Season 1 |
Season 2 |
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Episode Guide
Stay Out Of The Basement Part 1
Stay Out Of The Basement Part 2
The Haunted Car
Monster Blood
The Boy Who Cried Monster
The Girl Next Door
Welcome To Camp Nightmare
Episode 8
Goosebumps is one of those names synonymous with YA horror and has certainly stood the test of time. Once a massive cultural hit in the 90’s, the revived movie series did well to capture some of that same spirit from the campy series, but more importantly, revived it for a new audience.
Fast forward to 2023 and Disney+, in its attempt to try and compete with the other streamers, dropped a 10 episode Goosebumps anthology series, reimagining and modernizing a lot of the classic stories into a linear story. It worked pretty well for the most part, keeping the trademark YA spin while also chucking in some nostalgic beats and recognizable elements from the books.
Season 2 of Goosebumps, simply called “The Vanishing” basically rehashes that same formula again but with 8 rather than 10 episodes and a slew of new stories adapted. The plot hits the usual beats you’d expect from a YA story, although there are massive parallels to Stranger Things throughout, which we’ll circle back to shortly.
For now, the new story introduces David Schwimmer as the nerdy dad Anthony, who finds himself embroiled in a big mystery spanning decades. When his best friend Matty disappeared decades ago, he’s spent years of his life toiling away in his basement , desperate for answers and some form of closure.
As fate would have it, he winds up playing host to Cece and Devin, two teens who arrive in town and immediately find themselves wrapped up in a mystery of their own. These two are where the primary focus of the series lies, and it doesn’t take long before the teens are joined by a bunch of other misfits in town, who all work together to find out exactly what’s going on.
Along the way, the show crowbars in R.L. Stine’s beloved stories and attempts to make them fit with this larger story. The Haunted Car in question is all part of the central antagonistic force, while Camp Nightmare is just something seen in video tapes examining the past. It’s pretty disappointing to be honest and feels a bit disingenuous to the source material. Although, what’s even funnier is that the finale is simply titled “episode 8”, like the creators couldn’t even be bothered to give it a proper title.
But Goosebumps skin aside, I mentioned before that the main plotline shares similarities with Stranger Things that it’s hard not to think the writers have intentionally copied the plotline. We have the disappearing kid from the past, the shady government agents, weird experiments, scientists in white suits exploring the underground, a bizarre alien entity that possesses its hosts and we have a hidden area underground ala. Stranger Things season 3 with the mall. There are also some very creepy creatures that look like the Demogorgon dogs too.
The point I’m making here is that there’s nothing particularly original in this story away from the Goosebumps books adapted (and I use adapted very loosely here). The bites of originality are basically taking concepts that have worked far better elsewhere and even when the show tries to be faithful, it doesn’t do a particularly great job of it.
The first two part episode for example, Stay Out The Basement, worked well in the books and the 90’s series precisely because we don’t see what’s in the basement for a while. The mystery is given room to grow and the twist with the dad was a nice way of adding a creepy paranoia akin to The Thing. This series? Well, within 10 minutes of meeting Anthony, he brings the kids down to the basement, lets them look around the sterile, empty area, and then tells them they’re to “stay out the basement” from now on. But we’ve already seen everything here so… what’s the point?
Meanwhile, Camp Nightmare is just plucked in namesake only and honestly, that story is one of the best Goosebumps stand-alone chapters, even in the 90’s series too. The camerawork and pacing in that two-parter is brilliant and holds up to this day but here though? There’s none of that.
The show also falls into that really annoying trend of devaluing the stakes in every situation thanks to cooky jokes and Marvel-esque humour. “Oh, that’s not good!” as a quip when things have gone awry and you’re faced with a threat that could literally kill you is no substitute to a good blood-curdling scream, and that’s sorely lacking amongst the kids.
There’s never a true sense of dread or terror here, and while I’m not suggesting that this YA show kill off the kids, the ones who are in peril or danger don’t really show it thanks to the ripples of campy humour.
The characters themselves, with the exception of Anthony, are forgettable at best. We have all the usual cliches in here, like the nerdy, awkward couple who can’t quite express their feelings; the asshole of the group; an LGBTQ+ angle that’s not given enough time to develop; and the bull-headed leader. It’s all very cookie-cutter stuff and by the time the credits roll at the end, you’ll have probably forgotten a lot of their names.
It’s a shame because aesthetically, Goosebumps has never looked better. The practical effects are great and the array of different shots in the exterior areas work so well. The interiors are more of a mixed bag, with Anthony’s basement in particular a real disappointment. Gone are the imaginative descriptions of lush, jungle-like plants and towering flesh-eating trees suffocating everything. Instead, we just get a dull, grey sludge with a few plant pots on the side.
Contrasting that though are the scenes underground and some of the areas involving the big threat of the season – especially late on – do look pretty good. So ultimately, it’s a bit of a mixed bag here too. Thankfully the musical score is good, although there’s absolutely no way they’re competing with the 90’s theme here!
All things considered, Goosebumps is a bit of a disappointment. It’s certainly watchable, no doubt, but it’s also riddled with flaws.
There’s very little here to help this stand out, as both Stranger Things and the Goosebumps books – both heavy influences for reasons explained above – work much better than this sterile 8 episode follow-up. If you were a fan of season 1, you may find enough here to whet the appetite, but there are far better YA shows out there to spend your time with.
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10