‘Goosebumps: The Vanishing’ Preview – New Season Features Found Footage and This Classic Stine Tale [Interview]

Viewers, it is time once again to beware…

A little more than a year has passed since R.L. Stine’s monstrous creations once again took root on our television screens, this time manifesting as a dark, aged-up departure from the franchise’s sugary hued history. Combining classic Goosebumps lore with modern thrills and a grounded approach that allowed the heightened frights and characterizations to reclaim some of what made them so terrifying to young readers in the first place, the new show aimed to forge a fresh and frightening path to the franchise for newcomers and longtime acolytes alike.

With new season Goosebumps: The Vanishing, the show returns to screens once more. Staying ever true to its roots, Goosebumps: The Vanishing is an entirely new story of the grander anthology series that maintains the more mature and grounded tonalities that so strikingly differentiated the previous season from what had come before.

In the build-up to the release of Goosebumps: The Vanishing on Friday, January 10, Bloody Disgusting caught up with executive producers Rob Letterman and Hilary Winston, as well as two of the upcoming seasons’ main cast members, Jayden Bartels and Sam McCarthy, to discuss what they hope to bring to the ever-expanding Goosebumps universe, the evolving anthology structure of the show, and what the creatives are most excited to see come to life this season.

“I’ve been living with Goosebumps for a while,” Rob Letterman reflects. “It’s a sandbox to play in the genre and subgenres of horror that can lead to all kinds of different places. It never stops being something that inspires you creatively.”

“I think my very first encounter with Goosebumps was probably a book, I was a huge reader as a kid,” Jayden Bartels says. Bartels plays CeCe, sent to live with her and her twin brother’s divorced father (played by David Schwimmer) in Brooklyn for the summer where sinister things begin to transpire in the basement.

“I also watched the movies. But I really didn’t know how big the universe was until the show,” Bartels continues. “One of my main goals was to have the people that grew up watching the TV show or reading the books feel something similar to what they did originally and maybe spark some nostalgia.”

“I hope that people who have loved Goosebumps for so long feel that we upheld the torch and honored it,” Sam McCarthy says. McCarthy plays Devin, CeCe’s twin, in Goosebumps: The Vanishing. “And then, on another level, I hope the more casual fan enjoys it and connects with it. I hope there’s something in it on a human level, whether it’s dealing with the ordinary or the extraordinary, that people connect with.”

Beyond upholding the franchise’s storied history of the spooky and the strange, the cadre of dedicated creatives also felt it was important to continue to build the new series atop a foundation of its anthology roots.

“It was not the original plan, but it really fits Goosebumps like a glove,” Hilary Winston remarks. “It is the absolute right way to tell these stories. It is so fun to take the model that we did for the previous season and apply it here, delving into specific titles and forming them around a big, central mystery with characters you really connect with and the familiar titles that people know and love, like Monster Blood and Stay Out of the Basement.”

“We try to look for our version,” Letterman says. “There has been a lot of great stuff done with Goosebumps and we want to give both fans and the uninitiated a new angle on this really cool world.”

While the show does stand on its own as compared to what has come before, the story is still tethered to a classic Goosebumps story with Stay Out of the Basement as its anchor. Still, despite the countless options of which story to choose as the season’s mainstay, when talking to those involved with the making of the show, it seemed the story presented itself as an obvious choice.

“Stay Out of the Basement is such a perfect example of what makes Goosebumps so great as a kid in a bookstore,” Winston says. “If you see Stay Out of the Basement, well, you have to know what’s in the basement!”

“We wanted it to kind of have a family unit because we have David Schwimmer,” Letterman says. “It was the perfect storyline to hang everything on. Just having the point of view from him as a dad with two kids and that really uncomfortable sense of how to deal with something when your dad could be the monster.”

“They took Stay Out of the Basement and that’s where they got Anthony’s character and the main story,” Bartels reflects. “But CeCe and Devin never truly existed before this and so being able to have a small part in creating the Goosebumps franchise, mixing in characters that are fully ourselves with the iconic monsters, was really interesting and exciting. I wanted to bring a genuine look into what it’s like to be a teen in New York. We don’t know what it’s like to deal with monsters in real life, but we can try!”

Given the steadfast focus and determination to craft the best possible reimagining of R.L. Stine’s twisted domain, it is no surprise that the cast and crew carried their horror influences to set. Those influences even materialized with Eduardo Sánchez (co-director of The Blair Witch Project) joining in on the fun to direct an upcoming found-footage episode of the series.

“We were really inspired to do a found footage episode and how do you not reference Blair Witch when you’re talking about found footage,” Winston says. “To get Eduardo Sánchez to come do an episode for us was amazing. Each episode has its own horror tone and its own homages. To have somebody who basically invented the genre to come on and direct was so incredible and fun.”

“I love found footage and I love The Blair Witch Project, so the fact that he was on our show was mind-blowing,” Bartels reflects. Sam McCarthy agrees, chiming in with an enthusiastic, “He was great!”

“Being in a horror project was a bucket list item for me,” Bartels continues. “I love horror. My favorite horror movies are Creep (2014) and Creep 2 (2017), but I also love As Above, So Below (2014). I love it all!”

It is clear that Goosebumps: The Vanishing has more than a few tantalizing terrors hidden up its sleeve this season and while much is being kept under wraps, the creatives did allow a sneak peak into what they are most excited to unleash upon unsuspecting viewers.

“I think there’s literally an interview of me like a year or two ago saying that my dream is to be on a horror project — so that!” Bartels remarks.

“There’s a lot,” Letterman reflects, “but, I would say that top of mind is the fact that we went to New York and we shot a side of New York that you don’t really see. We were in the bowels of Brooklyn — for real — and we made that a character in the show in a big way. It’s really beautiful to look at this season. New York gives you so much from a horror standpoint because it’s so real, grounded and gritty that it does make it scarier when you inject something monstrous into it.”

“The season feels very tactile and scrappy,” Letterman continues. “We went even further with how edgy, dark and scary this one is.”

Hilary Winston chimed in with the episode she is most excited to see released, while being extremely careful not to reveal any of the gory details.

“I would say episode 2.07, which we have never been able to talk about in interviews because it would just give too much away,” Winston says. “It is a cool, stylistic episode that’s really beautiful and different. It’s directed by Gillian Robespierre who is an amazing director and independent filmmaker. It has a great cast and it’s just so unexpected. I think it will be fun to talk about after.”

“I have to be so careful,” Winston continues, “I can’t say much, but I can say who directed it!”

“Hilary has to talk around the perimeter of it because every spoiler in the show happens on that episode,” Letterman adds.

We here at Bloody Disgusting are excited too, not only to discover what episode 2.07 has in store but to see the entirety of Goosebumps: The Vanishing play out in all of its spine-tingling splendor. The epic Goosebumps saga has been going strong for over 30 years, but together executive producers Hilary Winston and Rob Letterman and series stars Jayden Bartels and Sam McCarthy are ensuring that Stine’s indelible legacy continues to be guided by sturdy, and enduringly spooky, hands.

Viewers, well… you know what to do.