There’s something weirdly comforting about watching teenagers bond over trauma, especially when they’re being stalked by ancient curses, haunted masks, and their parents’ secrets. Welcome to Goosebumps 2023: not your mother’s bedtime story. Disney+ and Hulu’s newest take on the R.L. Stine franchise isn’t just rebooted—it’s reanimated with depth, danger, and, most importantly, Radiohead.
“I had the same thought as you,” Ana Yi Puig tells me. “This could be so cheesy and so wrong—or it could be incredible.” Thankfully, it’s the latter. The new Goosebumps series takes the structure of a shared horror universe and injects it with enough coming-of-age angst, generational grief, and unexpected queerness to feel more like Stranger Things with a therapist.
“This is not a carbon copy,” Briones insists. “It’s not even a carbon copy of the old series. They gave us space to create these characters from the ground up. But the Easter eggs are delicious.”
Briones, who plays Margot, adds: “My episode was based on Reader Beware—those Choose Your Own Adventure books. Which meant I got to build it all from scratch. Margot’s watching her mom in the ‘90s and gathering all this information. That’s her superpower: observing and learning.”
The show’s core cast is a classic Breakfast Club remix—an unlikely group of teens drawn together not by convenience, but by shared horror. “You’ve got a Black jock and an out gay man as best friends,” Yi Puig says. “And it’s not some big joke or statement. It just is. Because that’s how the world is now.”
That authenticity carries through even when romance shows up mid-demon possession. “We all laughed about that,” Yi Puig says. “Like, who has time for a love triangle when Slappy’s trying to kill you?” But Yi Puig is quick to defend it. “That’s real life, though. In your darkest moments, that’s when you form your deepest relationships. You’re trauma bonded.”
Briones agrees—though she’s not exactly rooting for the conventional couples. “I’m team Margot and Lucas,” she offers, then laughs. “But if I had my way? I’d be team Isabella and Margot. They’d take care of each other.”
Beyond the emotional stakes, the series earns its Gen X cred with a soundtrack that sounds like a flannel-wrapped mixtape from 1996. “We freaked out,” says Briones. “Courtney Barnett, Nine Inch Nails, R.E.M., Radiohead, Elastica… it’s not predictable. It’s not basic. It blends Gen Z and millennial nostalgia so well.”
“My mom screamed when she heard the R.E.M. song,” Yi Puig laughs. “She didn’t even care about the episode. Just: ‘Is that R.E.M.?!’”
Still, this isn’t just a spooky nostalgia trip. The show dares to keep going after the final scare. “Episode 8 feels like a season finale,” says Yi Puig. “But then we get episode 9—where it’s all about the aftermath. Nobody ever shows that. Horror ends with a high-five and credits. But what about the PTSD?”
Briones nods. “You get to see how everyone deals with trauma in their own way. Margot runs. Lucas can’t move on. And that’s what makes the show so special. It’s not just monsters. It’s what those monsters leave behind.”
And if there’s a season two? Expect more mistakes. More consequences. “You can’t not pick up the mask again,” Briones says. “You can’t not wonder, ‘What if I bring Isaiah back?’ That’s what makes these stories so human. We’re curious. We make deals we shouldn’t. That’s Goosebumps.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
