Goosebumps (2023)

Goosebumps: The Vanishing has an interesting, scary mystery at its center, as well as good performances from Schwimmer, McCarthy and Bartels.

The final stretch quickly deflates a good cliffhanger by introducing a less impactful one in its last moments. That reservation aside, Goosebumps: The Vanishing is indeed an enjoyable gateway-horror followup to last year’s batch, with a compelling season-long arc that’s an engaging adaptation of Welcome To Camp Nightmare.

The season grows in strength and confidence as it progresses, and by the end of episode 6, there is a sense of excitement around how all the secrets could be unravelled. But the fact it takes so many episodes to get there, with extensive runtime given to dynamics that simply aren’t that interesting, is what lets this show – and its starry focus Schwimmer – down.

Rob Letterman and Nicholas Stoller’s series adaptation increasingly gets bogged down trying to deliver supernatural horror and angsty teen drama and a thoughtful rumination on how the mistakes of the past generation can reverberate into the present. Still, there’s adequate heart and humor and (TV-PG) gore here to serve as an amiable intro to horror for the adolescent set.

A little extra TV-14 gore and David Schwimmer’s committed attempt to out-dork Justin Long are welcome, but they can’t dispel the sense that this is a mad science experiment gone wrong, an ill-conceived attempt to turn Goosebumps into Riverdale.

Stine's work isn't the most natural fit for a Stranger Things-style streaming melodrama; the adolescent fun of the books gets a little lost in translation.

Instead of streamlining things for a refined first season, following perhaps just one or two of the teens closely and expanding as it progressed into later seasons, the show is a lump of bland YA themes with a sprinkle of Halloween for flair.

ESPERO SUS NUEVAS TEMPORADAS APACIBLE, PERO NO ENTUSIASMADAMENTE Me acuerdo de leer esos magníficos libros de un supuesto terror para los nenes, nunca he sido muy sentimental con el terror, nada me da miedo ni susto, no sé si estoy vacío de emociones con este género, decepcionado o simplemente soy muy realista, y la verdad que para nada lo soy, siempre me dicen: “te crees que estás en una película” y sinceramente hasta en las historias más agonizantes en cuanto a peligrosidad estaría yo más a gusto que en este mundo retorcido, lleno de humanos, la mayoría de ellos miserables y en una época la cual me da pena. Quiero de vuelta mis libros de pesadillas, escritos por R.L. Stine. Reaparecen repentina y anualmente ciertas fibras que me obligan a ver este tipo de series cuando la navidad está acercándose y este espíritu americano me llena mucho para ver cine juvenil. No obstante, no es como las típicas americanadas, aunque algunas sean exquisitas, pero Pesadillas contiene cierta autenticidad y a la vez una agradable lealtad a las novelas aunque ésta no haya seguido el camino de la **** historia es perfecta para un comienzo de un universo en el que este grupo de amigos con cierta similitud a Stranger Things (algo mayores que los de Hawkins) no van a tener descanso, sobre todo por culpa de Harold, y más **** de Slappy. Entre ellos tampoco habrá descanso, con tanta amistad y amor (cliché pero siempre agradable de ver si no lo siento forzado). El guión no me conmueve, no me sorprende pero sí con el sentimiento y emoción que suele estar escrito, y más si me siento igual de sonriente y escalofriante, a buenas, cuando leo las novelas.Todo ocurre en el pueblo de estos cinco jóvenes, Port Lawrence, ellos son: James, Margot, Isabellah, Isaiah y Lucas. Además de personajes que suman mucho a la historia como los padres de los jóvenes, y con un profesor llamado Nathan. Lo causa todo un adolescente fallecido hace 30 años, Harold Biddle, en la época de los padres cuando el instituto. Muerto por un incendio en el sótano de su propia casa. Aparece repentinamente en Port Lawrence para vengarse por lo que supuestamente hicieron los **** grupo de amigos, cada uno afectado con su historia, ese es uno de los grandes puntos positivos de Pesadillas, dónde vemos en varios de los primeros capítulos la perspectiva de cada miembro del grupo. Y por eso la noto algo lenta, lo cual no quiere decir que sea un punto negativo, sino más bien, un punto que resaltar, y disfrutar. Porque esa es a veces la esencia y el objetivo de una serie cuyo miedo no es el terror sino la intriga, el **** me abstengo de mi escaso conocimiento sobre la existencia de la mayoría del reparto: Isa Briones, Miles McKenna, Zack Morris, entre otros. Peor para mí aunque sean recientes en la industria. Pero mi orgullo me pide que sonría y elogie al que sí conozco: Justin Long, dónde a mitad de la historia es él quien lleva el rumbo. Pesadillas, una historia de, espero, numerosas temporadas (en un futuro) cuyo poder es el de la nostalgia: sus novelas. A parte de una historia sobria, a la vez con cierta inquietud, siempre bien recibida. -RICHIE VALERO

At the very beggining seems one thing, but if you give it a chance it'll be better and better as each episode develops itself!

This may have an audience, but I believe it missed the mark with the Goosebumps potential target audiences. Goosebumps should be for spooking young kids without being overly scary or dark, or should be for nostalgic adults who grew up on the books and TV show. Only this show fails to do either things, as it's too dark for kids (blood, violence, etc) and there's very little of Goosebumps to appeal to nostalgic adults. The story picks and chooses from Goosebumps lore, and mildly twists the book elements where they're only vaguely recognizable. This truly feels like a spec script that was unrelated to Goosebumps that only got greenlit on the caveat that it implement Goosebumps elements and title. If you mildly enjoyed CW's Riverdale, you may mildly enjoy this as it feels VERY CW-esque. If you enjoyed Goosebumps, you likely won't enjoy this much or at all. So save yourself, and your kids, the time and just go re-watch the original TV series.

It’s terrible. I turned the subtitles on so I could send my friends pictures of how bad the dialogue was. If I’m being charitable, the best thing is that it’s filmed professionally. That said, I’m not a fan of the muted color palette they’ve gone with. As a 36-year-old, when I see the title Goosebumps I’m thinking this will offer some 90s throwback energy, but they deliver zero of that, instead choosing to go with a feeling of modern YA streaming schlock.

The show is awful. Production values are ok. Justin Long does good. I like Rob Huebal but he's out of his element here. The writing and direction are absolutely awful. I'm convinced Disney is review boosting on sites because there is barely anything positive to say about this show. The show clearly is trying to be Chucky, but that show was a one time novelty that works because of its camp value. Instead we get awful generic high school garbage that can't even get the heart of the stories correct. Thr show made for a younger audience in the 90s is a better viewing experience than this and that isn't nostalgia tinted glasses. This is taking every awful modern writing element and taking it to an extreme. Its endemic to everything Hollywood needs to expunge. The art of creation can be difficult and it's clear that every mind behind the scenes realized that and decided to create nothing instead. Somehow in the attempt to modernize the old stories they managed to craft stories less creative and interesting. There is no lesson behind the haunted mask. Cookoo clock of doom doesn't become a backwards march towards oblivion brought on by revisiting past traumas. Say cheese and die just becomes a story beat. It is just hollow succession of "and something happened" moments. They do nothing clever and it's at the point I hope this goes the way of the Willow show.