Warning: This article contains SPOILERS forGoosebumps: The Vanishing
AlthoughGoosebumps: The Vanishingis a fun, loose adaptation of RL Stine’s classic horror novel series, the show does highlight its own biggest issue with one great punchline. 2023’sGoosebumpsrevival turned author RL Stine’s iconic ‘90s horror novels for children into a more mature, teen-oriented horror comedy series. While this re-imagining was fun,Goosebumpsseason 1’s cliffhanger endingproved just how uncertain the show’s tone was.
The season bounced between earnest teen drama and utterly absurd, cartoony horror antics. In a given episode, the teens can be seen discussing their difficult home lives and distant parents amid bouts of bashing evil clones made of goo with baseball bats.Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s new cast of characterswere no different, with the show still balancing straight-faced teen melodrama alongside tongue-in-cheek horror comedy. The result is a show that, while fun, never finds its footing in terms of tone.
Devin’s Funniest Goosebumps Season 2 Scene Highlights The Show’s Absurdity
Devin Argues With Frankie Over Trey After Another Life-Endangering Ordeal
Although viewers eventually learn whathappened at Camp Nightmare inGoosebumps: The Vanishing, the show’s best moment arrives a few episodes earlier. When Devin and Cece arrive in Gravesend, Frankie is dating the abusive bully Trey. Trey becomes some sort of blob monster after he is attacked by carnivorous alien plants while trashing Anthony Brewer’s basement and, when his monster form tries to attack Devin, Frankie crushes him with his own car. Trey then possesses his car before returning to his somehow unharmed human body and showing up catatonic in Fort Jerome.
In episode 4, “Monster Blood,” Cece is pursued through the city by a blob monster that emerges from her after she drinks kombucha. Frankie and Devin help her escape and destroy the monster, only for Frankie to receive a call saying Devin has woken up at the hospital.Goosebumps: The Vanishingcalls out its own uneasy blend of teen drama and raucous horror comedyin the following scene when Devin can’t understand why Frankie would visit her abusive ex.
The series is refreshingly self-aware in its mockery of young adult clichés.
Devin asks why Frankie would return to her bullying boyfriend and, in reply, she tells him he is speaking like “Someone who’s never been needed.” Devin understandably asks what the hokey phrase even means, claiming “I’m needed!” and protesting that the faux-deep aphorism didn’t answer his question at all. The real answer, of course, is thatGoosebumps: The Vanishing’s next RL Stine referenceneeds to be set up by a trip to the hospital, but the series is refreshingly self-aware in its mockery of young adult clichés.
Devin and Frankie’s Story Proves Goosebumps Season 2’s Balance Is Not Quite Right
Goosebumps Takes Its Teen Drama Seriously But Treats Its Horror Lightly
While this winking bit of meta-commentary is funny, it is hard to ignore the fact that Devin and Frankie’s relationship underlines a bigger issue with the writing of theGoosebumpsrevival. The show’s teen heroes are pursued by apartment-eating blob monsters and talking to their dad’s disembodied head in one scene, and they then revert to arguing over who is dating who in the next. The show leaps awkwardly between teen drama that could be lifted fromDawson’s CreekorOne Tree Hilland absurd horror that would be too silly forStranger Things.
This tonal balance is tough to get right, andGoosebumps: The Vanishing’s teen drama often feels at odds with its sillier monster moments.Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s ghostly Hannaharrives only a few moments after Frankie departs, and it becomes transparently obvious that Frankie and Devin’s relationship struggles were a setup for the show’s next monster escapade. While these scenes referencing Stine’s novels are consistently fun and inventive, attempts to take Trey and Frankie’s toxic relationship or Alex’s troubled relationship with her mother seriously jar with the goofy tone ofGoosebumps: The Vanishing’s horror.
Goosebumps Season 2 Improves On Season 1’s Inconsistency
Devin’s Outburst Makes the Horror Anthology’s Absurdity More Self-Aware
That said,Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s tonal balance is a marked improvement upon season 1. The show as a whole takes itself a lot less seriously than season 1 did, which is better than not taking itself seriously enough.Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s cliffhanger ending might be liftedfromStranger Thingsseason 1, but it is nowhere near as grim as it was in that Netflix hit. InStranger Things, a shivering, lonely Will coughing up an alien slug was a harbinger of nightmarish things to come.
Goosebumps: The Vanishing doesn’t take itself too seriously and this is a merciful change from season 1’s ending.
InGoosebumps: The Vanishing’s ending, the newly reformed Trey vomiting up grey alien goo prompts him to murmur “That’s not good” in an ending that is outright comedic.Goosebumps: The Vanishingdoesn’t take itself too seriously and this is a merciful change from season 1’s ending, which left the protagonist in a critical condition after he was shot while defeating the villain. This injection of unnecessary drama soured the fun of earlier episodes, whereasGoosebumps: The Vanishingwisely prioritizes silliness over seriousness.
