NNtG: Shivers #28: Watch 'Em Kill

Been a little bit since I covered anything in the weird world of Shivers. And with a title like the one we have in store this week, it should be interesting to see what's in store. Let's get growing with Watch 'Em Kill.

COVER STORY

I like this cover. Granted, the monster design is a bit too "gremlins knockoff" for my take, it's still effective. I do like how it's tearing out of the packaging, but the shot itself doesn't feel as dynamic as it should be. I'd imagine someone like Tim Jacobus would take a far better approach. Regardless, it's still a solid piece.

STORY

Phillip Henderson is our narrator and he gives us his whole life story in our first chapter. How he's just okay at sports, unlike Ronny, a more athletic kid in his neighborhood. Phillip is a big fan of books and he's actually written this book, so this feels less like a Shivers and someone's NaNoWriMo. He tells us he has a friend of sorts named Steven, but they don't hang around enough. He's also into horror and collecting. Particularly these toys called "Watch 'Em Grow", little capsules that grow into toy monsters when you put them in water. Also with how they're described, they kind of remind me of Monster in my Pocket, though they didn't have the whole water gimmick.

After our first chapter, we actually get the story moving a little as Phillip sees Ronny and his older brother Louie, and his younger brother, the yes he's named that because he's fat Tubs. While Ronny tries to be at least cordial, Louie and Tubs insult Phillip. Phillip soon leaves to the Halloween discount store and buys a different brand of grow toys called Watch 'Em Sprout, featuring creatures on the package that resemble the Universal monsters. Each packet contains twenty-four monsters, so Phillip buys four packages with his allowance.

Phillip heads home on his bike when he hits a bump, causing him to spill a few of the tablets. He then suddenly sees strange red smoke. More worrisome, he also hears gunshot sounds. He freaks out, as you'd expect, but he quickly notices that there's no sign of any shooting. Maybe it was the Watch 'Em Sprouts falling out of his bag or something, but that doesn't seem to be the case right now. So, he goes back to thinking that someone tried to literally shoot him in the woods. He goes home and tells his parents about the possible shooting, but they don't believe him because Goosebumps Pa... wait, they actually believe him, and they call the police to report a possible shooter on the loose? Has the planet gone mad? Phillip soon gets a boost of popularity over possibly being killed with even Tubs and Louie giving him props, saying they're jealous that no one's trying to murder them. And yes, this is a book from 1997.

The police return later and tell Phillip and his family that they found something at the site where Phillip claimed the shooting took place. Four sets of giant footprints, almost non-human in shape. Despite the concern of, you know, that, Phillip's parents head out that night and leave their son home alone. After a fake out scare where Phillip thinks he sees a mummy's face in the window, only to realize it's his own pale reflection, a bolt of lightning strikes, causing a power outage in the street. Phillip calls his friend Steven, hoping maybe he'll show up so they can protect one another, but Steven has to stay home with his little sister. 

Not long after the call, a loud rattling can be heard at the door. Phillip grabs a baseball bat and waits, but the rattling stops. He goes outside and sees what looks like violin-sized footprints. He sees someone coming and is about to give his noggin a floggin', only for it to be Ronny who confesses to everything. All the goings on tonight with the rattling and whatnot were Louie and Tubs' idea to scare Phillip. But when Phillip brings up the footprints, Ronny is confused about that one. They go to find Ronny's brothers, but they've disappeared. Phillip sees the bag he carried the Watch 'Em Sprout tablets in and begins to piece things together. The gunshot noises, the red smoke. What if some of the tablets got wet? 

Phillip takes Ronny to his house and checks his supply. He has nineteen left in one of the four packages. He tells Ronny that it's possible that the Watch 'Em Grow tablets could have grown into real monsters and attacked Ronny's brothers. Ronny calls BS on that, until he calls his mother and learns that Tubs is missing and that Louie mentioned that some kind of wolfman took him. Ronny heads home while Phillip heads back into his room to check on the other tablets. He checks his room to see that he has ninety one tablets in his room. He accidentally causes one of them to fall out of his window and into the rain, where it immediately grows into a mummy. And what's worse, the convenient lightning storm now conveniently kills the phones. 

With no one to contact, Phillip now has to defend himself against this mummy, who eventually breaks into his home. Phillip uses a poker to defend himself, but the mummy easily gets rid of it. Before the mummy can attack however, Steven shows up and cracks its head with a baseball bat. With his parents home to watch over his sister, he ran to his friend's help. After explaining to Steven, the kids have to get out of here should the mummy wake up. Phillip also realizes that he can't leave the tablets behind because if they get wet, things are going to be much worse. If there's already six monsters on the loose, a possible ninety plus would be hell. Conveniently in this convenient story of convenience, the storm has passed so the kids head to Steven's, only to be confronted by the wolfman who still has Tubs. They make a run for it, but suddenly Phillip trips, causing the open pack of tablets to spill out into the wet street. 

Eighteen more monsters now begin to spring to life, while the kids are also dealing with a werewolf. More pellets turn to monsters, Draculas, mummies, Frankenstein's monsters, creatures from the Black Lagoon, more werewolves. As Phillip and Steven try to make a run for it again, they see that the monsters have found the other three packages and open them, getting them wet, meaning that's another seventy-two monsters to deal with. But then... they just disappear. We cut to later as Phillip is telling his parents and the cops about the monsters. And NOW they don't believe him because Shivers Parents. In fact, the father is so convinced Phillip is lying that he wants the cops to lock him up and force a real confession. Yikes. Phillip tries to show them the mummy they maimed, but that too has disappeared.

Some time passes and soon, Phillip's parents apologize to him, because it turns out that maybe he wasn't lying. A friend of Phillip's from further down town, Ray and his family, were attacked by a creature resembling Frankenstein's monster, with Ray's father specifically describing the attacker as such. The town is now on alert over the monster attacks. Phillip's family has the house boarded up, with Phillip's dad, Triple H, carrying a sledgehammer for defense. Frankenstein's monster manages to break free and attacks Phillip's parents who guard it off and tell Phillip to run. He heads to Steven's as Ronny, Louie and Tubs are there as well. Their parents have also gone missing, likely attacked and killed by the monsters. Phillip then comes up with a plan. He takes some of the Watch 'Em Grow tablets and gets them wet. Since they're regular toys, they don't turn into real monsters. He then sets them on fire. He figures that maybe the Watch 'Em Sprout monsters are also plastic toys that are easily flammable. And, yet again, so conveniently, Steven's parents just so happen to own a blowtorch.

Later that night, a Dracula enters Steven's house. After some struggling, they manage to get the blowtorch working and sure enough, it makes the monster melt. They reunite with their parents and eventually get the cops and others to believe them on the fire strategy. Sure enough, everyone lights whatever they can on fire and destroy the remaining monsters. We do get an explanation as to what the hell happened here. A scientist was experimenting with the Watch 'Em Sprout tablets to make monsters that he could grow and take on a travelling show. But, once again, conveniently, he had made a batch of four packages that conveniently were accidentally shipped and, might I say it again, conveniently ended up in the Halloween shop that Phillip bought them in. 

Phillip is celebrated as a hero, even meeting Bill Clinton. He's now the most popular kid around, and is easily invited to any sport, but he'd just rather hang around with Steven and other like-minded smart kids that also play ball, I guess. A Shivers book with a super happy ending. No actual death? Now that's a twist.

CONCLUSION

Yeah, I liked this one. Definitely the most Goosebumps feeling Shivers book I've covered. Though the cover and even the back description lie completely. No one gets killed, the monsters aren't gremlin-like, and don't partake in wacky feet on the table and watching TV antics. Again, the monsters being like the Universal monsters make me think of two things, the aforementioned Monster in my Pocket, and the movie The Monster Squad. Unfortunately we never learned if the wolfman's got nards. Phillip is an okay protagonist, definitely fills the mold of generic protagonist. 

But, and I'm unsure if this was ghostwriter Robert Spencer Knotts' intent or not, given just how he presents himself around Steven, and how he often talks about Steven, in both a sense of devotion and how they are equal to one another in their interests and abilities, I'm just gonna say it. I think Phillip is gay. Steven as well. Of course, about as gay as a 1997 kids book will allow, but I definitely could feel that from these characters. Honestly their friendship feels more genuine and loving than really any friendship I've covered in these books. Also, Steven heading to Phillip's house and Bashing a mummy's brains out to save his life, that's true love right there. Also Ronny, Louie and Tubs are here, semi-antagonists, but also not really. They're fine. Also, aside from the mothers and the mention of a little sister, no female characters at all in this book. Huh.

The book flows really well too. The story doesn't take long to get going, there are some solid moments of action and even some decent tension. A few fake-out scares, but not on a later Stine level. The only real issue is that the story has to flow on a ton of conveniences to move forward. We need a convenient storm, a convenient pair of lightning strikes, convenient situations and explanations to keep us going to the end. But when it produces a rather fun book, I can't fully complain. This one is a definite recommend. It's not perfect, but it'll grow on you. Watch 'Em Kill gets an A-.