Goosebumps follows a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey of the scary, supernatural, and unexplained. As they investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle, they’ll also unearth dark secrets from their parents’ past.

The series draws inspiration from R.L. Stine’s bestselling book series of the same name. It will stream on both Disney+ and Hulu starting October 13.

Weaving Goosebumps together

Goosebumps has been adapted from book to screen a few times before. This series puts a new spin on the books you know and love, weaving familiar stories together into one ongoing narrative. It’s sort of like an interconnected anthology series, where each episode draws from a different book and centers around a different character. 

Book fans will recognize the haunted camera from Say Cheese and Die! as well as the infamous mask and, of course, Slappy the dummy. It’s also fun to see different book stories foreshadowed in early episodes of the series; fans get the chance to hunt for some Easter eggs.

There’s also an intergenerational mystery angle, which does some of the heavy lifting in keeping Goosebumps compelling. Not only do our teen leads have to contend with whatever the “monster of the week” is, they have to figure out how it all links back to Harold Biddle’s death. Plus, they soon realize the mystery of Biddle somehow relates back to their own parents. Overall, it’s a compelling plot device that injects some solid mystery and intrigue to an otherwise formulaic approach to horror.

It’s Disney-fied YA

One of the issues Goosebumps may have is finding the right audience. This iteration of the R.L. Stine series skews towards an older audience than its books, which are made for older kids. A teen adaptation of Stine’s work isn’t a bad idea – Netflix proved a more mature take could work with its Fear Street films.

But I couldn’t help feeling like this Goosebumps feels a bit too Disney-fied. It’s definitely for an audience more mature than children, but it often feels a little too sanitized to appeal to actual teens. I think the target audience for the series probably expects the horrors to be a little darker, the drama to hit a little harder. For me, it often feel into an awkward middle space between childish and young adult drama.

A little spooky, a little soap-y

There’s enough of my favorite Goosebumps books stories to make this series worth tuning in for, although I can’t say it’s my favorite adaptation. The family and friendship dramas play a little too soap-y to feel as genuine as it seems like the show wants. I could also stand for the horror to play a bit scarier, since it is geared toward an older audience. 

I do like how this series is structured, with the modern story tying into one from the ‘90s. Indicating the main characters’ parents might know something more about Biddle’s death than they’re letting on also sets up some good mystery and tension, which I hope the show sustains in the season’s second half. Overall, I wouldn’t consider Goosebumps a standout hit, but if you’re a fan of the books it’s a perfectly good show to throw on to get in the spooky spirit.

Goosebumps will premiere its first five episodes on both Disney+ and Hulu October 13. New episodes will then air weekly on Fridays.

Meanwhile, check out Fright-A-Thon to find more scary content to watch this October.