Goosebumps (2023), the Disney+ revamp of the series based onR.L. Stine’swork concluded its first season with a surprising theme encompassing its characters — regret. Asthe books and their subsequent television adaptationshave looked to balance curiosity and caution, the recent reboot situates its characters through themes that find them grappling with regret amid crossing certain boundaries or making choices without fully acknowledging possible outcomes.
The new series, whichcomes more than 20 years after its first adaptation, follows agroup of five high school studentsstumbling on a twisted journey to investigate the tragic disappearance of a teen nearly 30 years ago named Harold Biddle (Ben Cockell) while discovering secrets from their own parents’ past. The premise alone focuses on a secret shame, or regret, which one generation unfortunately thrusts onto the next. Most of the season has the kids face the ghost of Biddle, who blames the kids’ parents for his death. Theseries also channels this feeling through each of its characters as some of the immediate actions they take show specific repercussions.
Goosebumps
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.
Saving Puppets From the Puppet Master in ‘Goosebumps’
After the kids stop the ghost of Harold Biddle and discard the possessed puppet called Slappy (Chris Geere), they are left to continue on with their lives. Harold’s relative Nathan Bratt (Justin Long), who was possessed by Biddle,navigates the traumatic incident by turning it into a story to be published.However, desperate for a new ending, he makes his own twist byfinding and reviving Slappy. The puppet then has Bratt find a coffin containing Slappy’s original body, Kanduu (Geere), and releases the soul contained in the puppet back into the body. The reawakened Kanduu turns all the residents into life-sized puppets that he controls. The kids are left to save their town from the recent puppet-turned-magic user.
WhileBratt makes this disastrous choice, the kids go to Seattle with their friend Margot (Isa Briones) as she contemplates moving there with her mother. Once the five return home, Kanduu attempts to place each of them under his spell. Lucas (Will Price), being the first to return, succumbs to Kanduu’s spell. As the others return, they soonrealize something suspicious has occurred and are led to a trap by puppet Lucas. Bratt and Kanduu elaborate on Kanduu’s origin story about how he acquired magical knowledge and wanted to use a circus to carry out his plan until the circus’ boss trapped Kanduu’s soul in the Slappy ventriloquist puppet. Now that Bratt has freed him, Kanduu states his intention to unleash a menagerie of monsters on the world.
The kids outmaneuver Kanduu by undoing the spell he used to keep him alive, but Isaiah (Zack Morris) is shot during the battle. A devastated Margot uses one of Kanduu’s spells to resurrect Isaiah, summoning Kanduu’s ghost as well. Thefinal scene mimics the one from earlier in the series, whereBratt is being possessedby the ghost he sees in a public bathroom mirror, instead of his own reflection. The ghost in this instance is Kanduu instead of Biddle.
Magic Forces ‘Goosebumps’ Characters to Confront Their Internal Struggles
All the show’s characters have to confront the mistakes they have made asthe supernatural phenomena force them to acknowledge new ways to move on. The first five episodes exploreeach of the five kids' respective character flawsas they work through them together during the season’s progression. His journey has Isaiah go from selfish to selfless as he works with others. Isaiah often ignores others around him, as he is trying to get a football scholarship. Once he is in possession of a camera that shows gruesome events transpiring in the photo’s subject, hegoes deeper into his selfishness until he is injured and works with the other four kids.
Isabella (Ana Yi Puig) learns that she has to reach out to others for the attention and comfort she craves. Isabella, who often feels invisible, and behaves sheepishly in person,uses a supernatural mask to gain more confidenceas she begins to transform into a physical embodiment of her online trolling persona. Once she finds herself scaring her younger brother, she discards the mask and symbolically, the negative internet persona. James (Miles McKenna) understands that he has to be himself to connect with those who will care about him. When he is in a time loop, he finds an ideal way for his crush to like him and confronts duplicates made from each attempt where he failed to get out of the time loop. James’ desire to be liked by everyone, confuses those closest to him while the impostors take his place.
Lucas has to be more cautious, so he can be present for those he cares about. He is given supernatural abilities to pursue the daredevil aspirations of his deceased father, but Lucas fails to realize that reckless behaviors also affect those around him. Once Lucas and his mother talk together about the grief surrounding his father, he is able to prioritize others in his life instead of engaging in reckless behavior. Margot learns that she has to be more direct, so she can work things out with her loved ones. The lack of receiving answers from her mother, pushes Margot to find answers from a dangerous source,in the form of a scrapbook, which can trap the reader’s mind within its pages. In the season finale, Margot’s regret about not being honest about her feelings towards Isaiah is one of the reasons she brings him back to life with Kanduu’s magic.
How ‘Goosebumps’ Adapts an Anthology
The episode alsoalludes to a vague magic system, whichmay be crucial if the series is renewed. Kanduu’s origin story followed him as a dying soldier in the middle of combat until he fell into a mysterious cave containing magical knowledge. Kanduu mentioned how the spells saved his life, but could also create and summon ghosts as well as other monsters. He explains thathis motivation for turning the town into puppets was, so they could be sacrificed to bring monsters back into the world. The logic is that if people focused on actual monsters, then there would be less of a shift in finding conflict between other people.
The motivation and goal of creating monsters seem to coincide with the narrative. Unlike the original serieswhich was an anthology, this oneestablishes a monster-of-the-week trope. Additionally, the series' focal characters only grew after they encountered the magical scenarios, which aids in Kanduu’s proposition that people working together against supernatural threats, shift their focus away from human conflict. The implications that arise from the show’s magic system coincide with the show’s theme that doing something that seems like a good idea at the moment, may create unintended consequences. Similar to the parents’ attempt to save Biddle from Slappy 30 years ago, which got him killed, Margot’s attempt to save Isaiah brought back Kanduu. The showpresents a form of personified regret, which the characters have the opportunity to confront together.
Goosebumps (2023)is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ in the U.S.
Watch on Disney+
