GOOSEBUMPS: THE VANISHING
ITS ALIVE
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS ROB LETTERMAN AND HILARY WINSTON EXPLAIN HOW THEY GOT
WORDS: TARA BENNETT
THE LAST FEW YEARS HAVE BEEN undeniably great for horror fans. Whether it’s on the big screen or streaming, the quality and diversity of output has been impressive. But that means some worthy titles were rather overlooked, like the Disney+ anthology series Goosebumps.
Yes, we’re referencing the godfather of Young Adult horror, author RL Stine, who’s been the horror genre gateway drug for millions of readers since 1992. In the intervening three decades, Stine’s works have been turned into an episodic anthology TV series, a 2015 feature directed by Rob Letterman (Monsters Vs Aliens) starring Jack Black, and this serialised anthology revival.
Season one of this Goosebumps was developed and executive produced by Nicholas Stoller and Letterman, and aired in 2023. While it was picked up for a second season, Letterman and showrunner Hilary Winston were asked by their studio partners to not continue from the cliffhanger at the end of their first season. Instead, they were encouraged to start afresh with new characters and stories based on Stine’s library of work.
“When we wrapped our heads around it, Goosebumps really is an anthology series,” Letterman explains to SFX about their new approach. “Every book is different, and they do end on weird twists. They end in this promise of maybe things aren’t okay, so it does fit the canon.
"Then there’s something really liberating in being able to just start fresh with different monsters and pulling from different books. We love exploring different subgenres of horror and expanding it. We kind of joked around like, ‘How scary can a character feel going through another year of bumping into monsters?’ "It’s not fresh, so what does this thing turn into? If we’re going to capture the initial fear and the universal fear, it made a lot of sense to start with new characters, new story, new world.”