Quick Thoughts on the New House of Shivers Cover and Fear Street: Prom Queen

It's been a bit since I've added anything new to the blog. Not by intention, just a lot of mental burnout when it comes to pumping out a book blog every now and then. New stuff is in the works, and I hope to once again be blogging on some books for the annual Summer event. But while that's all in the works, I figured I'd talk about a couple Stine-related things that were in the news this week and give my feelings on both. Since I talk so much about the works of Jovial Bob Stine, I figured hell with it. Let's talk about some Goosebumps and Fear Street news. 

I watched the recent trailer for the upcoming Fear Street movie, Prom Queen. I have yet to watch any of the Fear Street movies, mainly in that my interest has always been more the books than full on movies. I've heard good things, and the existence of the films were what peaked my interest in covering the books themselves. And, around the time that the Prom Queen movie was announced, I read the original book. And I found it to be okay at best, but very derivative of many of Stine's other Fear Street books, before and after. Watching the trailer for this upcoming film, it feels like a completely different story, which honestly is for the better. The general plot still feels similar in that the contenders for Prom Queen at Shadyside High get killed off one by one, but the general motivation so far feels far different. Mainly in that the motivations actually feel like they matter when it comes to, you know, wanting to be the prom queen. Hell, the movie actually seems to heavily feature the prom and have much of the horror happen within it. Which is more than the book does as we only get to the prom at the end of the book, after the reveal of the killer, whose motivations weren't even really about the prom itself, and their defeat. 

The biggest issue I've always had with Fear Street is that the stories often don't feel that unique. Even when there's a unique plot concept, like girls competing for prom queen, the story we get is still very generic from Stine. Hell, like I said in the review, much of what Prom Queen did would be done again with Secret Admirer. So I'm definitely more interested in seeing what this take on the story has to offer. Even setting it in 1988 feels fresher, even if the whole "horror story in the 80s" gimmick has worn itself thin. May 23rd will be the release date for Netflix and who knows, maybe I'll finally get around to watching the other Fear Street movies and giving my thoughts by then. Don't hold your breath on that, but it could happen.

The other piece of Stine news this week was the newest cover reveal for the sixth Goosebumps House of Shivers book, One Night at Camp Bigfoot. Now, normally I give my thoughts on a cover when I review the book. One of the key parts of my reviews as a whole. But it's going to be almost an entire year before I can talk about it, and given the controversy surrounding it, I'll give my thoughts on it. Because I don't totally hate this cover. It's the weakest of the series so far, for reasons I'll get to, but far from my least favorite GB cover. It's actually kind of cool to see a cryptid like Bigfoot being featured in a Stine horror story. Something we haven't really gotten since The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena. Think about that. 30 years since that book and Stine finally adds a cryptid. The problem is that something feels off about this cover and it's since been accused of possibly being the work of AI.

Now I'm not accusing Robert Ball upfront about this. He has shown in the past that he does draw these covers as we have seen concept art and alternate takes of his work. This was the case with the first three books so far. He has also responded on previous posts saying that he hasn't used AI for his work. So I find it hard to believe that he would suddenly pivot to AI out of nowhere. But the more I look at the cover, the more things seem off. The coloring of Bigfoot in particular has this weird sheen of reds, oranges and blues. If you've seen plenty of AI "art" (and unfortunately given how hard it's shoved in all of our faces, you definitely have) you'll definitely know that AI has a hard time blending colors well, especially reds and blues, which adds to the uncanny valley feel that much of AI gives off. There's also some other details that seem weird up close. Some of Bigfoot's fur feels weirdly smudgy and messy. Some fur even looking like a messy eraser job which AI can also be known to do. The cabin in the background looks odd too with just how some of the broken wood looks. Even the trees in the back feel warped and unfinished. Just very off.

I'm going to give Ball the benefit of the doubt and say that AI had no hand in the work and that his statements in the past of not using it remain true. But if it was then it sets a bad precedent on the future of Goosebumps covers as a whole in my opinion. We've strayed past the brilliant works of Jacobus or even the solid works of Brandon Dorman for rush job works that lack in the fun horror vibes that made those covers work. The House of Shivers covers have been more about sticking a creepy monster on the front and lacking much of the cool visual substance that makes those covers work. The monsters are still neat to look at but the work feels so lacking in the visual brilliance that made works like Ghost Beach, Werewolf of Fever Swamp or Say Cheese and Die work so well. Becoming less the trend setter of children's horror and just another book series with a neat cover monster and that's about it. But, again, I'm giving Robert Ball the benefit of the doubt here. I just think this is just a cover that failed to deliver and that's really it. When we get to the seventh cover for whatever that House of Shivers book is, if it's a similar issue then we'll talk about what's going on. But I felt getting my thoughts in now before then was needed. 

And that's that for my thoughts on stuff from this week. I doubt I'll make this a regular thing, especially since you don't really get much Stine stuff to be considered newsworthy, but who knows? If people like this I'll give my thoughts on other stuff that floats around online.