I didn’t see the first Goosebumps because–in hindsight–I don’t believe in horror for children.

By which I mean I grew up in the Seventies and distinctly remembering going to the theater with my brothers and some friends to see Arnold.

I haven’t seen it since but recall it revolving around a dead guy marrying a very live woman (!)–I assume for his money–and how everyone around them was dying by violent means.

I particularly recall a lady likely having her worse day ever due to acid placed in her face cream (why didn’t it burn her hands? That’s a question I’d certainly ask now but as a youngster? It didn’t even occur to me).

Though I also realize that if I were to see it today I’d likely consider it to be very, very tame.

As I left the theater in tears little did I realize that it would be my gateway drug into horror movies.

I also have quite fond memories of The Blood On Satan’s Claw

Would I have felt the same if either movie were geared toward the younger set? Maybe? Maybe not but it was the shock of what I saw that really got my synapses firing and turned barely a spark of interest into a life-long appreciation of a typically under appreciated genre.