One Of R.L. Stine's Scariest Adaptations Just Hit Free Streaming, And Fans Are Shook

It’s spooky season, and while most of the best streaming services are rolling out the classics, the greatest horror movies, best slashers, and haunted-house staples, a free streaming service just dropped something that could be your next Halloween staple. It's a haunting book-to-screen adaptation of an R.L. Stine short story, and fans are freaking out because it is proving that you don’t need gore or jump scares to seriously mess with your head.

Which R.L. Stine Story Got The Adaption Treatment?

The free streaming platform Tubi just dropped a new original adaptation of R.L. Stine’s short story “Pumpkinhead.” In case you’re unfamiliar with it, it's one of the short stories in his young readers’ horror collection, Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror. Though the movie is technically aimed at younger audiences, early reactions suggest this one hits far deeper and darker than anyone expected.

The story of “Pumpkinhead” follows siblings Mike and Andrew, along with their friend Liz, on a trip to Palmer’s Pumpkin Farm. After being warned not to enter “Mr. Palmer’s private pumpkin patch,” the kids disobey the rule, leading to a series of chilling events. The adaptation keeps most of these plot points intact, while infusing it with enough modern scares to quite possibly make it one of the best horror movies on the streamer, especially for younger audiences.

How Audiences Are Responding To Pumpkinhead

Fans on Reddit have been calling Pumpkinhead “disturbing,” “unsettling,” and “way too emotional for a PG horror movie,” primarily due to an ending that ditches happy-ever-after for something far more haunting. As one Reddit user warned in the r/daddit thread,

Along with that, here's a temp check and slight PSA for anyone thinking about checking it out:

• “Just finished it and my kids both hated the end for the reason you said, but they still liked the movie. They're more upset there's no sequel planned. It does provide a good opportunity to have a talk about how not all stories have a happy ending.” – u/hepatitsC
• “I’m 30 years old and the ending of this movie left me deeply unsettled. I hate that it ended that way. It wasn’t “scary” or shocking, just depressing and unnecessary. Not the way I expect to feel when I walk away from a pg movie.” – u/BlueJayOak1653
• “... I thought it was going to be all happy, like a happily ever after. But I do like the ending due to the fact that it reminds kids that not everything turns out happily ever after and that's how life is.” – u/TurbulentMinute4290
• “I came on here to try and get more information to see if there's a book out there somewhere that offers some hope and more context that I'm missing because I was so heartbroken by the ending, I thought, there has to more right? I was pretty impressed at how much my family was all enjoying it the whole way through. Scary and funny at times. Good for 99%. Then there's that 1% that happens to be the end that sort just broke my heart.” – u/No-Pomegranate-4061
• “You guys didn't watch or read goosebumps and it shows lol not everything ended happily ever after, quiet the opposite actually.” – u/MastadonFinancial162

And the comments continue essentially like that, so as you can see, everyone feels pretty shook.

Now, I am in my 30s and did grow up reading Goosebumps — I was even in the Scholastic Goosebumps Fan Club, thank you very much. So I did what any good card-carrying R.L. Stine fan would do, and ran over to Tubi to fire up Pumpkinhead.

My Take On Tubi’s Pumpkinhead Adaptation

I finally watched R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, and though I wasn’t quite as shook as some Redditors, because I knew what to expect, I still thought it was a surprisingly strong adaptation of the original short story. It expands and deepens the source material while delivering some genuinely creepy moments. I especially loved the addition of the scarecrow villain as the central antagonist; it’s one of my favorite horror archetypes and one that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.

What makes R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead so interesting is how it walks the line between “family-friendly horror” and something far more unsettling. The movie’s autumnal color palette, eerie farm setting, and practical effects make it exceptionally well-made. And though I love to watch movies this time of year that have nothing to do with the holiday, this flick is a perfect Halloween movie watch. Also, its emotionally heavy finale gives it an edge that lingers long after the credits roll.

Some viewers have referred to the adaptation as the best “gateway horror” film since the Goosebumps TV series, praising Tubi for offering a scary story that doesn’t talk down to its audience, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s clever, spooky, and surprisingly poignant. In other words, a must-watch this Halloween season, and all you need to enjoy it is a free Tubi subscription.