‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’ Review: Disney Takes Franchise In The Right Direction

Goosebumps returns for its second season on Disney+ as it explores a new horrific and creepy story that is told between 1994 and 2024. Read our first impressions in our Goosebumps: The Vanishing review below.

Instead of continuing on from the last season of Goosebumps, they’ve made the decision to turn this into an anthology show, with this season following a new story, with new spooks and cast to follow alongside it. The last season wasn’t received well by both critics and audiences, but it seems like Goosebumps: The Vanishing is at least off to a better start.

This Goosebumps: The Vanishing review was made possible by screeners of episodes 1-6 courtesy of Disney.

Goosebumps is a franchise that has been popular with kids for decades. Whether you were born in the ’90s or the ’00s, like myself, you’ve probably come across a Goosebumps book before in your school library. There’s also a possibility, like myself, that although you’re aware of the name Goosebumps, you’ve never actually ventured into this eerie world that was created for kids to have their own horror stories that were suitable for them.

This franchise has had its ups and downs, from a show from the ’90s, which a lot of adults currently have nostalgia for, to two live-action films that didn’t perform well enough at the box office to warrant a continuation. Thankfully, Disney came along and created a series for the streaming platform Disney+, but even then, it didn’t perform too well amongst the audience and critics. This season tells a whole new story with the subtitle “The Vanishing” while still keeping some similar traits from its first season. It has you following a group of five kids as they attempt to solve a mystery that dates all the way back to 1994.

The first two episodes of Goosebumps: The Vanishing does exactly what you would expect; you get introduced to the sinister supernatural being that’s going to be tormenting the cast and keeping them on their toes at all ends throughout the season. The visuals from the beginning are some of the best that this show has seen, and it also quickly sets the tone for the season, but at times, it feels like the writers don’t truly understand what it is they want this show to be. With the first two episodes and the odd episode here and there, the scares can be rather inconsistent. While this is a show that’s aimed at kids and it’ll be hard to get an adult like me scared, it’s still possible to tell when a jumpscare is a good one or just an extremely cheap one that was thrown in without any real creative thought process.

We also get introduced to Devin (Sam McCarthy) and Cece (Jayden Bartels), who are visiting their father, Anthony (David Schwimmer), for the summer, but after Devin takes on a dare from Trey (Stony Blyden) to visit the place where five kids went missing in 1994 (which includes Devin and Cece’s uncle), they unleash something that will change their summers. Alongside Devin, Cece, and Trey, we also get to meet Frankie (Galilea La Salvia), CJ (Elijah M. Cooper), and Alex (Francesca Noel).

An issue that always persists with shows that are about teenagers is that they’re usually written by adults who don’t understand how teenagers actually communicate with each other. There are a few jokes that involve the use of the word ‘bussin,’ and it ends up not only being unfunny but leading to rather awkward dialogue between the characters. This persists more in the second episode, which arguably is the worst episode out of the six I’ve viewed, as not only is the dialogue comparable to that of Riverdale, but it also deals with extremely generic teen drama as it touches almost every trope in the span of 43 minutes.

From the third episode onwards, it feels like not only do the characters finally find their place, but the story also starts to pick up from this point. The writing for the characters is immensely better than how they were two episodes ago, and the kid characters seem to get enough development, allowing time for the audience to get attached to these characters. Anthony also gets as much development as the kids and is the only adult character that’s quite interesting to follow. As he gets dragged into this mystery, which involves his kids and the death of his brother all those years ago, it begins to swallow him up, clouding his thoughts and not allowing him to think straight. It leads into some funny moments which David Schwimmer handles perfectly but also has you worried for the mental state of this character.

The same can’t be said for Jen (Ana Ortiz), Alex’s mother, who also happens to be a detective. There’s a lot surrounding this character’s story that feels all over the place. She has greater involvement later on in the season, but even during those moments, it feels like she isn’t being used to her full potential. There’s the relationship between her and her daughter, which feels very clichéd in how she treats her daughter and fails to actually listen to her problems, and then you have her investigating what happened in 1994 and what’s currently happening in the present day, but it’s just a story and character that currently feels like she’s been benched as the writers don’t truly know how to intertwine her story with everything going on.

The horror can be inconsistent, but there are a few good scares spread throughout the season. The practical effects and the visual effects are also impressive for a show of this scale and make for some really great moments. The highlights come from the fourth and sixth episodes, which really take this show to an unexpected level with its visuals, providing some of the best cinematography and use of horror in the entire show.

The soundtrack for this season is also phenomenal, as it not only fits the setting of the show but the characters we’re following. From a Taylor Swift song playing after a breakup scene to Travis Scott’s “FE!N”and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” as either needle drops or just throughout the episode. It’s a great use of music, which sometimes is used within the environment of the show, and there were times when I’d replay a scene just because of how well used a song was in the moment, specifically how Fein closes off episode 1.

Goosebumps: The Vanishing has a rocky start, but once it picks up, it never lets go of that momentum. With characters that feel like real teenagers and a Scooby-Doo-esque mystery to follow, this makes for a fun and, at times, eerily entertaining watch that would be perfect for kids who want something a little scary to watch. It mixes many styles of horror, from body horror to found footage; this season does a lot to set itself apart from previous entries in the Goosebumps franchise and warrants this show being an anthology show.

Goosebumps: The Vanishing is created by Rob Letterman and Nicholas Stoller with Hillary Winston as showrunner. It stars David Schwimmer, Ana Ortiz, Sam McCarthy, Jayden Bartels, Elijah M. Cooper, Galilea La Salvia, Stony Blyden, Francesca Noel, and more. This series premieres all episodes on Disney+ on January 10th.

Thanks for reading our Goosebumps: The Vanishing review! If you enjoyed it, consider checking out our other reviews.