Deep Trouble was originally published in May 1994 (Spine #19) and Deep Trouble II was originally published in August 1997 (Spine #58).
The series adaptation aired on Monday, November 16, 1998 (runtime: 22 minutes x 2).
Ever since Jaws (1975) hit the silver screen, peak summertime terror has been synonymous with crowded beaches and abnormally hungry sharks. Screens big and small would go on to explore and exploit the toothy gray horrors of the unfathomable depths in the years that followed and it was only a matter of time before one such bloodthirsty beast would find its way into Goosebumps’ ever creeping lagoon.
By the time Deep Trouble hit shelves in May of 1994, Goosebumps had spent a summer at Camp Nightmare, visited the werewolves of Fever Swamp and rode the Death Slide to its terrible termination at Horrorland. It seemed only natural that the man-hungry hammerhead which adorned the cover of the book would join the ranks of the series’ iconic summer adventures and villains, providing a new nightmare to keep kids awake at night so they might muster the energy to shakily turn to the next page.
As one of the series’ more frightening and fantastical entries— ultimately having far more to do with mermaids than sharks despite what Tim Jacobus’ striking cover art might have you believe— Deep Trouble felt ripe for visualization when the television show came about. Still, it took until the series’ conclusion in 1998 for the episode to come to fruition, airing as the program’s final entry. Of course, even then the show was not as promised. Despite the title, the two part finale turned out to be an adaptation of the book’s sequel Deep Trouble II, a story also generally lacking in the shark department.
What ended up on screen was a major departure from both the original book and its sequel, significantly altering several of the characters, locations and dramatic situations. While the two books reflect familial bonds, emotional stakes and an often treacherous multi-generational hunger for adventure, the show opts to forgo pathos for genre zaniness, leaning into the over-the-top and otherworldly in a way that pays homage to the production’s B-grade movie roots.
In the end, the extended episode served as a microcosm for the show as a whole and an oddly fitting finale for the series. The show was never going to be capable of fully realizing the imaginations on the page, but that was hardly the point. The series was a supplement. For better or for worse, it existed to provide an entertaining lens by which to reimagine and explore the world of Goosebumps. As a shark who devours countless unsuspecting vacationers, regurgitation was never the goal.
The Story
‘Deep Trouble II’
Billy Deep and his little sister Sheena are back for another summer on the Cassandra, their marine biologist uncle’s huge floating lab. Billy’s a year older and a year wiser, fresh from having discovered a mermaid that he can never tell anyone about and ready to make a new discovery, one that will bring him the fame and fortune he knows he deserves. What he doesn’t know is that this year, the fish are getting bigger. Stronger. Hungrier. And, if he’s not careful, the discovery that he bites into this summer might be a bit more than he can chew. In fact, this bite might just swallow him whole.
Deep Trouble II was released in August of 1997 as the fifty eighth title in the Goosebumps series. A follow-up to the nineteenth book in the run, the story picks up one year after the events of the first and sends its three heroes back into the depths on a harrowing adventure that throws all of their lives into danger. Quick and compelling, with iconic dangers and imagery, Deep Trouble II ranks with the series’ best sequels and is a worthy title to serve as one of the original series’ sixty two book run’s concluding entries.
The Adaptation
While the screen opens with Sheena, Billy’s sister, relaxing on a small boat fishing as a shark fin slowly approaches, the page finds Billy swimming in the open ocean, exploring a coral reef as an octopus poises to attack. Sheena’s terror turns to annoyance when she discovers her brother Billy controlling the electronic shark’s fin with an oversized remote control onscreen and Billy’s blind determination to fend off his attacker reveals itself as a tickle fight on the page. That is, the octopus is none other than Sheena, exaggerated by Billy’s overactive imagination, allowing both the page and the screen to align on the relationship between the two siblings, despite the differences in presentation.
In the first book, the reader learns that Billy and Sheena Deep spend summers with their marine biologist uncle (affectionately referred to as Dr. D.) on his enormous research vessel at sea. It’s an exciting venture that they look forward to and, as a result, they have a great relationship with their uncle. Onscreen, Sheena and Billy complain about being dumped with their uncle, branding him “weird”. Gone is the large boat at sea with elaborate equipment. In its place is a beach house planted miles from the nearest town with no radio or TV. “Even the fish are bored,” the kids remark.
In this way, the base dynamic in the show is completely different from the narrative of both novels. The inherent sense of excitement and adventure is absent and in its place is adolescent yearning, a drive for purpose in an otherwise blasé environment. This is triggered in the show when Billy finds a gigantic shark tooth partially concealed in sand on the beach.
In the book, the faux octopus incident gives way to the only shark sighting that Deep Trouble II has to offer. In an effort to scare her, Billy grabs a pillow and positions it like a fin in the water. Still, when Sheena swims away screaming, it becomes quickly apparent that it’s in reaction to a real, oversized shark barreling toward them and not Billy’s ill-advised hijinks. Claimed to be as big as a whale, Billy only just makes it aboard their ship the Cassandra as the shark slams into its side, nearly tipping the vessel. Dr. D. surfaces in response but disregards their claims of a massive shark as childish overreaction.
Onscreen the giant shark tooth is the closest the viewer gets to seeing such an encounter visualized. The kids carry the tooth to their uncle’s lab and find themselves immersed in a mad scientist’s playground of glowing green vials, liquids and tanks. In their carelessness, Billy and Sheena accidentally break a vial over a large tank. That’s when their uncle and his assistant Ritter enter the lab, forcing the kids into hiding.
After uncle Harold (Dr. D. on the page) and Ritter argue about what happened to their missing research assistant Luis and whether or not they should shut down their mysterious project, the two make their exit. The kids move to escape but find themselves trapped as a blowfish in the tank where the green liquid was spilled has grown to abnormal size, shooting out razor sharp quills and forcing Billy and Sheena into a closet. Uncle Harold finds them moments later, forbidding them to go to the beach in light of the giant tooth.
On the page Dr. D. brings the kids to his research lab freely and shows them a giant fish, one he cannot identify. Thinking outside the box, Billy grabs a book about small fish and discovers that it’s a minnow of ludicrous size. Fascinated and distracted, Dr. D. allows Billy to take a vial of the plankton he’s studying for the boy’s goldfish. Falling victim to another of his sister’s pranks, Billy screams as he discovers a severed head in his goldfish bowl. The head is a doll’s head. After setting it straight, Billy feeds his pet and sets out to snorkel while plotting revenge on Sheena. It’s then, out in the open ocean, that he and Sheena encounter a giant, pink jellyfish.
Compared to the ocean set adventures on the page, it’s difficult for the episode to appear as anything but pedestrian as the next scene finds Billy and Sheena boorishly playing Go Fish. Having been kicked out of the house by their uncle’s maid, they wander to the forbidden beach and find a man stumbling out of the water, murmuring incoherently. Uncle Harry takes the kids out on his boat to investigate the waters, landing on the nearest island. Ritter abandons them there, sacrificing them to protect the experiment. All the while a heavy breathing POV shot watches through the brush, as it has done from the episode’s start, concluding part one.
On the page the huge, slimy jellyfish engulfs Sheena, forcing Billy to attempt to yank at its thin, veiny vail before pushing his way inside to retrieve her. As the thing squeezes and rubs their flesh raw, another jellyfish appears and slaps into it, freeing them. Back at the boat, they encounter a giant, grotesque snail and enormous goldfish, the product of feeding the plankton to Billy’s pets. After dealing with the oversized fish, the Deep family finally meet Dr. Ritter and his assistants, scientists who had boarded their boat during all the commotion.
All too quickly, the Deeps realize that Dr. Ritter is foe not friend, as once he discovers their knowledge of oversized aquatic life, he takes the family hostage. He explains that he has been injecting plankton with growth hormones in an attempt to make bigger fish to cure world hunger. With too much knowledge of his work, he plans on disposing of the family on his vessel far out to sea. But, before he can force them overboard, giant shadows descend on Dr. Ritter’s boat: seagulls which attack Ritter and his assistants, allowing the Deeps to escape in a life raft.
The second part of the show is where the program’s monster movie and classic sci-fi roots really shine, allowing its lack of production value to become a strength rather than a hindrance. In the book, it’s Uncle Harold that developed the new strain of plankton, not Ritter, and instead of doubling down on his experiment, he had decided to end it. The group explores the island and discovers building sized lizards, crabs, turtles and snakes. The special effects are akin to what one might’ve seen in The Food of the Gods (1976) and provides a fun, pulpy retro sensibility that makes for silly entertainment. Sheena even encounters a giant, practically constructed ant that feels right out of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989).
The episode progresses underground, as the family is captured by a race of mutated fish people that feels like a cross between Dagon (2001) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Bathed in stark blue light, the cave setting and impressive make-up for the fish-people permutations adds a sense of outlandish fantasy that had been sorely lacking from the set up and while it is nothing like what occurs in the book, it is a welcome direction to take the story.
The page goes in a far more harrowing direction. Adrift at sea in a tiny raft, the Deep family huddles together, fearful, cold and wet, as rain pours, hunger swells and hope dies. When they finally land on an island, it’s small and deserted, offering only coconuts and a few trees for shade. Forced up trees by a giant crab, they watch as their raft is lost to the tide. After a few hours of defeat they see their raft once more, the rope stuck around an oversized dolphin. The three manage to get to the raft and climb back in, only to have the dolphin pull them away from the island and back to sea once more. When the dolphin halts, a boat sits in front of them, obscured by fog.
On the screen, one of the fish people is revealed to be Luis, the missing research assistant. He helps Sheena get to Billy and her uncle, where they convince the fish people that Ritter was the one behind the experiments all along. Later, the former fish-men and Luis leave uncle Harry and the kids, cured of their mutations. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location, uncle Harry’s former maid calls out for people to stop at a sideshow attraction. The half-man, half-fish, Ritter stands helplessly in a tank, his face twisted into that of an underwater dweller’s as his sad eyes cry out for help. “That looks totally fake!” one kid remarks, passing Ritter by without a second glance.
The book concludes with the Deep family finding their way back to the Cassandra, where Dr. Ritter is waiting. He reveals that when people eat the plankton, they turn into a fish. He forces Billy to choose and drink a vial of plankton, but nothing happens. Enraged and unwilling to turn himself in, Dr. Ritter downs a vial and becomes a fish, disappearing beneath the waves. Billy reveals that he had swapped a vial out for iced tea earlier when he wanted to get revenge on Sheena, thinking that drinking the vial would gross her out. Sheena laughs, saying that they think alike, having also switched one out earlier that day. Although when her eyes bulge after joining Billy in a drink, she can’t help but question if her memory had failed her.
As with all great Goosebumps tales, shock and comeuppance rule out. They may begin and end in dramatically different ways, but, in principle, they are perfectly aligned.
Final Thoughts
Deep Trouble leaned on the image of a shark to evoke a certain expectation in the reader, playing more on their lack of understanding regarding the unknown than their certainty when it came to certain scary tropes. After all, the unknown has the potential to be as frightening as it is compelling. What lies beneath the ocean’s waves is anybody’s guess. The page engages and plays with that sense of the unknown. The screen pulls the results of that hubris to the surface and revels in the ludicrous mayhem that results. Neither truly delivers on the promise of that hammerhead, but both provide insight as to why the idea of it is so unnerving to begin with— beyond the obvious.
Both stories conclude with Ritter getting his comeuppance, but perhaps one in a more disturbing fashion than the other. While the book is an ocean trotting adventure epic, complete with thundering storms and boat chases, the episode pushes further into the fantastical elements that both Deep Trouble and Deep Trouble II are playing with. Combined together, the differences and discrepancies serve to create a tapestry of complimentary storytelling that expand and enhance both the page and the screen.
As a kid watching these shows, these differences could feel like an affront. A fundamental misunderstanding of the material and a betrayal of the source. But in hindsight, considering the physical and budgetary constraints that go into making such a program, it seems to me a miracle that any of it exists at all. Beyond that, if director William Fruet and screenwriters Jessica Scott and Mike Wollaeger could sneak in some references to H.P. Lovecraft and 70’s sci-fi in the process, the effort begins to feel more like a gift to burgeoning horror fans rather than a slight to those young readers’ favorite spine-chilling tomes.
In the end, Deep Trouble was the Goosebumps series’ swan song and its wordy counterpart Deep Trouble II was four entries shy of being the same for the original run of books. While neither may be considered top-tier efforts, both embody a certain playful energy, a dedication to the world of fantasy and horror alike that ran as strong at the end as it did at the start. It may not be the series’ Jaws, but how many kid’s books can boast a The Food of the Gods or a Dagon? Regardless, aquatic horror was alive and well in the Goosebumps collective, ensuring a scare for every conceivable summer activity, in or out of the water.
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