What Really Happened To Matty & His Friends At Camp Nightmare In Goosebumps: The Vanishing
Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Goosebumps: The Vanishing
It takes a long time for Goosebumps: The Vanishing to finally explain what happened to Matty and his friends in 1994, but the eventual explanation does make sense. While 2023’s Goosebumps adaptation was a lot of fun, viewers should not get too attached to the RL Stine show’s main characters. Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s cast of characters is all new, with the series ignoring season 1’s plot and telling an entirely original story. Anyone hoping for closure on Goosebumps season 1’s cliffhanger ending will need to wait a little longer.
Luckily, the creators of Goosebumps told The Hollywood Reporter that future seasons might bring back the characters from season 1 and Goosebumps: The Vanishing. Until then, Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s plot is the most recent offering from the franchise. Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s story sees David Schwimmer’s botanist Anthony Brewer look into his teenage brother Matty’s mysterious disappearance 30 years earlier in 1994. Anthony eventually finds out what happened to Matty in Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s finale when Dr. Ramona Pamani’s attempts to cover up the reality of Camp Nightmare finally fall apart.
Matty & His Friends Have Been In The Alien's Pods Since 1994 In Goosebumps: The Vanishing
Matty, Hannah, And The Survivors Are Freed By Anthony In The Present Day
In Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s ending, viewers learn that Matty, Hannah, and the rest of the teens have been trapped in alien pods since 1994. Although they were presumed dead, the teens were actually alive through this experience, although they were not conscious and did not age while inside the pods. In Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s finale, Anthony is trapped by Dr. Pamani in Camp Nightmare, the underground facility that houses the spaceship. Pamani sends Cece, Devin, Frankie, Trey, Alex, and CJ down to retrieve him, but warns them not to stay too long. The teens eventually free themselves and Anthony.
At first, it seems like Matty, Hannah, and the rest of the teens trapped in alien pods are still the same people they were in 1994.
As they escape, a quick-thinking Anthony manages to free his brother and the other teens from their pods. At first, it seems like Matty, Hannah, and the rest of the teens trapped in alien pods are still the same people they were in 1994. Anthony has an emotional reunion with his brother, who reassures him that he wasn’t to blame for his disappearance decades earlier. Meanwhile, Devin has an awkward conversation with Hannah, who appeared to him as a ghost controlled a set of alien spores only a few episodes earlier. This hints at the dark fate of the survivors.
Why Matty & His Friends Turned Into Alien Creatures After Being Rescued By Anthony
The Spaceship Caused The Survivors To Fuse With Their Alien Captors
Image via Disney+
Only a matter of hours after their escape, the teens who made it out of Camp Nightmare transformed into alien creatures. Like Goosebumps season 1, Goosebumps: The Vanishing references numerous RL Stine books in its story. However, this twist is truly unexpected. One moment, the teens seem healthy and are adjusting to modern life, and the next they have become ravenous alien creatures intent on encasing Cece, Devin, and the rest of the Gravesend teens in the pods that once trapped them. However, this shocking revelation is foreshadowed when Dr. Pamani revives her father, and he almost instantly transforms into a creature.
The alien spaceship is taken hostage by Dr. Pamani and the researchers, and it defends itself by taking human hostages in turn.
Dr. Pamani’s father warns her that she needs to “Let it go,” and Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s ending makes it clear that he is referring to the link between the aliens and their human captives. The alien spaceship is taken hostage by Dr. Pamani and the researchers, and it defends itself by taking human hostages in turn. The longer these humans are held hostage in pods, the more their DNA fuses with that of the alien ship. This is why Pamani’s father transforms so soon after his revival, while the teens abducted twenty years later take longer to change.
What Happened To Matty & The Others When The Alien Ship Left The Underground Facility
Matty And His Fellow Survivors Left With The Spaceship
As Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s finale reaches its last act, Anthony and Jen rush to free the alien spaceship before Anthony’s kids, Alex, CJ, Trey, and Frankie are all irreversibly turned into alien creatures. They succeed but at a tragic cost. Matty, Hannah, and the rest of Camp Nightmare’s 1994 survivors go into space with the aliens when the ship leaves, since they are as much alien as human at this stage. Where Goosebumps season 1’s story ended on an ambiguous note, Goosebumps: The Vanishing at least offers Anthony closure and clarity when Matty tells him to let go.
In the final scenes, Alex, Trey, CJ, and Frankie bid a fond farewell to Cece, Devin, and Anthony. Devin tells his new girlfriend Frankie that he will return to attend Gravesend High, much to her delight, and all seems well. However, it is important to note that Trey was held in an alien pod for days earlier in the season and never turned into an alien creature. To acknowledge this, Goosebumps: The Vanishing’s last scene sees Trey cough up an alien slug and respond with worry, afraid the cycle might soon begin again.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Goosebumps
- Release Date
- October 13, 2023
- Cast
- David Schwimmer, Jayden Bartels, Francesca Noel, Galilea La Salvia, Elijah M. Cooper, Ana Ortiz, Zack Morris, Justin Long, Ana Yi Puig, Miles McKenna, Will Price, Isa Briones, Rachael Harris, Rob Huebel
- Writers
- Nicholas Stoller, Rob Letterman, Kevin Murphy
- Franchise(s)
- Goosebumps
- Creator(s)
- Rob Letterman, Nicholas Stoller
- Seasons
- 1
- Story By
- R.L. Stine
