“Before my brother and I found the strange little creature under the sink,
we were a normal happy family…”
Katrina “Kat” Merton is moving into a new house over on Maple Lane, just three blocks away from her family’s old house. The new house is akin to a three-story tall “mansion.” Kat is a tall, thin, calm, same favorite foods as her dad –lasagna, really sour garlic pickles, and mocha chip ice cream. But she despises her younger brother Daniel, a chaotic child whom her dad dubbed the “human tornado.” However, once they move into the new house, their pet cocker spaniel, “Killer,” starts growling and barking at something egg shaped under the sink. Turns out it’s a sponge, and it’s breathing! As Kat picks it up, the sponge starts quivering and pulsating. She keeps the sponge but then bad things start happening. Her friend Carlo’s foot gets injured, her brother Daniel hits his head under the sink, their father falls off a ladder. Kate tries to show the sponge to her mean old teacher, Mrs. Vanderhoff, but to her the sponge appears dry and shriveled. She then accidentally slams her fingers in a drawer (worried they may be broken). And then Killer runs away, and Kat’s upcoming birthday party at WonderPark is canceled due to inclement weather. To top things off, all the plants in the yard due and Kat falls on the stairs, hurting her knee.
What is going on here? Why the string of bad luck? Kat, Daniel, and Carlo pick up a book about mythical creatures, an “Encyclopedia of the Weird,” where they learn about strange creatures like a “Lanx,” which is apparently a killer potato with teeth, and a “Grool,” which is an evil sponge that derives its strength from bad luck. Bingo! It appears Kat has gotten her hands on a Grool. However, as she reads on, Kat learns that the Grool cannot be killed or gotten rid of by means of force of violent means, and it can only be passed on to someone else when the owner dies. If the owner tries to give away the Grool, they will be cursed and will due within 24 hours.
As more bad things start happening to her family, Kat is at a loss of what to do. She puts the Grool in a gerbil cage. Then her Aunt Louise comes to visit, an odd new age woman knows a great deal about astrology and tarot cards and so on, but still the sponge appears dry and shriveled in front of her. Kat gets angry and tries to kill the Grool, smacking and crushing it with textbooks, but the pieces still slither back together! Then her brother passes the Grool off to Carlo who promptly loses it, leading to a quest to find it in the dark sewers below the city before they finally track it down to a group of older boys tossing it around in the park and suddenly facing bad luck, themselves.
After retrieving the Grool, Kat nearly gets hit by a speeding car and tries to grind it down the sink disposal but this, too, fails. Then she remembers the rule that a Grool “Cannot be killed –by force or by any violent means.” This gives her an idea. Kat tries a different tactic and starts gently sinking a lullaby and love song to the Grool… and, of course, this works. The Grool shrinks down and deteriorates as Kat plants a big kiss on its head. Apparently, being kind is the secret to destroying the Grool.
But in a brief twist ending, Killer returns back home and starts growling at the sink again. This time, a strange potato with teeth suddenly bites Daniel… could it be the Lanx that they read about?
My Thoughts on It Came from Beneath the Sink!
A sponge monster that feeds on misfortune! This rather silly Goosebumps book is reminiscent of all manner of 1950s “creature feature” horror B-movies, and the title may have been a twist on the film It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955). Throughout the book, I was kinda hoping something interesting would happen to the sponge as misfortune continued to befall Kat, maybe that it would grow larger like the blob, or that it might transform somehow. But I was still drawn to the slightly grotesque descriptions of this little pulsating, shaking sponge that seems to take delight in its owner’s downfall. I was also hoping that Aunt Louise would play some sort of larger role in the plot, since she suddenly comes out of nowhere (and she knows about tarot cards and other woo-woo things), however she immediately disappears from the story.
It Came from Beneath the Sink! is an unserious, mediocre outing for R.L. Stine, aside from Tim Jacobus’s wonderful cover artwork, it is mostly forgettable. Is it an amusing children’s book? Sure. And it wouldn’t be a Goosebumps book without Stine’s frequent tropes, like predictable little jump-scares, gaslighting parents, and kids who move into a new house with their family only to discover something evil lurking within.
Corresponding Episode Review
The Fox Kids television episode for “It Came From Beneath The Sink!” is a hilariously cheesy mess, from silly acting to animalistic noises coming from a wriggling/pulsating killer sponge, as well as the ’90s daytime soap opera soundtrack (complete with a version of Bill Withers’s “Lean on Me” playing in the background). But one of the key differences between the episode and the book, is that in the episode the kids sneak into the school at night (skipping the sewer sequence) where they encounter a late-night janitor singing “You Are My Sunshine” and wearing headphones. In the episode, this is how they realize that the sponge can be killed with kindness. It’s an interesting little twist that makes a random janitor one of the most important characters in the episode. Apparently, Goosebumps showrunner, Dan Angel, viewed this episode as one of the worst in the series. Personally, I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s not
Notably, lead actress Katharine Isabelle who plays Kat Merton in this episode, went on to have a successful horror career in movies like Freddy vs. Jason (2003) as well as television shows like The X-Files, The Outer Limits 2000’s remake, and others.
Stine, R.L. It Came from Beneath the Sink! Scholastic, Inc., New York, NY, 1995.