When it comes to fiction, children love to be scared. By and large, the horror genre can provide the same emotional catharsis and development for young adults that it does for older demographics: allowing them to feel thrilled by and engaged with challenging themes, but always able to retreat to the safety of their own homes. Compared tothe 1990s, when series likeAre You Afraid of the Dark?unabashedly terrorized the airwaves, there’s been a current-day dearth of spooky streaming series set within that kid-friendly framework. In 2023,Goosebumps, a Disney+ revival of the original 1995 series that’s in turn based on authorR. L. Stine’s bestselling children’s book series, poised itself to fill that void. Developed byRob LettermanandNicholas Stollerand supervised by showrunnerHilary Winston, Season 2 — stylized asGoosebumps: The Vanishing— might not be an instant modern classic, but it also avoids most of the pitfalls associated with more by-the-numbers installments of existing IP. Instead, this is anenjoyable and entertaining tale punctuated with future potentialand solid selling points, among them a concept creepy enough to tell around a metaphorical bonfire.
What Is ‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’ About?
As their last summer before college dawns, Devin (Sam McCarthy) and Cece Brewer (Jayden Bartels), a pair of non-identical twins, feel cheerfully resentful about spending their time off with their always-frazzled but well-meaning dad, Anthony (David Schwimmer), in his neighborhood of Gravesend, Brooklyn. Their visit is poor emotional timing for Anthony, who finally receives his older brother Matty’s (Christopher Paul Richards) personal effects from the police three decades after Matty’s unsolved disappearance. Still searching for answers, the grieving brother and botanist inspects Matty’s clothes anddiscovers residual signs of a brand-new species— albeit something carnivorous and malevolent.
Naturally, messing with this shapeshifting, oozing black goo isn’t a good idea. Nevertheless, Anthony’s quest to understand the creature’s ties to his brother creates one rule that his children must follow — stay out of the basement! — and enables the mysterious substance to claim a new host. Simultaneously, Devin accepts a dare to visit Fort Jerome, the place where Matty inexplicably vanished, andhis ill-advised actiontriggers a planet-wide threatbigger than his family and newfound friend group could have imagined.
‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’ Plays Into Familiar Horror Tropes
Ananthology seriesdesigned to offer a new story each season,Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s creative team was influenced byseveral of Stine’s booksfor Season 2’s self-contained tale. Despite their disparate inspirations,the results are coherently connected and, for the most part, impressively eerie, if inconsistently paced. Despite the series' supernatural threat rearing its ugly head relatively quickly, it takes several episodes for the gnarliness of the first episode’s cold open to match the promising potential it establishes.
WithholdingThe Vanishing’s eldritch horror initially results in a sense of dissipated tension — sanitized horror instead of something with an unsettling atmosphere and overhanging stakes more reminiscent of what made the ’90s series so gripping. However, later episodes of the six provided for review (out of the season’s eight total) show a marked improvement on that score, eventaking cues fromThe Blob, body horror, and found footage, all of which are enjoyable to see rendered through a horror-lite gaze.
‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s Ensemble Cast Is Its Strongest Element
In terms of naturalistic dialogue,Goosebumps: The Vanishingisn’t necessarily exemplary. That said, even though children shouldn’t be handed inferior media that devalues their intelligence, one also shouldn’t expect meticulously dense work from ahorror product geared toward younger audiences. The characters, their experiences, and the scripts — frequently but not exclusively penned by Letterman and Winston — areaccessible without relying too heavily on Gen Z slangas a substitute for meaningful character interplay, or overplaying the generational-divide humor between Anthony and the twins for easy, awkward laughs.
Ahead of ‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing,’ Catch the Spooky Original Series for Free in a New Streaming Home
Nearly all of the 1990s classic is now available to watch for free for Halloween.
This series’ highest recommendation boils down toits excellent young adult ensemble, all of whom handle the material with easy verve. This is an inclusive cast consisting of teens from a variety of class and familial situations whose individual backstories inform their current emotional status, with episodes dividing dramatic tension relatively equally between the six main figures. Frankie (Galilea La Salvia), Devin’s crush since eighth grade, can’t afford to attend college despite the efforts of her constantly working single mother and considers her future both lonely and unfulfilling. However, she craves different goals compared to her boyfriend, Trey (Stony Blyden), a hard-working young man aiming to inherit the family business and ensure his and Frankie’s future, but still a self-focused adolescent in need of a wake-up call about the disproportionate energy Frankie sacrifices for their relationship.
Alex (Francesca Noel), meanwhile, is freshly released from juvenile detention. Any perceived infraction, even one as normal as breaking curfew, risks her future freedoms. On the bright side, there’s her reciprocal flirtation with Cece, who faces a more privileged but still painful set of roadblocks. Cece is the straight-A overachiever experiencing the stinging shame of rejection for the first time — a once-confident girl striving to protect her sterling reputation. Comparatively, Devin views himself as the twin that everyone gave up on before he had the chance to prove his potential. He’s kind-hearted but impulsive, a characteristic evident both in his willingness to brave Fort Jerome and the fact he was suspended from school for “finishing” a fight. Unfairly, CJ (Elijah M. Cooper) has the least amount of individual screentime, but he tries to earn a reliable reputation with his mom as her restaurant’s delivery driver. Although not the main focus, as the cast member with the biggest name recognition and the season’s lead adult (likeJustin Longbefore him),Schwimmer proves a natural fit as the dad who adores his kids but is slightly out of touchwith their lives, and whose childhood loss makes him more than a little overprotective.
‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’ Has Anthology Potential
WhetherGoosebumps: The Vanishingwill stick the landing remains to be seen. Still, it’s refreshing to see not just a promising young adult horror anthology, but one that’s dusting off the cobwebs stuck to theGoosebumpsname. Although Season 2 doesn’t reach the heights of its ancestor series, it’s anencouraging stepbeyond its predecessor seasonthat illustrates this series' potential. If future installments are in the cards, then bothThe Vanishing’s strengths and weaknesses provide a road map to even more improvement.
Goosebumps: The Vanishingpremieres January 10 on Disney+ in the U.S.
Goosebumps
Although not an absolute home run, Goosebumps: The Vanishing offers a creepy premise, reliable tropes, and an excellent ensemble cast.
Five teenagers accidentally discover an old collection of R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” manuscripts, releasing a variety of sinister creatures and spooky happenings in their town. As they navigate these supernatural challenges, the group learns to rely on each other and solve the mysteries behind each story.
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