11] follow us on our audio platforms and social medias. We'll have a new episode for you next week, but until then, this has been the Goosebumps group podcast. And from all of us here, we want to wish you all as always to take care, stay safe, and have a very scary day.