Night of the Living Dummy saga

The horror book Night of the Living Dummy was written by children's author R. L. Stine as one of the first in the Goosebumps book series. The saga spans over 5 books in the Goosebumps and Goosebumps 2000 series. Next to One Day at Horrorland, the Night of the Living Dummy saga is considered the most successful of all the Goosebumps sagas. It is known for introducing perhaps the most famous Goosebumps villain of all time, Slappy, a ventriloquist's dummy that comes to life.

Night of the Living Dummy

This first book in the saga, surprisingly, hardly features Slappy at all.

Lindy Powell, finds an old ventriloquist's dummy in a Dumpster. It is not known why Slappy was in the dumpster, but from this, readers can determine that Slappy has had a history of mischief that began even before the saga.

Lindy names the dummy "Slappy"( a sadistic dummy) and begins doing routines with it. Her twin sister, Kris, the main character, is instantly jealous and asks for a dummy of her own. Soon, Kris gets a dummy named Mr. Wood.

Soon, acts of mischief begin occurring around the house. They reach a peak when the girls find their kitchen refrigerator emptied of all its food. All of the food, now spoiled, is thrown across the kitchen, as well as the girls' mother's jewelry, with Mr. Wood in the middle of it all. But Lindy reveals that she was behind all of the pranks. Kris is angry.

Then, while practicing with Mr. Wood, Kris finds a yellow piece of paper in Mr. Wood's pocket. She reads aloud the strange words on the paper. Kris then begins routines with Mr. Wood in public, with disastrous results. Mr. Wood seems to have a mind of his own, putting down the audience cruelly and even spewing foul-smelling green gunk out of his mouth. Mr. Wood then reveals himself to Kris and Lindy. He demands that the two girls play his servants, and if they refuse, he is prepared to kill the girls' family. They try to kill Mr. Wood by various means, including decapitating him and even burying him in a suitcase 6 feet under the ground, but Mr. Wood keeps coming back. Mr. Wood decides to make the girls pay by killing their dog. He begins to crush the dog's neck. The dog yelps in pain and runs out of the house, with the girls in pursuit. They end up in a construction site, and, in the story's climax, Mr. Wood is destroyed by a bulldozer. But when the girls return home, they discover Slappy is alive.

At this point in the saga, attention turns to Slappy. From information found in the novels, the reader can deduce that Kris and Lindy smashed a sandwich into the hand notch before he could do any serious trouble and donated him to a pawn shop.

Night of the Living Dummy II

Amy Kramer's dummy, Dennis, is old and his head keeps falling off. So she begs her dad to get her a new one, and her dad returns home from work one day with a new dummy, Slappy. When Amy reads the ancient words that bring him to life (Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karanno), strange things start happening to her sister Sarah's room - and she gets blamed for it all. With no one believing her, she wants to share proof that Slappy is the one terrorizing the family and that Amy is innocent.
As it turns out, her sister knew it was Slappy the whole time, just didn't want to come to terms with it. So he and Amy battle Slappy, then manage to tie him up and throw him in the gutter outside. He shows up again the next morning, and that's when they plan to trick Slappy. Sarah tells her parents to hide in her closet. Jed was supposed to dress up as Dennis and surprise Slappy when he went into Sarah's room. Dennis shows up and attacks Slappy, knocking his head into a metal bedpost and causing it to break in two. In the end, they realize Jed slept through it all - and Dennis was the one who fought Slappy.
The TV Ending, however, leaves Dennis standing on the living room table and saying "It's good to be back in the family."

Night of the Living Dummy III

Trina O'Dell's father has collected dummies, and has a new addition, Slappy, an antique who has a crack in his head (see above). However, after cousin Zane visits, mischievous things happen. Weird sounds are heard, dinners are ruined, and dummies are found in bizarre places.

Both the TV and the book have different endings. But otherwise, the basic plot and characters remain the same.

In the TV adaptation, Slappy, and another dummy called Rocky, come to life. Eventually though, Rocky throws Slappy out the attic window, then lightning strikes Slappy and demolishes him. The TV adaptation featured an appearance from a young Hayden Christensen.

In the book, the main characters attempt to bring Slappy back to his lifeless state by re-reading the spell on the slip of paper in his pocket. However, instead of draining the life out of Slappy, it causes all of the dummies in the attic to come to life and tear Slappy apart, apparently neutralizing him. At the end, however, he is fixed and given to another character, in which Slappy winks before being carried away.

Bride of the Living Dummy
After seeing the famous Jimmy O' James's performance Amanda and Katie love Slappy. Unfortunately,
Jimmy has sent them Slappy. And Amanda and Katie's doll Mary Ellen seems to have a "crush" on him. But who's doing the evil deeds is up in the air? Who wants their bride? First Slappy wants Jillian the main character to be his wife but Mary-Ellen, a big, ugly doll wants to be his bride. At the end, Slappy and Mary-Ellen kill each other with a saw.

The book also reveals a bit about Slappy's past; he was carved out of coffin wood by an evil magician.

Slappy's Nightmare

Slappy's Nightmare is the 23rd book in the Goosebumps Series 2000.It all starts when Slappy ruins Jimmy'O James show by biting an obese child on the ear. Jimmy is fed up with slappy and buy a new dummy named wally. Wally comes with instructions on how to control the evil that went into slappy. Jimmy put a curse on slappy. Slappy has one week to do three good deeds. Wally ruins all three of his good deeds and they fight in a showdown at school. as a twisted ending it was all a dream. Slappy says he's had nightmare then Jimmy says "sometimes dreams come true"!

Revenge of the Living Dummy
Revenge of the Living Dummy is a Goosebumps HorrorLand book set to be released in April 2008 So far, the only thing we know for sure, is that a 12-year-old girl named Britney Crosby finds Slappy. More will be revealed when this is released. Scholastic has posted instalments of the first chapter on .

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