by: S. Scott Stanikmas

The first film won’t hit theaters for another month and a half, but word is that Sony is already developing a sequel for the upcoming kid-friendly monster flick Goosebumps. Tracking Board has inside sources that say the studio is already putting out feelers for screenwriters.

The film has an awesome looking trailer and looks very lighthearted but also intense and scary at moments. The actors in the first film, including Jack Black as author R.L. Stine, have all signed sequel clauses in their original contracts (which isn’t unusual these days) so we can expect to see their familiar faces if the first movie does decent at the box office.

Loosely based on the series of books by R.L. Stine, Goosebumps purports that the stories Stine writes are real and to stop the written horrors from escaping into the real world he keeps them under lock and key. But through some bumbling the books become unlocked and the monsters that inhabit the literary universe are unleashed on our world. Now the race is on to recapture all the nightmare creatures before they do anything that can’t be undone.

I loved the Goosebumps books when I was a kid.  I had an almost complete collection of all the original books. I passed them along to a cousin of mine when she became old enough to read and she fell in love with the stories as well. We still have the books and I plan on passing them on to my nephews when they start to read. They have a timeless quality to them and don’t feel dated or old-fashioned.

Prepare to have your spine tingled when Goosebumps scares its way into theaters October 16.