"These are my scariest stories ever," says R.L. Stine, "because I wrote them at the Nightmare Hour." You know when that is...it's when the lights fade, the real world slips into shadow, and the cold, moonlit world of evil dreams takes over your mind."
— Back quote of the book
Nightmare Hour is a 1999 collection of ten short stories by Goosebumps author R. L. Stine. Unlike many of his works, these stories aren't tied to a particular series, but stand on their own as disturbing tales. They range from an encounter with a ghost that wants human skin to a group of suspicious kids arranging an "Alien Club" to spending a night in the hospital on Halloween and being mistaken for an amputation patient.
It was followed by a sequel collection of sorts called The Haunting Hour in 2001. Some of the stories from both books were later adapted as episodes for the 2010-2014 series that was also called The Haunting Hour.
Nightmare Hour provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Stephanie's mom in "Make Me a Witch":Mom: If you tried harder, you would look almost pretty.
- Afraid of Clowns: In the short story "Afraid of Clowns", a boy named Christopher has a fear of clowns, and it doesn't get any better for him when he's taken to the circus. His fear turns out to be completely justified when the clowns turn him into one of them. He does embrace his new status as a Monster Clown, so at least he's not afraid anymore.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Clowns, according to "Afraid of Clowns". This turns out to be true of course since they openly enjoy killing children.
- Aliens Are Bastards: The kids of "Alien Candy" are alien monstrosities that single out chubby children so they can have a meal.
- Amusing Injuries: How the clown and audience respond to Christopher in "Afraid of Clowns", as well as any other previous victims, thinking it is an act (the audience only) but all the while very droll, but of course, not to the victim, and of course, it is not just an act.
- And I Must Scream: The fate of the children who become "Pumpkinheads" get their heads ripped off of their bodies and replaced by pumpkins while they remain fully conscious as they're living heads are planted in the ground by magical vines constantly strangling them.
- Arc Words: "You could DIE laughing!" in "Afraid of Clowns" since the demonic clowns murder kids by Tickle Torture.
- Artifact of Doom: The titular Black Mask is proven to be a bringer of destruction since the heroes die following its power.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- "Alien Candy" ends with the club members revealing that they're real aliens who gain new recruits to eat as they murder their victim of the week Walter with nobody none the wiser to their killing sprees.
- "I'm Not Martin" ends with Martin switching the charts so Sean is taken away for a foot-removal operation Martin had to undergo....though when
Fridge Logic kicks in, you realize the real Martin is going to get caught eventually and Sean will be set for life from the enormous lawsuit the hospital will get slapped with. - Lauren attempts the titular technique on the specter of "The Ghostly Stare", which is what will make it go away. But fails when the specter shuts off the lights and seizes her in the dark.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The club in "Alien Candy" pretended to be Walter's friends only so he could come with them as their dinner at the club meeting.
- Bittersweet Ending: "Nightmare Inn" ends with Jillian surviving her encounter with the two werewolves Priscilla and James and finding out it was all a nightmare. Only it wasn't. And Priscilla is still around to potentially kill and eat other people who come to the inn.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Walter gets Eaten Alive by aliens at the end of "Alien Candy".
- Cruel Twist Ending: Most of the stories have one, naturally. Just one example is Make Me a Witch, where a girl asks a witch to have some of her power so she can finally get some respect. The witch agrees to switch bodies but Stephanie's baby brother takes the pill they were supposed to use and the witch ends up switching with the baby. She then swears revenge on both of them.
- Crying Wolf: "I'm Not Martin" receives its title from the titular character's habit of screaming that he's not Martin, especially as he's being taken in to have his foot surgically removed. This later dooms Sean as the orderlies take him away after Martin switches their charts since they've been warned about Martin's habit.
- Dead All Along: In “The Dead Body”, Willy asks his Uncle Jake to pretend to be a living corpse as part of a prank to get back at some bullies. After it happens, he gets back home, only for his mother to tell him that his Uncle Jake died last night. That means that Uncle Jake WAS a living corpse at the time, and did the prank all too well.
- Downer Ending: Most of the stories, natch. As a horror novel, the bad guys win all the time.
- Eaten Alive: Walter get devoured in seconds at the end of "Alien Candy".
- Enfant Terrible: Martin of "I'm Not Martin" orchestrates another hospital patient's death so he won't have to die in surgery.
- Evil Sorcerer: Margolin from "The Most Evil Sorcerer" obviously is one, as he has great knowledge of Black Magic. The main character is his cunning apprentice who seeks a way to overthrow him.
- Face–Heel Turn: Christopher manages to survive being tickle-tortured by clowns by becoming one of them with the special talent of picking out scared children as future victims.
- Fiery Redhead: Mike in Pumpkinhead, which is lampshaded by his mother.
- Foreshadowing:
- The kids in "Alien Candy" are shown with many sci-fi touches to their club, which makes sense given it's the Alien Club. However, one finds a Star Trek novel amusing, which the newly elected club president finds odd. Turns out they're aliens.
- "The Black Mask" features Robb wearing the titular mask and witnessing a group of kids dying when a boiler explodes. He comes to the conclusion that it's showing a tragic past event given their old-fashioned attire. It's actually showing his future when he and his friends are killed while dressed in old clothes they found.
- At the beginning of "The Ghostly Stare", Rachel asks Lauren and Mark if they know what to do if they see a ghost, and Mark replies that they run. Rachel tells him that's exactly wrong, and they should instead give the ghost the ghostly stare. Later that night in the graveyard, Mark is confronted by a ghost. He forgets Rachel's advice, and he instead runs just as he said he would. He is implied to not have survived this encounter.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
- In the introduction to "The Most Evil Sorcerer", Stine comments that the evil sorcerer took over his body and finished the story for him.
- "Afraid of Clowns" ends with Christopher, who is now a clown, threatening the reader with death via tickle torture should they reveal their secrets.
- Halloween Episode: "Pumpkinhead" and "I'm Not Martin" both take place on Halloween day.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Many of the stories' antagonists are really messed up people.
- Jerkass:
- Mike in "Pumpkinhead" is a rambunctious little brat who constantly gets his friends into trouble and is stated to never apologize for doing something bad.
- The "Alien Club" members are all jerks who ignore Walter's entire existence.
- Margolin "The Most Evil Sorcerer" is a horrible master towards his apprentice.
- Karma Houdini: Virtually every villain/antagonist gets away with their villainous deeds.
- Kick the Dog: In "Alien Candy" none of the club members care about Walter and ignore his existence entirely before revealing to him that they only wanted him as a snack to devour.
- Kids Are Cruel: Martin proves this in his story when he sets up another child to suffer in a surgery he was supposed to receive.
- Monster Clown: The psychotic troupe featured in "Afraid of Clowns" purposely seek out kids who are afraid of them and torment them for the entertainment of the audience. Even worse, they abduct said children and torment them to death, particularly via tickle torture.
- Mutagenic Goo: The titular "Alien Candy" is a bizarre fudge-like sweet that seemingly transforms kids into aliens, yet oddly leaves their newly elected club president unaffected. The stuff really just gives them an excuse to shed their human disguises so that they can entrap and eat the new kid.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Nightmare Inn, although it's initially dismissed since the "mare" part is graffiti.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The illustration for "Nightmare Inn" shows an empty motel lobby at night which is creepy in itself. Then you notice the tiny pair of eyes staring at you from an open door in the corner.
- Oh, Crap!: In "The Ghostly Stare", after Lauren uses the ghostly stare to get rid of the ghost girl, she runs from the cemetery and back home. While doing so, she hears another pair of footsteps running behind her, and she assumes that's her brother following her. But when she reaches home and goes in the living room, she turns around and screams loud. She immediately realizes the pair of footsteps following her were NOT coming from her brother, but from the dead man that was chasing him earlier in the cemetery.
- Or Was It a Dream?: "Nightmare Inn" features the protagonist Jillian having a run-in with Priscilla and James who are revealed to be two werewolves and fight over the right to eat her. After escaping with her life, she wakes up to find it was another nightmare. Then she sees a werewolf claw mark on Priscilla's cheek.
- Spoiler Cover: The illustration for "Alien Candy" gives away the twist that the kids of the sci-fi club are really aliens.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: This is the technique needed to get rid of the dead in "The Ghostly Stare". You stare deep down in the ghost's eye sockets, searching for their soul, and they sink beneath the ground as you do this. For Lauren, it works the first time. For the second time, it does not.
- Tickle Torture: What happens to the victims in "Afraid of Clowns", Christopher arranges a deal with the clowns and does not die.
- To Serve Man: The kids of "Alien Candy" invite a chubby kid to become president of their club. In reality, they're aliens that wanted a meal.
- Uncertain Doom: In "The Ghostly Stare", the last time Lauren sees her brother, Mark, he is running away from another ghost that is coming after him. The story ends without ever revealing what happened to him. However, since he presumably failed to remember to use the ghostly stare, the technique used to drive away the dead, and this same corpse chases after his sister fairly afterwards, he probably was killed. That, or the ghost changed it's mind about him and went after Lauren instead.
- The Sociopath: Martin, Margolin, the clowns are all too happy about casual murder.
- Would Hurt a Child: Oh yes. As a novel created by the guy who wrote Goosebumps, this should not be surprising.
- "Afraid of Clowns" particularly demonstrates this as a scared child is victimized by clowns essentially beating him and yet the audience just continues to laugh despite the child's obviously real pain.
