40 Fun Facts About Welcome to Dead House

R. L. Stine, who launched Goosebumps with Welcome to Dead House, is nicknamed after which adult horror novelist?

Stephen King is the comparison, though Stine started out far from horror, writing joke books for children under the name Jovial Bob Stine.

Which horror director wrote a full, never-filmed 1990s movie screenplay of Welcome to Dead House?

George A. Romero recast the townspeople as sympathetic victims who long to rest in peace, and invented a town boss to be the true villain. The script was shelved.

In Welcome to Dead House, why do the townspeople kill the pet that Amanda and Josh arrive with?

Dogs can sense them, Ray admits: animals know the living dead on sight, so the pet had to be silenced before it gave the whole town away.

What is the family name of Amanda and Josh, the siblings at the heart of Welcome to Dead House?

Benson is the family's name. Twelve-year-old Amanda tells the story, while her brother Josh is a year younger and a good deal more stubborn.

In Welcome to Dead House, a letter says Amanda's father has inherited the house from which relative?

A great-uncle he had never heard of supposedly left it to him. The relative never existed: the letter was bait to bring a living household to town.

In Welcome to Dead House, what do Amanda and Josh find in the cemetery that exposes the local children?

Their gravestones tell the truth: every child who welcomed the newcomers is buried in the cemetery, and Ray admits that the stone carved for him is his.

In Welcome to Dead House, what must the townspeople take from a living person once a year to carry on?

Fresh blood from a newly killed victim buys the town another twelve months, which is why outsiders keep being lured to the same house.

At the climax of Welcome to Dead House, what do Amanda and Josh push over to flood the townspeople with sunlight?

A tree had kept the gathering place in permanent shadow. Once it comes down, daylight pours in and the townspeople crumble where they stand.

As Amanda and her parents drive away at the end of Welcome to Dead House, what does she see pulling up outside?

The next occupants are arriving, led by a man who looks just like Mr. Dawes. The trap has been reset before the survivors are even out of the driveway.

Which gloomy town, a four-hour drive from their old home, do Amanda and Josh move to in Welcome to Dead House?

Dark Falls is so thickly overgrown that its roads are dim at midday, and Amanda notices that nobody is ever out in the yards or on the pavements.

In Welcome to Dead House, what job does friendly Mr. Dawes hold in the family's new town?

Real estate agent is his cover: Mr. Dawes hands the same house to one unsuspecting household after another, and his own grave shows he died years ago.

What is the name of the white terrier that Amanda and Josh bring along in Welcome to Dead House?

Petey is usually well behaved, but he barks and bolts from the day the family arrives, and twice runs off to the cemetery as if he knows what lies there.

In Welcome to Dead House, what does Josh shine in Ray's face to rescue Amanda in the cemetery?

A flashlight does it: caught in the halogen beam, Ray's flesh melts away until only a heap of bones is left on the ground.

In Welcome to Dead House, the yellow gas that doomed the whole town escaped from a factory making what?

Plastics were the town's trade until the accident. The poisonous fog drifted over every home and left the residents undead and unable to bear bright light.

In Welcome to Dead House, the two upstairs bay windows of the old house remind Amanda of what?

A pair of eyes, staring down at the road below, is how the windows strike her on the very first visit, long before anything goes wrong.

In Welcome to Dead House, which best friend visits Amanda on her last night in the old neighbourhood?

Kathy comforts her by pointing out that the new town is only a few hours away. The TV version dropped the scene and renamed the friend Jennifer.

In Welcome to Dead House, where beside the cemetery do the townspeople gather to feed on Amanda's parents?

An amphitheater at the cemetery's edge is the town's sunless meeting place, and the whole population turns out there for the yearly feast.

In Welcome to Dead House, how does the undead girl Karen treat her destroyers as the sunlight finishes her?

Karen thanks them, grateful to be released: a hint that the children of the town never wanted their endless half-life.

In Welcome to Dead House, what odd claim do both Ray and Karen make about Amanda's new home?

They once lived there, and so did every child in town: each household was lured to the same address. Amanda makes the claim herself as she leaves.

Which artist painted the original cover of Welcome to Dead House and nearly a hundred more Goosebumps covers?

Tim Jacobus won the job with this painting: the publisher tried two artists on the opening books and kept him for his saturated colours.

Which American publisher released Welcome to Dead House in July 1992?

Scholastic launched the whole Goosebumps series with it, and by 1996 this title by itself had passed a million copies sold.

Which Goosebumps book about a botanist father was released in the same month as Welcome to Dead House?

Stay Out of the Basement reached shops alongside it in July 1992, with a cover by a different artist, a rarity among the early books.

Before Welcome to Dead House, R. L. Stine was best known for which teen horror series he began in 1989?

Fear Street made Stine a teen bestseller, and its success led a book packager to ask him for scary stories aimed at younger children.

The TV version of Welcome to Dead House adds which lucky object that keeps the townspeople at bay?

A wreath, antique and ugly, hangs over the fireplace in the TV version. The neighbours claim it draws the dead to the house, when in truth it repels them.

The TV version of Welcome to Dead House was shot in which Canadian city?

Toronto doubled for the gloomy town, and a decommissioned power station in the city's Port Lands supplied the grim industrial skyline.

Which US network premiered the TV version of Welcome to Dead House as a one-hour prime-time special in 1997?

Fox gave the story an evening slot instead of its usual children's block, and R. L. Stine hosted the hour himself.

A sequel to Welcome to Dead House was announced for which spin-off line that never reached shops?

Goosebumps Gold was due in 2000 with a festive return to the house, and the cover art was finished. The line was cancelled when Stine and his publisher fell out.

Which fast-food chain gave away a 3-D puzzle of the house from Welcome to Dead House in 1997?

Taco Bell handed out the puzzle in 1997, the same year the story reached television as a one-hour special.

Welcome to Dead House returned in 2010 with brand-new cover art under which reissue banner?

Classic Goosebumps reissued it as the line's thirteenth title, with a Brandon Dorman painting and a few lines of the prose quietly smoothed out.

In Welcome to Dead House, what is the first name of Mr. Dawes, the only one in his family to bear it?

Compton is a name he cheerfully admits he cannot explain: he tells the newcomers he has no idea where it came from.

In Welcome to Dead House, which title does Ray hold among the undead for trailing each household that arrives?

The Watcher shadows every newcomer to make sure nobody guesses the town's plan too soon, which is why Ray keeps turning up wherever the children go.

In Welcome to Dead House, why does Mr. Dawes wear a wide-brimmed black hat during the family's first visit?

To shade his skin from daylight is the true reason, though it reads as a salesman's quirk at first. Bright light is the one thing the townspeople cannot survive.

The town in Welcome to Dead House lies in deep gloom, yet the story is set in the middle of which season?

Summer it is: the newcomers first visit in mid-July, yet dead brown leaves cover the ground and the sun barely gets through.

The TV version of Welcome to Dead House blames the town's fate on an accident at what kind of workplace?

Chemical plant is the answer on screen, spelled out in an old newspaper. The episode also makes the disaster recent, a mere three years in the past.

A famous horror director's unfilmed script of Welcome to Dead House is held in the library of which American university?

Pittsburgh holds the screenplay in its library, where it came to light after the director's death. It is not available to the general public.

Race to Dead House, a 2020 Goosebumps tie-in to Welcome to Dead House, is what kind of product?

A board game, it joined a long line of spin-offs that already included trading cards and jigsaw puzzles.

Which book packager, co-founded by R. L. Stine's wife Jane, developed Goosebumps and Welcome to Dead House?

Parachute Press, founded in 1983, shaped the series with Stine after another of its founders urged him to write scary stories for younger readers.

R. L. Stine, the author of Welcome to Dead House, was born in which Ohio city in 1943?

Columbus was his birthplace. He grew up in nearby Bexley and edited the campus humour magazine at Ohio State before moving to New York to write.

Which actor played R. L. Stine in the 2015 Goosebumps film, whose credits feature the Welcome to Dead House cover?

Jack Black played a fictional version of the author, while Stine himself slipped into the film in a cameo as a drama teacher named Mr. Black.

On the original cover of Welcome to Dead House, how is the front door of the old house shown?

Slightly open, as if inviting the reader inside, with a strange figure lit up in a window above. Later editions kept reworking the same house.