In the 1990s, nobody on Earth scared more kids than R.L. Stine. He was responsible for more sleepless nights than mosquitoes and more wet mattresses than potty training. He caused young people all over the world to double-check nothing was under their beds, to look closely at the shadow of that tree to make absolutely sure nothing terrifying was hiding there, to deliver a polite but firm ‘no’ to the offer of ventriloquism lessons. (On that last point, it’s not like ventriloquism was booming before R.L. Stine came along with Night Of The Living Dummy and fucked it up for everyone, but it sure as hell didn’t boom afterwards.) That dummy, Slappy, is possibly R.L.’s single best-known creation, but he rendered all kinds of things that had previously seemed harmless petrifying. W...