"Werewolf Skin" is the thirteenth and fourteenth episodes of season three of the Goosebumps TV series, and the fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth episodes overall. Part One and Part Two premiered on November 22, 1997, on Fox during the Fox Kids block.
Cast[]
- Keegan MacIntosh as Alex Blackwell
- Nicky Guadagni as Marta Blackwell
- Ron Lea as Colin Blackwell
- James Mainprize as Mr. Shein
- Terra Vnesa as Hannah Stoneman (as Terra Vanessa Kowalyk)
- Bucky Hill as Sean Kiner
- Bradley Machry as Arjun Koshla
- Maria Vacratsis as Big Edna
- Daniel McGraw as Classmate
Differences from the book[]
- Alex's last name is Blackwell, instead of Hunter
- The episode does not take place around Halloween.
- In the book, the wolf skins are described as looking like capes of dark fur. In the episode, the skins are full-body werewolf costumes.
- Alex and Hannah do not wear the wolf skins as an attempt to make sure Uncle Colin and Aunt Marta don't get them to transform. Instead, Alex buries the wolf skins, and when the full moon is at its' peak, the skins blow up, curing Uncle Colin and Aunt Marta from the curse.
- Alex's fate is slightly more ambiguous. As the episode ends, just after he learns the truth about Hannah, she enters the room. Alex looks at her concerned, unsure of what she is about to do. She simply says she doesn't bite. In the book, Hannah told him that she brought the skin she wore from home then attacked him.
- In the book, Colin and Marta pick Alex up from the bus station soon after he arrives. In the episode, he has to wait all night for them to show up. He also arrives at night instead of during the day, and Colin is the only one to pick him up.
- Sean and Arjun's races are switched. In the book, Arjun was Indian while Sean was presumably Caucasian, and in the episode, it is the other way around.
- When Alex's windows are locked at night and Alex sees a creature come of the Marlings house, the werewolf then approaches the window. In the book, the creature went elsewhere.
- In the episode, Hannah appears to be more concerned about werewolves because she claims to have a brother who was bitten by one.
- In the book, Sean and Arjun tell Alex to meet them at night but it turns out they were pulling a prank and didn't show up. In the episode, they do show up and get mad at Alex.
Home media[]
"Werewolf Skin" was released on VHS on September 15, 1998. It has yet to be released on DVD in the NTSC region.
Title | Release date | Media type |
---|---|---|
Werewolf Skin |
September 15, 1998 | VHS |
Trivia[]
- The photography magazine Alexander reads at the beginning of the episode includes pictures of one of the masks from "The Haunted Mask" along with a Creep from "Calling All Creeps".
- Alex makes a reference to the TV show The X-Files. Coincidentally, actor Keegan MacIntosh had a brief role in the X-Files episode "Fire."
- Alex makes a reference to Beavis and Butthead by calling Sean and Arjun them.
- Maria Vacratsis also played Janet in season four's "Deep Trouble".
- This episode, "The Haunted Mask", and "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom" are the only episodes not to be released on NTSC DVD.
- The werewolf costumes Sean and Arjun wear to scare Alex as he buries the wolf skins are the same ones (or at least nearly identical to) that Tabitha and Lee wore in "Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns" to scare Drew, Walker, Shane, and Shana.
- Big Edna tells Alex a story about a headless ghost. This is a possible reference to "The Headless Ghost".
- Dan Angel and Billy Brown wrote the initial script for the episode, but the network rejected it. This led to them leaving the show and Ron Oliver was brought in to re-write it. However, Billy and Dan remain the credited writers. [1]
- According to Ron Oliver in [The Goosebumps TV Companion], the script was rejected because it was seen as "unfilmable" due to having many locations and stunts, as well as having dark elements such as a werewolf biting a deer. [2]
- Ron's first cut of the episode was trimmed down by the network, omitting some darker scenes. [3]
- According to Ron Oliver, the scene where Alex watches Colin and Marta put on their skins was considered "a bit too much" by the executives. [4]
- When the episode started production, the book wasn't finished yet and "just an idea".
- Alex eats chocolate bars with wrappers depicting a girl with a red hood, and at breakfast a bottle of syrup says Three Little Pigs. Both Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs featured a wolf as an antagonist, thus these references continue the wolf theme of this story.
- In the beginning when Alex is dropped off, the bus has the word "Transtario" on it, which is the name of a travel angecy in Ontario, Canada.