User Reviews

The story so far in this show has been great. I can understand how hard it is to have several book adaptations turn into a cohesive story, so I don't mind Slappy/Kanduu being the main antagonist for the season since it drives the plot along.

However, this should have been two episodes, or at least an episode and a half, starting from the previous episode. Kanduu was defeated fairly easily and the buildup of the 1000 human sacrifices just seemed to happen and then suddenly stop being a problem extremely quickly. I get that they're just working inside of their time constraints, so I can't knock it too hard, but I just wish it would have been written a little differently.

This is also a little bit nitpicky, but the episode borderline had nothing to do with Horrorland aside from mentioning "the horrors," which we might see happen in season 2 as a continuation from the effects of Kanduu, but that's just speculation.

The cliffhanger was good, but also it's hard to believe that Isaiah was borderline dead and then flatlining without his parents being in the same room, they should have written that a little differently where Margot asks for a moment alone maybe.

They set the stage for a potential second season in the final moments, but I doubt we will get there. Overall I am glad we got this show and a new generation got to see some semblance of Goosebumps, but this is just too far off the rails. There is only so much they can do with a ventriloquist that just won't die and I don't think anyone wants to see that continue.

If they do another season we need something fresh and different.

The episode had some parts that made me smile, but overall the show just went off the rails and it is hard to call this a good idea. Needed a lot better structure across the board.

Major spoilers ahead. I have to talk spoilers to get across my frustrations with this finale. Readers Beware ;)

Ok so I am a fan of some of the more mature, just scary enough moments to freak kids out but not scar them, (I think we should be actually trying to scare, but not scar kids as isn't that the point of horror? I loved getting genuinely scared as a kid and this episode would do the trick.) there are stabbings, someone gets shot, there is imagery of the whole town getting burned (even though it turns out to be a fake out, it's still effective when it's happening.) so yeah, those parts were okay with me.

But the episode itself really ruined some aspects of the show. Goodness what did they do to Mr Bratt? Yeah they hinted in the last episode that he was going to side with Slappy to get his good ending to his book, but they took his stupidity too far and ended up making him pretty unlikable. When it is revealed to the kids that he is working with Kanduu/Slappy, I was thinking at that point, with the whole city being turned into half-doll-half-people servants that perhaps we would get another reveal that while Bratt may have agreed initially to help Kanduu, maybe he then was threatened or put in some sort of hostage situation or something that we hadn't yet been made aware of.

But nope. Mr Bratt just keeps on helping the super evil villain even as he is enslaving the whole town and turning them into dummy people. So at this point, Bratt totally sucks and as far I am concerned, a really terrible character which does not match up with the character we got to know throughout the season. We know him as pretty dumb most of the time, sure, but not selfish to that level. I mean it's kind of evil what he is doing, even before being told what's really going on. And then he's surprised when it's revealed that Kanduus plan is to kill all of them in a giant fire. Mind you, this is all after he saw the giant burning tower in a vision. Even his grandfather knew right when he had the same vision that something was terribly wrong, and he put a stop to it. And yes, again, Bratt is an idiot, so I guess we are supposed to believe he is THAT dumb. But even before that revelation, he was already way off the deep end.

The kids roast him a bit but then just kind of get over it when he calls himself and coward and says he's sorry. Oh okay then no worries. Our parents are about to be burned alive because of you but you're sorry so no hard feelings?? Dude what?? There is even a lame attempt at a joke when Isabella says she can't believe he would do this just to finish his book, and James says he totally can believe it. Well guess what? As an audience member, I can't believe it. So I see the whole thing with Bratt as a huge failure on the writers part.

That's definitely my main complaint. Other than that, the whole finale just feels super rushed especially in the last 10 minutes or so. Isaiah gets capped and basically dies but presumably gets revived by an incantation that I guess can just resurrect anyone, so let's just let go of any sense of real danger of anyone dying. That's great. Then it's revealed that Mr Bratt seems to be possessed once again, because you have to have a cliff hanger ending, even if it isn't set up at all. I guess a rushed cliffhanger is better than wrapping up story threads, like what happened with Lucas? Margot confesses her feelings to Isaiah's apparently unconscious and soon to be dead body, but she never talks to Lucas. Sure, they probably want to keep some story threads going for season 2, but good tv shows know that if there is a plot line that goes through one season, there should at least be some closure and if you are good writers, you will be able to continue it with new ideas in the next season. Same with movies. It is so lame when a movie doesn't wrap up a storyline just so they can keep it going in a sequel. Have the sequel run on its own storylines. Give us a satisfying conclusion to what you set up for THIS story.

So yeah. This show was never perfect and had plenty of flaws and inconsistencies but it somehow kept me entertained enough to keep watching every week. But this final episode really just tanked everything in my opinion. Seems like the writers could do a deal with Slappy to get a better ending.