35 deep into Goosebumps now and we stop at a very familiar street. One that when last I traveled, I ended up really liking. Will I be on easy street, or is this road in need of some serious construction work? Let's find out with A Shocker on Shock Street.
A SHOCKER ON SHOCK STREET
RELEASE MONTH: September 1995
FRONT TAGLINE: It's a real dead end.
COVER STORY
Another of my all time favorite covers. Mostly on account of the use of color. The bright orange sky with cloudy purple coming in as the sun sets. The quaintness of Shock Street making things look like any average street. And then there's the giant robot mantis who does look menacing. It's another of Tim's best works. Going very much for a tribute to the B-Movie horror works of the 1950s and 1960s. Definitely feels like something that would grace the cover of a Bert I. Gordon film. Not one that scared me, but has always stuck with me.
TALK ABOUT SHOCK TREATMENT!
Erin Wright and her best friend, Marty, love horror movies.
Especially Shocker on Shock Street movies. All kinds of scary creatures live on Shock Street. The Toadinator. Ape Face. The Mad Mangler.
But when Erin and Marty visit the new Shocker Studio Theme Park, they get the scare of their lives.
First their tram gets stuck in The Cave of the Living Creeps.
Then they're attacked by a group of enormous praying mantises!
Real life is a whole lot scarier than the movies. But Shock Street isn't really real. Is it?
STORY
Our protagonists are Erin Wright and her friend Marty. They're massive fans of Fear Stree- I mean SHOCK Street. A series of horror films featuring a whole slew of monsters. In this case, the kids are watching the latest Shock Street film featuring a monster called Wolf Crab. Suddenly, the real Wolf Crab attacks them! No, wait. That's just a guy in costume. Turns out that Erin and Marty were watching the premiere of Shock Street IV. The reason has to do with Erin's dad, Mr. Wright. He's a theme park designer as well as a master of robotics. He shows the kids his new tramcar model for his latest work, a tramcar ride for Shocker studios, the studio behind the Shock Street films. He also tells Erin and Marty that they will be the first two kids to ride it as they'll also be testers. Erin and Marty are excited, especially Erin who hopes their mother can come too. This confuses her dad.
They arrive at the studio and see the tramcar ride. A woman named Linda arrives and gives the kids a pair of lasers. Suddenly, one of the lasers hits Linda and suddenly freezes up. Then she tells the kids that the lasers are mostly for show. Erin and Marty enter the tram as Mr. Wright tells them that they are to report back to him on how everything went and if it was scary enough for them. And then the two are off. The first stop is a haunted house that's totally dark inside. Erin thinks that Marty's disappeared, but he was just screwing with her. After the haunted house, they end up in the woods, surrounded by monsters. But thankfully for them, these monsters are just actors playing Shock Street characters The Toadinator, Ape Face and the Toxic Wild Man. The kids get some autographs and are on their way yet again.
The tramcar then enters the Cave of the Living Creeps. There's bats and worms that scare the kids, but they think that this all has to be part of the act. Then spiders drop on them, but these spiders seem a bit too real, leaving Erin and Marty wondering why they'd have real spiders on an attraction like this. The tram gets stuck. And after another "Oh no, Marty's gone! No wait, he's just joking" chapter stinger, the kids now have to deal with gigantic robot mantises, like the one on the cover. Erin is concerned, but Marty thinks they must just be part of the attraction to scare them. The tram fake breaks so the tourists get scared by the mantises and return to the tram which moves. Simple, huh? But that doesn't appear to be the case as more mantises show up. But it turns out to defeat robot mantises, you just step on their feet, which is enough to wound them and allow Erin and Marty to leave. Well that was anticlimactic. Oh wait, Marty pretends he's being eaten by one to scare Erin. Another classic Jape by Marty.
The tram finally ends up on the Shock Street movie set, which looks so much like the movies. And despite being told not to go off the tram, Erin and Marty are so enamored they decide to take a look around. They head to the cemetery to look around, when suddenly arms rise up from the ground and try to pull the kids down. They get their shoes off and make a run for it as Zombies chase them. Erin and Marty make it to the tram, but it's disappeared. They jump over a wall, only to end up in a mud pit. They're about to sink down, but get saved by two more Shock Street monsters, Wolf Boy and Wolf Girl. The kids think these two must be more actors, but the wolf kids begin to attack them. As they tear into the kids, Erin thinks to use the lasers they got earlier, but nothing happens. They really were just for show.
Before they're killed, the kids see another tram moving by them, so they leap inside, only to see the tram filled with laughing skeletons that's about to crash into a castle wall. The kids jump out in the nick of time. Worn down and frightened, confused about why the park is so realistic and dangerous, they end up back on Shock Street. They see a director named Mr. Denver and ask for a way out of the set. He tells them to go through Shockro's House of Shocks. Marty runs to the house, but Erin notices that Mr. Denver has a giant wire in his back. It's a trick! But before Erin can warn Marty, but Marty runs inside, causing him to be electrocuted.
TWIST ENDING
Erin goes to check on Marty when Mr. Wright shows up. Erin is in a panic, thinking he's the one who put them in danger. That he did something to her mother. Suddenly, Erin's voice begins to slur, then she shuts down completely. Mr. Wright and an assistant then look at the Erin and Marty robots. He says they were only made to test the ride, but something must have happened to their AI. He figured as such when the Erin robot mentioned a mother. He picks up the two robot kids to repair them.
CONCLUSION
Maybe I'm in the minority for this one, at least I feel like that lately, but I really like A Shocker on Shock Street. And still do after this reread. Yes, it's a ride book. Literally in this case since it involves a tramcar ride. This means we have to jump from set piece to set piece without too much time to absorb what we got. And thus we never really get to absorb a lot of the book. And that's the biggest issue. There's also this feeling like we never really get the feel for what Shock Street really is. It feels more like Stine reaching into the grab bag to put out whatever he thought would work for a scary scenario. Giant mantises? Sure. Zombies? Okay. Wolf kids? I don't see why not? And thus, Shock Street never feels like it has an identity to itself.
But, I still like what we get as we get a lot of action and horror that most books really don't get as Erin and Marty have to fight for their own survival as this ride has gone wrong. Which leads the bigger question as to what is actually going on here? Why was the ride so dangerous and realistic? Why were there zombies? Why did Wolf Boy and Wolf Girl really attack the kids? Why was there a tram of skeletons crashing into a castle wall? I get that it was a ride test for two robots, but the ride seems a bit too over the top for its own good.
As for the rest of the book, the protagonists are fine, though Marty's joker mentality wears thin. And then there's the twist ending. It's one of the strongest twists in a long time as the robot twist is both freaky enough and feels like it makes sense. Of course they're robots. They wouldn't be able to put human kids in this level of danger. And the book doesn't just left field it either. Early on Mr. Wright tells Marty not to blow a fuse. And more importantly is his confusion over Erin mentioning a mother. I'm guessing the AI of the robots got so good, and Mr. Wright deciding to treat Erin in particular like his daughter caused the AI to create a memory of having a mother.
In the end, I still like this one. It's massively flawed and feels like Stine's most random book in a while, but I don't think it's anywhere as bad as it could have been using that concept. With some solid scares and a great twist, it's no shocker that I ended up enjoying this.
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