‘Goosebumps’ Creators Reveal Secrets of the Biddle House — Plus, Justin Long’s Reaction to It (Exclusive)

What’s scarier than spending the night at to get chills House Biddle? To bring the entire cast and crew to the right place, say the creators of the series.

PEOPLE spoke with the show’s executive producer, Rob Letterman, and production designer, Dan Hermansen, about the creepy house that eventually “becomes its own character” as the creepy plot unfolds, Hermansen reveals.

Based on several of RL Stine’s hit novels, the horror comedy follows a group of teenagers — Isaiah (Zack Morris), James (Miles McKenna), Margot (Isa Briones), Isabella (Ana Yi Puig) and Lucas (Will Price) — as they investigate a haunted past house and discover how their parents played a role in the 1993 death of its former tenant, Harold Biddle.

Zack Morris, Ana Yi Puig, Miles McKenna, Will Price and Isa Briones in ‘Goosebumps’.

David Astorga/Disney

At the same time, Mr. Bratt (Justin Long) inherits a ghostly residence and becomes caught up in the dark entities that still lurk there 30 years later.

A home as complicated (and creepy!) as the Biddle House takes a lot of planning, and PEOPLE revealed all the hidden details behind the set during an exclusive interview with Hermansen and Letterman.

‘Goosebumps’: Justin Long Becomes Obsessed As 5 Teens Investigate Old Mystery In First Trailer (Exclusive)

Minnekhada Lodge in Vancouver, Canada was used for exterior shots to depict Biddle House.

Disney/David Astorga

PEOPLE: Is Biddle’s house a real place or was it filmed on set?

Rob Letterman: Dan and I, we scouted so many homes all over Vancouver, Canada — and some weird ones at that. Nothing was right. But then we went to Minnekhada Lodge, Biddle’s real-life house, which is the most complicated place ever to shoot. But as soon as we got there, I said, “Dan, that’s it.”

PEOPLE: Were the interior scenes filmed there?

Dan Hermansen: The vast majority of interior shots were shot on a set based mostly on location in Vancouver. It really dressed up the whole Pacific Northwest — where the show is set — just being on the water and having those low clouds. With the settings, we tried to be pretty faithful to what the interior of the historic house was, which was a unique hunting lodge built in the 1930s.

Jack Black Fights Every RL Stine Monster Ever In ‘Goosebumps’ Trailer

The cast of ‘Goosebumps’ uses one of the deer heads as a weapon in the Biddle house.

Disney/David Astorga

PEOPLE: What was the inspiration behind the animal heads hanging throughout the house?

Letterman: Hunting Trophies — it was just understanding what the building was and diving into that strangeness. Everyone had fun with it, especially when they were filming the party scene and Will Price, who plays Lucas, looked up with a mug in his mouth and grabbed the deer head off the mantle. That’s all, he just reacts to the space. So the actors had a lot of fun with it.

PEOPLE: Justin Long’s character, Mr. Bratt, lives in the Biddle house with all that creepy decor. What was his reaction when he first saw her?

Letterman: Justin is amazing. We always encouraged him to improvise and simply use the space. So when he was reacting to all the horns and that stuff on the show, it was all his own commercials. I just let him take center stage and that was all without reacting to what he saw. So that inspired the performance.

Kate Bosworth and Justin Long kissed in the kitchen during a date night at a NYC restaurant

Justin Long stars as Mr. Bratt in the new horror comedy ‘Goosebumps.’

Disney/David Astorga

PEOPLE: Tell me about the design process behind Harold Biddle’s room in the basement?

Hermansen: Well, obviously we had to have totems that were pulled from the five books. It was all scripted and everything. A lot of it was just embracing the 1990s era as best we could.

Letterman: Dan and his team went and bought all these things from the 1990s era that would be in a teenager’s cave. I remember they had all the posters and board games and TVs – all that vintage stuff. It was very, very cool.

Harold Biddle’s room in ‘Goosebumps’.

Disney/David Astorga

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

PEOPLE: How are the different elements of horror that fans have loved from the books reflected in Biddle House?

Letterman: We chose differently To get chills books and mirrored them onto our characters, but we also looked for different sub-genres of horror within To get chills. So there’s gross things with worms, spooky things, psychological thrillers, etc. Dan swallowed all of that and the basement is really kind of the epicenter of all those ideas.

Stream new episodes of Goosebumps every Friday on Disney+ and Hulu.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education