Goosebumps: The Vanishing's Clever Episode Titles Managed To Hide A Major Monster Reveal

Then, in 2023, the show got a reboot with a new style of anthology format, where each season features a different cast and follows a single story for several episodes. Goosebumps: The Vanishing is the second season in this new format, and in order to keep the big twist ending under wraps, the show had to employ some unique tactics after its release. This included keeping the episode titles for the last episode as simply "Episode 8" instead of the current title for several days after the show was released.

Goosebumps: The Vanishing's New Episode 8 Title Is Based On An Alien Story

It's A Title Taken Straight From The R.L. Stine Novels

Goosebumps: The Vanishing follows a story about a group of missing kids from 1994. In the present day, another group of teenagers shares stories about the missing kids, and venture into the abandoned site where the previous incident occurred. Following this, odd events begin to play out, with what appear to be plants that can come to life and attack people or take over bodies beginning to cause havoc. But as the final two episodes of the season reveal, these plant creatures are actually aliens.

Once the final episode had it's title updated from the generic listing to "Invasion of the Body Squeezers," it became clear why this was the case. Considering there is a book by Stine which follows a similar story, and focuses on aliens taking over bodies and invading, the final title does give it away. And even for viewers who may not be familiar with R.L. Stine's novels, the name is clearly a tribute to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which is a classic alien invasion story that is more widely known.

Why It Was Smart To Hide Goosebumps: The Vanishing's Alien Reveal

The Title Would Have Spoiled The Big Twist Ending

The point of the Goosebumps shows is to explore mystery stories that are unsettling, and gradually reveal the secrets contained within. Had the show listed the episode titles outright, and viewers scanned through the titles just to see how many episodes there would be, it would immediately spoil the surprise of the monsters being aliens in this season. This problem will still persist for anyone who has yet to watch the show and stumbles into the titles, but for viewers who were watching early, the surprise was able to remain concealed.

However, it makes sense for the show to use the title, despite it giving away spoilers about what to expect in the season. For each of the other seven episodes, the titles have all been tributes to novels by Stine. In fact, this is also true of all the episodes in Goosebumps season 1. As a result, the show is clearly making an effort to link up with the books in a way, and using the book titles has been an important way to make the series feel more connected. However, if Goosebumps: The Vanishing had immediately listed the titles, it would spoil the twist.