Mostly Ghostly is a series of middle grade horror/comedy books by R. L. Stine. Lasting from 2004 to 2006, They center around Max Doyle who discovers that his house used to be home to two kids named Nicky and Tara Roland. Their ghosts appear one day, with no memory of how they died or where their parents went. Now Max must help them out while fighting various evil ghosts and other supernatural forces.
It consists of the following books:
- Who Let the Ghosts Out?
- Have You Meet My Ghoulfriend?
- One Night in Doom House
- Little Camp of Horrors
- Ghouls Gone Wild
- Let's Get This Party Haunted!
- Freaks and Shrieks
- Don't Close Your Eyes!
The first book was adapted to film in 2008, which lead to a sequel six years later. The third film was released two years after that, with no sign of a follow up as of this writing. The series is notable in that is one of the few R.L. Stine series to follow one specific group of characters instead of being an anthology, and it has a Myth Arc involving trying to find Nicky and Tara's parents and possibly bringing them back to life.
The books and the films provide examples of:
- Aborted Arc: While the books were able to resolve the arc with Nicky and Tara's parents, the thread of them finding a way to come back to life is left hanging. The films weren't fully able to resolve the main arc by the end of the third film, and it's unlikely a fourth will be made.
- Abusive Parents: Max's father is constantly putting him down for not being as strong as him.
- His mother, thankfully, is much sweeter to him in the books and movies, is much more concerned whenever something bad would happen to him, and always stands up to him whenever his brother would tease him (though not so much with his father, which might imply much). However, as well as her intentions may be, she is still indifferent at times, standing up for his brother instead when the two argue despite it most often being the fault of the older brother, and as with everyone else, not believing him either whenever he would ramble about ghosts.
- Actor Allusion: The first film wasn't the first time that David Deluise played a dad with a son named Max who does magic.
- Adapted Out: Max's friend Aaron does not appear in the films.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The third film takes the "Max possibly moving away" subplot from the Ghouls Gone Wild book.
- Adaptational Dumbass: While Traci in the books wasn't a genius, the film has her as a bit more of an airhead.
- Adaptational Heroism: The berserker ghoul in Have You Met My Ghoulfriend was simply a mindless evil ghoul, while the film not only makes it a woman but gives her a bigger role and ultimately makes her a good guy who was being manipulated by Phears.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Nicky and Tara's parent don't physically appear until Little Camp of Horrors, the fourth book, but appear in the third film.
- Adaptational Expansion: The books were thin enough that plot elements were added to the films to make the stories a bit more complex. One Night in Doom House in particular mostly just keeps the basic skeleton of the plot and adds in everything else.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Max's father is a bit kinder to him in the films, and even comes to respect his magic hobby by the end of the first movie.
- Adaptational Ugliness: The books describe Max's father as a strong and muscular man. In the films, he is played by David DeLuise, Eric Allen Kramer, and Peter DeLuise, none of which are strong or muscular.
- Adaptation Induced Plothole: Of a sort. How Phears and his ghouls were captured is not fully explained until the third book, leaving the films to create their own version for the second film. So when time came to do the third movie, they just used the book's explanation, which to people who only watched the movies will come across as an odd contradiction.
- Adults Are Useless: The adults, like everyone else, can't see the ghosts and thus are of not much help to Max at all.
- Big Bad: Phears in the first four books and all the films.
- Big Brother Bully: Colin, who is a jock like his father and is always picking on Max.
- Birthday Episode: Let's Get this Party Haunted, where Max gets angry at Nicky and Tara for always getting him in trouble and doesn't invite them to his party.
- Chekhov's Hobby: In Little Camp of Horrors, Max tells us he has been into anagrams recently and explains what they are. This becomes important when he discovers that Phears name is an anagram for his real name.
- Composite Character: The second film removes Traci and replaces her with Cammi, who fulfills the role Traci played in the book. Additionally, Phears takes the role that Mr. Morgo had in One Night in Doom House
- Demoted to Extra: Mr. Morgo is the main villain in the One Night in Doom House book but in the film he only appears at the beginning and end.
- Deadpan Snarker: Max always has a sarcastic quip for everything.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: An interesting example. Phears didn't "die" in the books until Little Camp of Horrors and it by saying his real name. In the films, he dies in in One Night in Doom House from having his life pod smashed, while he wasn't in that book at all.
- Disney Death: In One Night in Doom House, Nicky and Tara are seemingly "killed" during the battle with the villain, only to show up back at Max's house.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Phears might be a sadistic and cruel ghost, but he has a pet cat he cared for. Max takes advantage of this to defeat him in the second book.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Freaks and Shrieks has Max switching brains with a monkey in order to find out what it knows, as it was the only one to see what happened to Nicky and Tara's parents when Phears escaped their lab.
- Friendly Ghost: Nicky and Tara sometimes make fun of Max, unintentionally putting him in very humiliating situations, but otherwise are pretty nice and helpful to him.
- Ghost Amnesia: In the first book/film, Nicky and Tara appear in front of Max's house with no memory of their death, and wondering why someone is living in what used to be their house.
- Halloween Episode: The very first book and film were one.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Max's father is a big strong beefy man while his wife is skinny and frail.
- I See Dead People: Max is the only one who can see the various ghosts.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Mr. Doyle is a sports obsessed muscular guy while Max is a nerdy kid who is into magic.
- Large Ham: Brian Stepanek is clearly having fun playing the over the top evil Phears.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Despite being ghosts, Nicky and Tara can be hurt. They also disappear at random times after using too much energy.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Smollet in Freaks and Shrieks, who worked for Phears and pretended to know the Rolands so he can captured Nicky and Tara and use them as bait to draw in their parents.
- Never Sleep Again: Don't Close Your Eyes! involves a ghost named Inkweed haunting Max and planning to do horrible things to him when he falls asleep, so Max has to struggle to stay away until he can find a way to stop it.
- Playing with Fire: Mr. Morgo in One Night in Doom House is a fire ghost that can bring the heat to melt things and even people.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Traci and Max end up together by the end of the film, while in the book this didn't happen and they don't get much closer in the other books. They break up by the time the second film rolls around though.
- Running Gag: There's one where Max is constantly talking to Nicky and Tara out in the open, leaving others to think he's talking to him and they usually take what he says as an insult.
- Shout-Out: Stine says the concept of the series was inspired by Topper.
- Significant Anagram: Phears' name turns out to be one for his real name, which is Serapah, which means angel. Saying it out loud is how he is defeated.
- Switching P.O.V.: The books sometimes switch to Nicky's point of view, and Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? even had one from Phears' POV. Freaks and Shrieks briefly has chapters from the POV's of a monkey and the villain scientist.
- The Unfavorite: Max's father greatly prefers Colin to Max, as he shares his interest in athletics while Max is a wimp.
- The mother loves both her sons, thank goodness, but always stands up for Max whenever Colin would bully him, as she hates bullying, and Colin when he and Max would argue (she would disbelieve Max as well as everyone else whenever he would ramble about ghosts).
