8 Iconic Goosebumps Books in the New Goosebumps Movie Trailer

There are plenty of reasons to be dubious of book-to-movie adaptations, but not where Goosebumps is concerned. R.L. Stine’s classic, sprawling young-readers horror series couldn’t be contained by a simple Nickelodeon TV show; now, Jack Black will star in a metafiction-fueled romp through Stine’s warped mind as he and his teen co-stars attempt to stuff every Goosebumps monster back into its proper book. (And of course, their adventure has been adapted into a Goosebumps book of its own, now available for preorder.)
If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, go watch it, then come back. Wasn’t that crazy? We’ve got a lot of feelings about this, but the most burning questions of all are which books will be included in the film, and how the kids will deal with so many monsters, especially at once. They’ll need to take plenty of cues from the books to defeat the forces of evil, so we sat down with our collection to figure out how best to defeat each monster featured in the trailer. Heavy spoilers for assorted Goosebumps books follow—so if you don’t want any twists ruined for you, read on with caution.

The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena
The first monster we suspect we’ll meet in the Goosebumps movie is the Abominable Snowman, discovered by two twins while on a yeti-hunt with their weird dad in Alaska. The Snowman is an odd monster in the Goosebumps canon because he’s not really malevolent, nor is he actually defeated; in the end, he simply runs away into the Hollywood hills. But Jordan and Nicole were able to temporarily distract and control the creature by tempting it with trail mix. Could this be why our heroes decide to take a trip to the grocery store near the end of the trailer?

Let’s Get Invisible!
It’s tough to say exactly which “invisible boy” Jack Black is talking about in the trailer, but we’re guessing it’s Max Thompson, who discovers a magic mirror that can turn anyone invisible for a short time. There are all sorts of evil duplicates trapped in the looking glass, but since they’re easily incapacitated by smashing the mirror and running away, Max shouldn’t pose much of a problem.

A Shocker on Shock Street
They might have been robots in the book, but the Goosebumps movie’s giant praying mantises look like they might be the real deal! Marty and Erin’s trip through a crazy horror-themed amusement park was interrupted by all kinds of spooky creatures, from werewolf teenagers to grasping zombie hands, but the giant bugs are by far the most iconic monsters from this thriller. We’re betting that Erin’s ingenious plan to kick the mantises into submission isn’t going to pan out well in this case, though…

Stay Out of the Basement
Possibly the closest Goosebumps ever got to Stine’s teen horror series Fear Street, Stay Out of the Basement brought us the tragic genius Dr. Brewer, whose experiments with plant life cost him his humanity! Brewer’s kids solve the dilemma of “which plant clone is actually our real dad” by slicing up their pop with a hatchet, which seems like a solution that—while effective—won’t make the final cut of the movie. Brewer’s involvement in the monsters’ plot is unclear, but his powers seem much more impressive than they did in the book—by now, it seems he’s able to grow plants like Poison Ivy, making him an even more dangerous foe. Maybe don’t throw away those hatchets just yet, kids.

Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes
R.L. Stine told us a few months back that he always started his Goosebumps books by thinking of titles while strolling around his neighborhood in California, and nowhere is that more apparent than the absurdly-named Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes, in which the conflict comes just as much from a gardening feud as it as it does from supernatural mischief. These gnomes aren’t that dangerous one-on-one, but give them a knife and a couple friends, and these ornaments turn into ceramic serial killers. Good news, though: their secret weakness is whistles. Random, yes; convenient, also yes. Neeeeeeext.

The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
Again, it’s tough to say exactly which werewolf is represented in the trailer, but our money is on the most well-known title. Fever Swamp is widely acclaimed as one of the best Goosebumps books of the original series, with a creepy classic monster-movie narrative. So it’s no surprise the werewolf was selected for inclusion here, even if the trailer does sort of spoil its defeat: rather than being trounced by a massive dog, it appears this werewolf just can’t handle a bite from Ryan Lee’s silver filling-lined mouth. Punk.

Why I’m Afraid of Bees
This one is no joke! We doubt the movie will get into the bizarre body-swapping tomfoolery in Stine’s original book, but even without The Fly-esque shenanigans, seeing Dylan Minnette surrounded by a swarm of angry bees is pretty scary—doesn’t he know you can go into anaphylactic shock like that? Still, any “monster” that can be put to sleep with a can of smoke is probably not going to be the main antagonist. We bet that honor will go to the final entry on our list…

Night of the Living Dummy
Brrrrrrrr. There’s a reason this book spawned three sequels and a million tie-ins: Slappy is creepy as heck. A sentient doll with a macabre (and groan-worthy) sense of humor that gets you in trouble with your parents? Is there anything more terrifying when you’re in elementary school? If anyone’s going to organize all the Goosebumps monsters into a concentrated force for evil, it’s this tiny dapper demon. He’s the Jason Voorhees of R.L. Stine’s prodigious imagination, and we can’t wait to see how he’ll make his mark on this movie.
Of course, those aren’t the only references in the new Goosebumps trailer! Look closely and you can see cameos (in manuscript form) for later books like Beware of the Purple Peanut Butter, The Haunted Car, Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls, and Why I Quit Zombie School. How many books can they possibly (jelly) jam into this flick? And is it too early to start planning the sequel?
Which Goosebumps monsters are you looking forward to seeing in the upcoming movie? And did we leave any out? Let us know in the comments!