The Stinal Countdown: Goosebumps #2: Stay Out Of The Basement

The strength of this renewed revisit has been to see if the books I either praised or disliked have changed since originally covering them. With the first book, Welcome To Dead House, I think I came out liking it a bit more than I originally did. Feeling that it worked better in the build up department and having a strong enough ending. It's the sign of a good first foot forward for the series. Next up, we're covering the second book in the series. Will its roots stay firmly planted, or is it due for greener pastures? Let's discover that ourselves with Stay Out Of The Basement. 

STAY OUT OF THE BASEMENT

RELEASE MONTH: July, 1992

FRONT TAGLINE: Something's waiting in the dark...

COVER STORY

This is actually one of two covers not done by Tim Jacobus. This one was done by artist Jim Theissen. And while it's not that noticeable that it's different from Tim's style so early in the series, it is when you've been well-versed in Tim's style over time. Jim's take is more of a focus on dark black for the inside of the door instead of a more colorful choice (Tim rarely used black and instead darker hues of blues or purples), the look of the door feeling more realistic, as well as the green, monstrous hand sticking out. If it were Tim there'd be more warping, that's for sure. That's not a knock on this cover however, as it is one of the best in the series, offering those who look at it for the first time vivid thoughts of just what this monster in the basement might be.

LIVE PLANTS... DEAD PEOPLE?

Dr. Brewer is doing a little plant-testing in his basement. Nothing to worry about. Harmless, really.

But Margaret and Casey Brewer are worried about their father. Especially when they... meet... some of the plants he is growing down there.

Then they notice that their father is developing plantlike tendencies. In fact, he is becoming distinctly weedy-and seedy.

Is it just part of their father's "harmless" experiment? Of has the basement turned into another little shop of horrors?

STORY

Our protagonists are Margaret Brewer and her younger brother Casey. They have a problem. Namely their father. Their dad is a botanist who moved his family out to California to work closer to Polytech, his former employer. All Margaret really knows about what happened is that Dr. Brewer got fired by a man named Mr. Martinez over some of his experiments. Since then, he's taken his work home with him and has spent all his waking hours down in the basement. He barely ever talks to them anymore, and he's even stopped calling Margaret "Princess" (and "Fatso" apparently, which, I mean it's a 1992 book but yikes)  After playing some Frisbee, the kids decide to go see what exactly is going on in the basement, only for Dr. Brewer to shout at them the title of this book.  

We then cut to some time after as Mrs. Brewer is leaving to visit her sick sister in Tucson. While Dr. Brewer drives her to the airport, Margaret, Casey, and their superfluous friend Diane talk for a bit, while Casey mostly watches a movie. Diane then suggests to go down to the basement to see what Dr. Brewer has been up to. The Brewer sibs agree to do so, then head down. It's almost like a mini-jungle with plenty of strange plants created by their dad. Margaret notices one breathing just as Casey pretends to get electrocuted because siblings in Goosebumps are always terrible people. The kids are ultimately creeped out by everything and run back upstairs as Dr. Brewer is heading into the driveway. They're in the clear, until Casey realizes he took his shirt off downstairs due to the humidity. The two head down again, only for Casey to get caught in some vines. He manages to get free, just as Dr. Brewer starts to enter the basement, and is quite angered that they didn't read the title. Noticeably,  he doesn't shout at them like he did last time.

The next day, Margaret notices her father eating something. When he leaves, she inspects the bag, and discovers that it's plant food. She's freaked out, as you'd expect, but Casey doesn't seem to have as much of an issue with his dad literally eating dirt and fertilizer. Cut to another day as Margaret and Casey talk to Diane who mentions that her father, who also conveniently works at Polytech, knows why Dr. Brewer was fired, and it was due to his crazy experiments and that something crazy happened, which led to the company having to fire him. Margaret's skeptical, despite all the obvious signs that something isn't quite right with her dad. Those signs becoming bright neon when Casey accidentally hits Dr. Brewer with a Frisbee and knocks off his Brooklyn Dodgers hat, revealing that his hair has turned into green leaves. 

Dr. Brewer decides that now that his kids have seen his weird new hairstyle, that they should know what he's doing in that basement they're supposed to stay out of. He hasn't been doing much... except try to play god! He's been experimenting with DNA, trying to pass along the gene of high intelligence from person to person, but instead through plants, creating a plant that's part animal. Using glass booths to transfer the DNA electronically. Boy, I wonder what movie Jovial Bob got this flydea from? Dr. Brewer then realizes that he's gone full REM and oh no, he's said too much, ending the conversation there. Margaret tries to sleep that night, only to wake up and see her father in the bathroom, his hand cut open, bleeding green liquid. She goes downstairs, only to get confronted by Casey, who is starting to take this a bit more seriously than he did before. The kids can hear a strange breathing sound in the basement, but don't go down to check. Instead, they go to Dr. Brewer's bed, only to instead find it filled with dirt and worms.

The next day, Dr. Brewer cooks Casey and Margaret lunch. Only it's a strange, green pulpy substance. Before the kids are forced to eat it, the doorbell rings. It's Mr. Martinez from PolyTech, who has been keeping up with Dr. Brewer's work, still wanting to invest in it. The two men head down to the basement, to which Margaret decides that on the first possible chance, she and Casey will also be going back down to finally get some answers. Another day passes, and while Dr. Brewer is out, the kids sneak down. The basement is even more vivid than before, now full of more lush, almost prehistoric plants. Margaret hears a loud banging from the closet, but then notices Mr. Martinez's clothes on the ground, both kids realizing they never did see him leave the night prior. They then hear Dr. Brewer returning to the basement, so they escape through the window. He catches the two regardless. They try to get answers, but he's even more tight-lipped. He warns them to once again not go down to the basement.

They go down to the basement.

Mrs. Brewer is finally coming home so Dr. Brewer drives to pick her up. This gives Casey and Margaret their fourth visit to the basement. This time however, they spot more of Mr. Martinez's stuff and realize that he must have been disposed of. They hear the thudding from the closet again and open it to discover a bunch of plants with human body parts. Particularly a tomato with a face, proving that Goosebumps was perhaps the gritty backdoor pilot to VeggieTales. But not just are there some freaky plant life down there, but so is Dr. Brewer? Both Dr. Brewer and Mr. Martinez are tied and gagged. Margaret frees her father, who then proceeds to grab an axe. The kids are confused, but they see that Mrs. Brewer is homer with another Dr. Brewer. 

The dad with the Dodgers cap on says that the one with the axe isn't their real father, but a copy that he tried to stop. Margaret decides to just snatch the axe from one of the dads and we've reached that point in this kind of story. You know, where there's two clones and a character has a gun, not knowing which clone to shoot. In this case, one of the clones calls Margaret "Princess", which was one of the names he used to call her before this whole situation occurred. But, instead of that actually mattering, Margaret is still confused as to who to pick. Which I guess makes sense, given that the clone could still know some of the information from the original. But given that the ball cap one still makes a grasp for the axe and she's still confused as to which is the original, it just seems lame. Ultimately Margaret uses a knife and stabs closet dad. His blood is red, so he's the real one! The real Dr. Brewer grabs the axe and chops the Dr. Brewer in the ball cap in half, revealing that he's literally a plant stem. The clone is dead and the family free Mr. Martinez.

TWIST ENDING

Later that day, Dr. Brewer explains the whole situation. He was working on a super plant, made from the DNA of other plants. But when he accidentally cut himself, some of the blood became infused in the plants, creating human hybrids. But instead of stopping, he kept trying to play god, until he created a plant that became an exact clone of him, who overpowered him and locked him in the closet. But ultimately they destroyed that version once and for all. Margaret's still confused about the fact that this Dr. Brewer still has leaves on his head, but he says it's all a side effect. So, everyone lives happily ever after... until Margaret notices a flower nudging her leg. When she looks down, it whispers that he's her real father.

CONCLUSION

I still like this book. Its strengths are definitely the imagery involved, particularly with Dr. Brewer. While we don't go full tree man, we definitely get something that feels like a kid-friendly version of David Cronenberg's The Fly, particularly in how the story brings up the mixture of DNA and the results we see through the green leaves in the hair, the green blood and stuff like the dirt bed and the plant food eating. The creepy imagery continues in the basement, particularly with the reveal of the human face plants. It does lead to some frightening thoughts for something like Goosebumps. Shame it feels like it doesn't play into much of the story, but it feels memorable. It's a book where the mystery is given time to build and there are moments of actual horror that feel memorable. Something I feel disappeared with this series over time. In terms of other pros, Margaret is a likable protagonist, and the dread she feels through the story as she tries to piece together what's going on with her father is solid character work. 

Cons, Casey is our first really annoying sibling protagonist. The ending felt a bit contrived, particularly in making the "Princess" nickname not matter in the end. The twist is also pretty mediocre, but I guess that's the only way you can end a story about an evil plant clone I guess, so I'm not ripping Stine too hard there. I've stated before that Stine did seem to inadvertently make a weird homosexuality "in the closet" parallel, and I stand by that, while also seeing it as a bit of a mid-life crisis thing as well, which given Stine was 48 at the time, I can see that too. Basically being boiled to dad acting strange lately, more disconnected from the other family, to the point that it's straining his marriage. He's experimenting with new food, changing his hair color, and having a strange relationship with Mr. Martinez, right down to both being "locked in the closet". If you haven't read the originals, you'll soon learn that I have a lot of weird theories on these books. I tend to try to get into Stine's head a bit too much. I really should leaf him alone.

STORY: GGGG

SCARES: GGGGG

TWIST: GG

ENJOYMENT: GGGG

OVERALL: 4 Gs