The Stinal Countdown: Goosebumps Series 2000 #8: Fright Camp

It's time once again to delve into the depths of Series 2000, which if you've followed the exploits over at the previous blog, I've gotten pretty deep into, while being disjointed as hell because it's just easier this way when you don't have access to all the books at one time. And this time we have a camp book. I can't say there's ever been a Goosebumps camp book that I didn't at least enjoy a little. Will that streak break? Let's find out with Fright Camp. 

COVER STORY

This cover suffers the same issue as the previous cover in this series, Revenge Are Us, where instead of giving us a scary scenario, we instead get an attempt at a really scary raccoon. Well, it's at least a bit more freaky than the cover of Bad Hare Day, but it's not exactly screaming camp book. Nice detail on the garbage in the can, including some large as hell bones, and Tim's lovely foliage. Not amazing, but not outright awful. 

STORY

Andrew Herman and his ten year old brother Tyler are big fans of R.B. Farraday, horror director. They love all his movies and television shows, and probably if he had a series of fair to midland children's novellas, they'd love those too. Their dad gives the kids a brochure for R.B. Farraday's Fright Camp and they get super excited, finally being able to visit attractions like the lake of water zombies and the haunted forest. Dad tries to quell their excitement by saying that it could be really scary, but these kids know for sure that it's all just smoke and mirrors. 

Cut to July when Andrew and Tyler are on the bus headed to camp. They meet two girls named Meredith and Elizabeth Friedman, who are also massive Farraday fans. Suddenly, the bus comes to a screeching halt as a giant man in all black enters the bus and puts the driver in a chokehold, with the first thought in my head being "Boy, The Undertaker really wants this bus". While the other kids are in a panic, Andrew scoffs at this, saying that it's exactly like one of Farraday's films, Vacation of Endless Doom. The kids then notice the bus driving away from Fright Camp, as the man tells them that he's taking them somewhere else. He's taking them to... Fright Camp, because this was all just an act like Andrew said. I mean, it's the book's title.

Andrew and Tyler get situated in their cabin and are greeted by Gus, their cabin counselor. He tells the kids that they're free to visit any of the attractions, but have to stay out of the Cave of No Return for obvious reasons. I mean, look at the name. The boys head out, only to hear screams from a boy who got his hand stuck in a wasp's nest. But before this book goes all My Girl, it's revealed that it's a fake nest. This is going to be all this is book is for the majority, isn't it? The kid introduces himself as Jack Harding, and he's bunkmates with Andrew and Tyler along with another boy, Christian Kretschmer. Jack and Christian scare the kids, telling them that most of the camp's attractions are fake, and some are real, like the quicksand pit for example. The kids scoff at it, but Jack tells them that they'll see. 

The kids head into the mess hall for the camp meeting, only to have their hands covered in electrical wire-like handcuffs. The counselors gang up on Jack and Chris in particular. Suddenly, a man in a white lab coat named Alonso shows up and interrogates the two about what cabin they're from, saying that will be their lucky cabin. He introduces R.B. Farraday, who is a little person with slicked black hair, a black and grey beard and very skinny limbs. He tells the kids that he built this camp to bring the horror of his films to life. The kids ask about the cords on their hands, to which Farraday has Chris be their volunteer. Chris ends up being electrocuted badly and sent away. Farraday then mentions that this whole thing is similar to one of his films The Revenge of Dr. Cruel. 

Farraday then calls for a cage to be brought in, holding a gorilla inside. I knew it, this is actually the novelization of Christmas Ape Goes To Summer Camp. No, this is Rocko, a gorilla from another of Farraday's films. The gorilla escapes the cage and scares the kids until it's hit with a tranquilizer. That concludes the camp meeting as we cut to Andrew and Tyler unpacking. Tyler's freaked out given whatever the hell that meeting was, but Andrew is still not freaked out, believing this to all just be part of the act. Suddenly, Jack shows up telling the two that Chris is in the infirmary, still suffering from the electrocution. But before he can say anything else, he sees Alonso staring from the window before running off. They then see Chris running for his life. After being dragged off, Chris later returns and just says he doesn't want to talk about today.

The next day, Andrew, Tyler, Meredith and Elizabeth head over to the Sit and Scream ride, essentially a spinning teacups style ride. The ride goes faster and faster with the kids whipping back and forth. Unfortunately though, the operator, a man named Duffy, is nowhere to be seen. Soon enough, Duffy returns, but the level breaks in his hands when he pulls it. Eventually the motor stops and the kids can escape, dizzy, shaken and pissed. They threaten to do something about this, but Duffy says that this is just like the movie of the same name. The kids head to Farraday's office, noticing not just cameras everywhere, but a raccoon in a trash can. There's your cover reference, kids! The kids hear screams in Farraday's office. Farraday then pops out of the office, face red and seemingly in a panic. Andrew then notices a strange pair of lizard-like creatures, to which Farraday then says are just special effects. But he then warns that there's going to be some real horror ahead for cabin 3.

The next night, Andrew, Tyler, Jack and Chris hear howling outside, along with the cries of someone. However, when they look outside, they instead see the lizard-like creatures from Farraday's office. Andrew's beliefs are starting to shatter, but he's still confident that this totally has to be part of the camp's act. The next day, he goes swimming in the lake of the water zombies. Suddenly, his leg is grabbed by a bony hand. He then notices it's a skeleton with Jack's face on it. Andrew swims off in a panic and is rescued by Meredith and Elizabeth. But when they take him to the cabin, they see a warning in red paint that the horror is real and they should get away while they still can. 

Andrew confronts a counselor named Claire about if everything in the camp is real, but she doesn't tell him anything. He finds Chris and the non-skeletal Jack arguing if they should call their parents. Jack then warns Andrew that it's too late for everyone. Alonso shows up again and scares off Jack and Chris before calling Andrew a troublemaker from the lucky cabin. He goes to eat in the cafeteria when suddenly Alonso warns that the stew they made might have had two poison mushrooms. And conveniently Chris and Jack collapse. That's enough for Andrew, who grabs Tyler and the two try to escape the camp, only to notice that the camp has guards who sends them to their cabin. Andrew notices another camera and realizes that Farraday and the others are spying on them to keep them trapped in the camp. 

That night, Andrew tries to sleep, but hears rustling in their cabin. When he and Tyler check, they notice that their shoes have been stolen. Not just theirs, every kid in the camp's shoes have been swiped. Meredith deduces that since the forest has poisonous snakes, they couldn't possibly escape the camp barefoot and make it out alive. Chris and Jack return and tell the kids what they know. Farraday and the camp are trying to test the fears of kids, to see how much fear it'll take to scare them to death. Jack tells them that he did get through to his mom and she'll pick him up tomorrow. Andrew and the others are excited, hoping they can hitch a ride, but Andrew soon notices what appear to be chips planted in the ears of Jack and Chris. 

The next day arrives and the kids are ready to make their leave from the camp. The rest of the kids in the camp are also pissed about the shoe incident. Andrew, Tyler, Elizabeth, Meredith, Chris and Jack sneak for it, but hear a scream. Jack recognizes it as his mom, who they find in the quicksand pit. The kids are freaked out and Andrew heads to Mr. Farraday for help. But when he enters Farraday's office, all he finds is a note saying that he's sorry for what he's done to these kids and that he's left the camp. Before he can react, Alonso shows up with the guards who drag Andrew into the cave of no return. Turns out the others are in there as well. They're all freaked out, especially since Jack's mom ended up sucked in the pit. But before they can react, they realize they're not alone. Suddenly, the lights go up and...

TWIST ENDING

Andrew notices that he's not in a cave, but a studio being directed by R.B. Farraday. Yep, this whole thing was all an act directed by him. Jack and Chris were actors, as were all the counselors. Alonso was actually R.B's brother Ned. All of this was part of Farraday's new documentary, featuring candid footage of kids being actually frightened. I gotta believe that doing that without their legal consent is hella bad, but whatever. Andrew, Tyler, Meredith and Elizabeth are pretty angry about all this, and considering the situation, they're within their right to be. Later on, they spot Ned staring at them kinda menacingly.

Later that day, Andrew notices that Tyler is nowhere to be seen. Farraday offers to help search for him, when Meredith mentions that Elizabeth disappeared. They think to check at the spin and scream ride. When they stop the ride however, they only see clothing. Apparently the movie this is based on featured a scene where the ride spun so fast that it ripped the flesh from people's bodies, leaving their skeleton behind. Mr. Farraday and the others go to use the phone, but the line is cut. Farraday is in a panic. They hear voices coming from the cave of no return. Everyone goes down, including Mr. Farraday and the others. Farraday is freaked out by this whole situation. Suddenly he hears moans from behind him. Suddenly the lights go up and...

ACTUAL TWIST ENDING

Farraday sees the kids, who laugh at him, telling them that they got him back for what he did to them. The kids celebrate defeating the scariest man on earth when they hear loud buzzing. Farraday say that this place is called the cave of no return because it's filled with hornets. Then he just says psyche, that's fake too, then tells Andrew that he has another two weeks of this to go. It's true. Never meet your heroes. 

CONCLUSION

Fright Camp is okay. If anything, it reminds me of Ghost Camp, only the ramping up of the horror is much better handled. Andrew and Harry Altman of Ghost Camp are skeptics who at first believe all the incidents at the camp are part of the act, only for things to ramp up to a degree that destroys that skepticism. However this book executes the ramping fear a bit better, and doesn't give us a random giant monster. The big difference between those two books however is that Ghost Camp is supernatural, while Fright Camp is more grounded in reality. The threats are all part of the act. And I think that works fine, but the mystery kinda falls flat since you know that this is all fake. 

That this is all an elaborate hoax to scare the kids for real, since that's what Fright Camp is all about, to be a representation of the movies of R.B. Farraday. You're just ultimately waiting for the big reveal of the hoax instead of ever really buying that this is all for real. So, in a way, it's also like Camp Nightmare, only without the aliens twist. What we're left with is a book that does have some creepy set pieces, but no real bite to any of them. Although, a book later in the Series 2000 line, Scream School, does execute this all a bit better. So, in summation, a decent mystery book despite the outcome being pretty obvious from the start. Not the best camp book, but fine regardless. Fright Camp gets a B-.