Only four episodes in, and I'm already
starting to form a list of things that make for a good Goosebumps
episode: a two-parter for good pacing, a director who can provide
atmosphere, human villains to minimize cheesy special effects, a
protagonist a few years older than the show's target demographic, and
a surreal environment that makes the final twist seem less stupid by
comparison.
If you can't tell, I'm listing off the
things I like in Welcome to Camp Nightmare.
This is another step up from the already good Girl who
Cried Monster, which
still had problems with cheesy make-up and pacing.
It still has a certain degree of hamminess to it, but moreso than
any previous episode there's a sense that the cheese is intentional.
All of these actors are having a blast, and the Summer Camp
environment invokes the sense of an '80s slasher made appropriate for
small children.
Our protagonist
this time is named Billy (Kaj-Erik Eriksen), a kid whose parents
frequently go off on expeditions every summer. Normally, he stays
with his Aunt and Uncle, but this summer they decided to send him off
to camp. I like how downplayed his reaction is. Billy comes across
as less hyperactive and emotional than our three previous
protagonists right from the start. He mentions that he prefers Camp
over his Aunt and Uncle, but doesn't seem especially thrilled to be
there either.
Most
of the other kids at the camp come across as more typical Goosebumps
protagonists, either easily freaked out, or snarky as hell.
Billy acting as straight-man for the group works well. We
get to spend the most time with the character least likely to grate
on our nerves. It also goes
perfectly with the eventual twist.
The episode
probably embodies the fear of childhood powerlessness better than any
other single episode. The majority of tension in the episode is
driven by one primary conflict: the adults at the camp seem oblivious
to danger. The episode starts with the kids being left in what
appears to be a random part of the woods by their bus driver, and
nearly attacked by a large canine creature. The camp director, Uncle
Al (Chris Benson) makes his appearance by scaring the creature off
with a flare-gun. He assures them that “Saber” will leave them
alone if they stay on the trail, not bothering to comment on why they
would build a Summer Camp at all in woods that had such a monster in
it.
Uncle Al is
contrasted with counselor Larry (Paul Brogren), a snarky and
disinterested jerk. Where Al comes across as friendly, Larry is
constantly rude and demeaning to his campers. To the episode's
benefit, neither of them come across as villainous from the start.
Al seems happy-go-lucky, but oblivious. Larry, on the other hand,
initially comes across as a guy who's just fed-up with stupid kids
who don't listen.
After arriving,
camper Mike (David Roemmele) is bitten by a snake. Billy and Mike
beg Larry for a doctor, but Larry tells them to just wash it off and
wrap it. I remember that as a kid this seemed horrible. Now,
looking at the scene, I see Larry as someone who knows there are no
poisonous snakes in the area, and thinks the kids are over-reacting.
Gradually, however,
it becomes clear that something is wrong. First Mike disappears, and
the counselors refuse to say where he went. Then Roger (Benjamin
Plener) is attacked by Saber offscreen, apparently killed. Finally,
Larry turns and runs away when he sees Jay and Collin (Jeffrey Akomah
and Ken Mundy) drowning. Eventually, Uncle Al begins refusing to
acknowledge that campers of those names even existed.
Finally,
Billy runs to hide in the “Forbidden Bunk,” where he encounters
Dawn (Sarah Mitchell), and escapee from the Girls' Camp across from
them, who tells him stories similar to his own. They also find that
all of their letters home have been stored in the bunk. The sequence
is right out of a nightmare.
When Billy goes out
to investigate further, he's captured by Larry, and finds Uncle Al in
fatigues, handing out crossbows loaded with alleged “tranquilizer
darts” to subdue Dawn. Apparently it's camp policy to rally all
the boys into a hunting party whenever anyone tries to run. The
scene seems surreal, but the use of human villains helps here. The
scene works as well as the actors selling it, and they sell it.
Billy, however, is
having none of this, shooting Uncle Al with the crossbow he assumes
to be lethal, determined that no one else can be allowed to die. And
then, the reveal: the crossbow dart was harmless, and Billy just
passed a test by the government. Everyone is alive, Saber was
mechanical, and his parents (Alec Bachlow and Michele Duquet) set the
whole thing up because they couldn't take Billy with them on a
long-term expedition unless he was able to show courage, and an
ability to act independently of authority. This ending works
because, unlike a lot of protagonists, Billy does show himself to be
a kid with exceptional control of his own emotions, much more so than
any previous main characters on this show.
...oh, and they're
all human-like aliens on another planet, and the expedition is to
Earth. And this planet is so close that Earth is clearly visible in
the sky, but Billy has never heard of it. Yes, the final twist is
kind of insane, but it doesn't really bother me. It doesn't
fundamentally change anything that came before it, and the actors are
good enough to get me to go with a fundamentally stupid idea. It's
silly, but it kind of makes me smile.
...how
exactly did the Night of the Living Dummy episodes
become the face of this franchise? I suppose there really isn't a
marketable villain for this episode. Still, so far as I've gotten
(granted it’s only four
stories), this is the most bang you're going to get for your buck by
a mile.
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