School Spirits Season 3 shifts into darker horror as Maddie and Simon swap roles

Collider writes that School Spirits Season 3 flips its narrative and leans into horror, with the new season premiering January 28 on Paramount+.

Of the season's eight episodes, the first three were provided for review and show a clear role reversal: Maddie (Peyton List) has returned to her physical body while Simon (Kristian Ventura) is trapped in a red scar and takes up Maddie’s mantle in the afterlife. The season amplifies darker elements—new villains and creepy entities, an ultra‑strict authority figure, a Carrie‑style bloodbath sequence—and introduces Jennifer Tilly in a small but attention‑grabbing part that the review says helps craft the show's dread‑laden atmosphere. The show also leans heavier into themes of grief, loss and adolescent anxiety, fleshing out supporting characters such as Yuri and Rhonda, and expands settings like the hospital following Xavier’s near‑death ability to communicate with the dead.

Reviewers say the writing and direction keep the expanded supernatural rules and new locations coherent, and Peyton List delivers some of her strongest work so far, though a few narrative choices undercut stakes. With only the first three episodes available to reviewers, it remains too soon to judge the full payoff, but the season is described as gearing up for supernatural chaos and could potentially become the series' strongest and scariest installment yet.