Series 2000 #08 Fright Camp
Front Tagline: Where the wild things are... out of control!
I gotta say, just when I think this series can offer no more surprises, along comes Fright Camp, a book so derivative of past books that it makes I am Your Evil Twin look wholly original. I can say with no exaggeration that if you've read (the books or the entries) for Welcome to Camp Nightmare and A Shocker on Shock Street, then you've read this book. Don't believe me? Take the quiz below and discover for yourself just how familiar Fright Camp is.
Brief Quiz
01 Protagonists Andrew and Tyler's parents start the summer right by telling their children
A They're adopted
B Their parents were adopted
C They're not invited to the family vacation
D Off, those lousy stinking kids
02 The book flirts with self-reference as Andrew's parents enroll him and his brother in a summer camp run by the "Scariest Man Alive,"
A FW Murnau
B FX Toole
C RB Farraday
D DB Sweeney
03 On the bus ride to the questionably named Fright Camp, the siblings get excited by
A The prospect of an Arts and Crafts Cabin From Hell
B The likelihood of a horror camp's bug juice being made from real bugs
C The bumps the driver hits in the road
D RL Stine's newest acquisition to his fleet of yachts, 'River Beware'
04 Once arriving at the camp, the children are
A Greeted warmly by the caring staff
B Immediately dissed in the staff's slam book
C Handcuffed to an electroshock generator
D Reminded that the first rule of Fright Camp is that they don't talk about Fright Camp
05 All of the bunks, cabins, and attractions at Fright Camp are named after
A US Vice Presidents
B Mr. Sketch scented markers
C Characters and locations from RB Farraday's films
D LiveJournal usernames
06 The campers are warned by the counselors against playing in the awkwardly worded
A Knife Pool
B Eight-lane-highway Trail
C Bottomless Quicksand Pit of Screams
D Scary Raccoon Trash Can Book Cover Fun Area
07 One jokester scares his fellow campmates by pretending his hand is caught in a
A Hunny pot, only to be mauled by an angry bear
B Cookie jar, spoiling the song for everyone by revealing who then
C Wasp nest
D Lie. Why, that's really his foot!
08 RB Farraday shocks the children by
A Clearly peeking during their game of Seven Up
B Using ironic racism
C Calling them prisoners
D Actually shocking the children, with electricity
09 RB Farraday has directed 35 horror movies and believes the best way to terrify an audience is to
A Show them how hot dogs are made
B Drop a loud book while they're taking a test
C Scare them using real terrors
D Allow Mickey Rourke's style consultant to dress them
10 In order to begin the horror for the children, Farraday's helper Alonso does what terrifying act?
A Brings out his Horror-Beginner Machine
B Shows their parents the campers' secretly whiteout-defaced Trapper Keepers
C Wheels in a caged gorilla
D Dons world's last hypercolor shirt, draws "Boo!" on chest with finger
11 Andrew notices cameras all over camp. He figures they're there
A In case Paris Hilton wants to have sex somewhere
B Because they are free-range camcorders in their natural habitat
C For surveillance on the campers
D Because RB Farraday set up Fright Camp in order to film a documentary on terror. Whoops, ***SPOILER ALERT***
12 Andrew goes swimming and is grabbed by an underwater zombie who looks just like a missing camper. This sounds familiar because
A What am I talking about, this is a fresh and novel turn of events
B Andrew was already warned about this happening in the brochure
C Oh cool, you've read the Curse of Camp Cold Lake too
D 'Dead person in the water' is a common halloween costume--
13 Yes, Fright Camp fulfills the unwritten requirement that every Series 2000 book must contain vomiting. What induces the act this time?
A A poorly-timed visit to the Swift Kick To The Midsection Cabin
B Bunk Three decides they can take on Ed "Cookie" Jarvis in the camp's hot dog eating contest
C An out of control amusement park ride, which for some reason is on the campgrounds
D Page 73, which features a pop-out finger to literally induce vomiting in the reader
14 What other regular Goosebumps fixture makes a cameo appearance?
A Cool Doctor Money
B Goo Punch
C Werewolves
D Kendall Gill
15 After things get more and more dangerous, RB Farraday hires
A A new ghostwriter for the book he appears in
B An efficiency expert, so he can streamline the danger
C Armed guards to prevent the children from escaping
D Illegal immigrants, in a confused attempt to frighten the campers with UFOs
16 The threat of being shot doesn't deter some campers from attempting to leave, so Farraday has the staff remove what?
A The hats of the children, who are then put on permanent Pledge of Allegiance notice
B The letter 'F' from the sign, in the hopes that the children will stop if they think the camp is correct
C The campers' shoes
D All of the children. What isn't there can't escape
17 While attempting to confront Farraday, Andrew discovers a note written by the director which reveals
A Farraday is going to marry Shelly the cook, live in a mansion, have three children, and drive a VW Bug
B Farraday is going to kill himself, and he bequeaths his collection of bottled sand art to Alonso
C Farraday can't handle the terror of the camp he created and has abandoned the campers
D Farraday dots his I's with evil hearts
18 One camper's mom comes to rescue her son but fails. How does she meet her sad fate?
A Is driven off the road to the camp by a Bang Bus, assassinated by the MILF Hunter
B Tries to drink gallon of milk straight from the jug in under five minutes
C Is sucked into quicksand pit
D Trips and falls in the parking lot, figures "Screw this," turns around and heads back home
19 Unbelievably, RL Stine thinks kids don't retain anything they read and the first of three (!) twists is revealed to be that
A The camp is throwing with its right hand
B The camp put on its sister's halloween mask
C The camp is really a project to gauge the response of children to stress and terror
D This is the one where the camp turns out to be a dog or something
20 Twist two finds Andrew and his upset friends tricking RB Farraday into thinking some of the campers really have gone missing into a dark, forbidden cave. The kids lead him into a dark cave and then reveal their revenge-fueled trickery, only to be told by the fearful director that
A Fred Flintstone said to stop bothering Wilma and he'd kick his ass if he ever came back into his cave again
B He picked the wrong day to wear his Adidas snap-pants
C The cave is forbidden because it is a giant wasp nest and once they slip inside, the walls are coated with wasps, preventing their escape
D This gives him a great idea for his next movie: The Director Who Murdered Four Jerk Kids In A Cave
But the Third Twist is:
Andrew notices a speaker emitting the sound of wasps buzzing and RB Farraday reminds him that Fright Camp doesn't end for another two weeks. PSHEW, that was almost a good ending, thank God we dodged that.
Selected Filmography For RB Farraday:
RL Stine reveals that Farraday has directed 35 horror movies. Here is every project mentioned by name in the book:
the Beast With Three Brains
Carnival of Disgusting Horrors
the Cavern of No Return
Conquerers of the Gorilla Planet
Crab Monsters vs. the Leech People
Go-carts From the Evil Kingdom
Kunga, the Animal Vampire
Night of the June Bugs
Nightmare House (TV series)
the Revenge of Dr. Cruel
Vacation of Endless Doom
Memorable Cliffhanger Chapter Ending:
Ch. 9/10
I didn't talk about it much, but the gorilla from Question Ten breaks loose and starts hugging the strapped-in Andrew. Pretty much any chapter unfortunate to break at that point in the story earned this one.
Great Prose Alert:
Another kid sent a balloon of yellow vomit into the air.
Conclusions:
How can there possibly still be two more books set at camp in this series
63 comments:
This book is actually WAY different from "Camp Nightmare" and "Shocker on Shock Street," Troy. In "Nightmare," the characters turned out to be aliens. In "Shocker," they turned out to be robots. In this one, they're obviously humans. I think this particular book was a bit out of your league. It's okay, though; you usually do a very good job with this series.
-Marty-
What.
Oh, I remember it now. Oh my, do I remember it now.
What's the other upcoming book set at camp in this series besides Return To Ghost Camp? I don't remember any of the others being set at camp, unless you're counting HorrorLand's Welcome To Camp Slither. (Even the title of that one is derivative...)
Seriously, I hate the camp books. I really hate them. Which is odd because I love camp movies (Wet Hot American Summer, Camp, But I'm a Cheerleader) and love going to camp itself.
Aw, the lame quiz entries are lame.
Where are the answers?
Go-karts from the Evil Kingdom?
Vacation of Endless Doom?
What kind of people see these movies? However, yeah, this book does seem a little too cliche.
>Crab Monsters vs. the Leech People
They're remaking more Roger Corman films?? Why!?!
I've never read this book, and I'm starting to think that's a good thing. I think your customary "What" is more than appropriate for your synopsis.
Are all of RB Farraday's projects derived from RL Stine projects? It seems like some of them are (the tv series "Nightmare House" being the most obvious example), but I can't place all of them.
I always skipped the ones which were about camps, on the basis that living in the UK I couldn't really relate to going off to camp. It seems I made the right decision.
Well obviously the other camp book is "Werewolf in the Living Room."
COOL DOCTOR MONEY!! The scariet part was that I remembered that reference to "My Brother and Me."
How would the "balloon of yellow vomit" into the air thing even work? Do these kids have gravity-defying puke? Hey, maybe that's the REAL twist--they're on a planet WITH NO GRAVITY.
Thanks for spicing up this derivative book with the quiz format; I don't know how many times someone can make a story about kids going to a Camp That Is Not What It Seems sound fresh and exciting.
Zak, every answer is "C"
Chad Walters, as Groggy has pointed out, Farraday is supposed to be a Roger Corman-type director (which I'm sure kids picked up on), but the name is obviously meant to recall Stine himself. And the physical description of the director actually fits Wes Craven
Wait... No one tried to call home, only to discover that the phone wasn't real/working? That truly IS original.
"I think this particular book was a but out of your league. It's okay, though; you usually do a very good job with this series".
Dude...WTF are you talking about?
As a regular reader, I'm almost going to take offense to that, on Troy's behalf.
You should be banned from ever reading or commenting on the blog. In fact, you should be banned from the internet altogether. On the basis that you require a sense of humor to participate.
Okay, the characters aren't robots or aliens.
But...scary things happening at a summer camp? Random film director guy in charge of the whole deal?
Get a brain, dude.
-Marty Sucks-
Werewolf in the living isnt a camp book
Well, I got that that's what he was supposed to be, but I was just wondering that with things like "Nightmare House" (like The Nightmare Room) and "Vacation of Endless Doom" (which could be just about any of the books really) and "Carnival of Disgusting Horrors" (which is like One Day at Horrorland or Escape from the Carnival of Horrors) that maybe the other ones could be stand-ins for the works of RL Stine as well.
I guess that depends on your definition of "camp," Thomas Again
Camp books ae books like Welcome to camp nightmare,ghost camp,jellyjam,cold lake,this one,and return to ghost camp,even the nightmare room has a camp,GYG Escape from camp RunForYourLife
and the upcoming Welcome to camp slither
lol @ patrick. I am pretty sure that was a joke, dude. Chill out.
That may be one of the worst taglines I've ever seen.
Hi Thomas!
"Get a brain, dude."
An ironic way to end one of the dumbest posts I've ever read. Please look up "sarcasm" in a dictionary.
As a regular poster on the comments portion of this blog, I take offense on behalf of blogger.com and hereby demand you be banned from ever commenting again... no.... banning is not enough... SHUNNED! I shun thee from the village! Away foul naive!
BTW - In case you hadn't picked up on it, I too am being sarcastic. C WOT I DID THAR?
In the future, think before you post. Or we'll send you to a summer camp that turns out to be a dog or something.
Come on Patrick, no need to be a kiss-ass, I mean "taking offense on Troy's behalf"... is that how you'll react whenever you see a negative comment? I doubt Troy himself cares. It's an open blog, open for comments, negative criticism may be rare, but it happens. Nothing can officially prevent that. Most of the comments usually consist of praising but I'll be honest I was a bit surprised. But even though I don't necessarily agree with the guy, because of people like you I gotta at least give him credit for having the balls to post that, even though he went on anonymous which I bet he's now glad he did.
On a side note I'm looking forward to "Are You Terrified Yet". I'm psyched to see that book Troy-ified, it's gonna be really interesting since it's the only Goosebumps book that... nah, I won't say it, I'll see if Troy notices (which he probably will) and if not, I'll mention it. But it's not something lame like "the only one with a prologue/epilogue" or two parter or anything like that. More has to do with a factor that Troy would no doubt observe.
Incidentally, is that supposed to be a raccoon on the cover, or something else? Because it looks like an evil raccoon to me.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
Those movies still sound better than Red Zone Cuba.
A reference to the game MASH. That's why I dig this blog, it references all this stuff from childhood that I had long since forgotten.
Woah, hey, Troy, congrats on your blog being popular enough for a bit of random fanwank. Good times.
R. Faraday? Could this be Stephen King's Dark Man?
"Incidentally, is that supposed to be a raccoon on the cover, or something else?"
Yeah... But was it even in the story?
"On a side note I'm looking forward to 'Are You Terrified Yet'. I'm psyched to see that book Troy-ified, it's gonna be really interesting since it's the only Goosebumps book that... nah, I won't say it, I'll see if Troy notices (which he probably will) and if not, I'll mention it. But it's not something lame like 'the only one with a prologue/epilogue' or two parter or anything like that. More has to do with a factor that Troy would no doubt observe."
Okay, let's make it a guessing game. Does it turn out that there are no end-of-chapter cliffhangers?
True story: My parents sent me to a camp when I was a kid once. And when the bus dropped me off, it turned out that the camp was actually a dog. It was fun trying to survive in the forest, though.
>Those movies still sound better than Red Zone Cuba.
Or The Trial of Billy Jack.
OK, someone already mentioned it, but the "My Brother and Me" references were staggering. Do you think they decided to set the show in North Carolina only after they slated Kendall Gill for an episode? Maybe I'm wrong and everything about the show was very purposely planned, including Dee Dee's latent homosexuality, a laugh-track from hell, and Harry's embarrassing whiteness.
There is indeed a raccoon in the story. Allow me to recap the scene from the book that inspired the cover:
Hey look, there's a raccoon in the trash can. Well, let's keep walking.
Hey look, there's a raccoon in the trash can. Well, let's keep walking.
Well, in fairness, in a book like this it going to be hard to find highlights to imortalise on the front cover
I haven't read the review yet, but I can honestly say I have never, ever seen this book before. And I own number 25 "Ghost in the Mirror".
I always thought that I was the only one who remembered My Brother and Me. I'm glad I'm not alone.
Kind of off-topic, but I just read "Scream of the Haunted Mask" tonight. It was the best of the Goosebumps Horrorland Books so far (which is saying nothing), but I'll point out in the interest of inducing a "What." that the book seems not to remember that The Haunted Mask II exists.
Creep From The Deep ignores Deep Trouble II, I'm pretty sure, and Revenge Of The Living Dummy ignores Slappy's death in Bride. I guess Stine's retconning the original sequels because even he knows he can do better. I also thought Scream was alright, but indeed, compared to what came before it (and what's likely to come after), that isn't saying much at all.
While I'm on the subject, the new Mummy and Say Cheese books apparently have all-new characters rather than bringing back previous ones. This is probably for the best.
Ryan Fernau: Nope, that's not it. But like I said I'd kinda feel bad if I stated what it was, because it could ruin the fun of the blog entry.
True, although Slappy has quite frequently come back from the dead, so it's not really a shocker in that case. I didn't like Slappy's latest adventure simply because it was 100% derivative of the other books, without a single remotely original twist.
To Groggy Dundee: Indeed.
Then again, I'm not that fond of Slappy anyway. He's a real jerk, and I hope he gets killed off for good by the time the series is over.
Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.
I guess Revenge is really a book for new readers, despite the title - like all of HorrorLand, really, or there'd be no need for the classic reprints. And to be fair, it has been nearly ten years since even Goosebumps 2000. And yet on the other hand, HorrorLand is pretty much an entire series of sequels. As for Slappy, I'm worried that the big twist might be that he's behind everything, which would be incredibly boring... but only EnterHorrorLand.com looks like it might really go this way. The series proper has the mirror subplot.
My Brother and Me references.
I love you.
-Brian
I know it's only been Tuesday for two hours, but just in case Troy's still checking his comments, I thought I would ask... how's the next book coming along? Because I've been pretty psyched for it (obviously) since you started on the 2000s.
In my time zone I usually have to wait 'til Wednesdays for the updates. Now. I'm certainly curious about this next one, as I'm sure I've read it but can't remember a thing about it. And there are some great ones coming up in the next few weeks, too.
I can't wait for Brain Juice, personally. The last five should inspire some fun articles too.
New UPDATE Every ONE MINUTE BEFORE WEDNESDAY
is more like it.
These are the ones I'm looking forward to most:
Are You Terrified Yet (Would be interesting blogged)
Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls (forget how it ends)
Brain Juice(Want to see blogged/fun read)
Return to Horrorland (Would be interesting blogged)
Scream School (Forgot the end)
The Mummy Walks (Loved this book)
The Werewolf in the Living Room (Loved this book/forgot the end)
Horrors of the Black Ring (Forgot the end
Be Afraid Be Very Afraid (Loved the book, should also be interesting blogged)
The Haunted Car (Forgot the end)
Slappy's Nightmare (Would be REALLY interesting blogged)
Earth Geeks Must Go (This book was hilarious and I wanna see it blogged)
Also, speaking of the ones I said I forgot the end to. Well, I used to know the last sentence and the end of every Goosebumps and Goosebumps 2000 by heart (don't ask why haha) and I was just going through them and seeing which ones I still forget. So, if anyone has any of the books I said I forgot the end of, can you please email me at zak6009@gmail.com and tell me?
I could always wait for Troy, but I'm looking specifically for the last sentences. All help would be appreciated. They are:
Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls
Scream School
The Werewolf in the Living Room
Horrors of the Black Ring
The Haunted Car
Thanks in advance.
Of that list, I have Graveyard Ghouls (which I haven't read in years, and have no clue if I even still have it), Brain Juice (have read it in the last year or so, it's not too bad), Horrors of the Black Ring (one of the best Series 2000 books), Slappy's Nightmare (meh), and Earth Geeks Must Go (thought it was awful).
Ok, email me about the Graveyard Ghouls and Black Ring?
Remember, ending itself, but most specifically last line.
there's been so many camp books that other then jelly jam I cant remember which book has which plot.
hi! my name is haley and i want 2 know something. has anyone read a goosebumps book that contained a girl as the main character, and she was supposed to get a pink invitation in her locker, but there's nothing. i dunno how this happened, but she got a black invite and she read it, flipped it over, and there was nothing. when she flips it again, it says "BE THERE OR BEWARE" is it even a goosebumps book? thnx.
Pretty sure Bruce Campbell was in all of those movies.
Fight Club reference for the win.
A balloon of yellow vomit? WTF dude, that is so effin NASTY. I have never seen vomit described in that regards before. Holy shit. It's more disgusting than if it were described as a money shot. Sick, sick, sick.
Haley, I seem to recall a Fear Street with that plot.
"One camper's mom comes to rescue her son but fails. How does she meet her sad fate?
A Is driven off the road to the camp by a Bang Bus, assassinated by the MILF Hunter"
hahahahahahahaha amazing.
Oh no,If they take away the hats,Hat (you cant scare me!) will turn out to be a dog or something.
It Is A Really Bad Book.I Had Thrown It Across The Room After Reading It.
R.B. Farraday????
More like U.R. Correct if you think that this book sucks.
Love the blog! Keep up the good work, though you can be a little TOO critical at times, remember, these are children's books. After all, most of them aren't that bad, if you open the book with the right attitude......
Yeah, definitely a mix of Shock Street and Camp Nightmare. Also it sucks.
Troy, if you're having trouble writing new entries, just write them in this quiz format; they're goddamn hilarious.
Marry Shelly the cook... nice one
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