History Literature / NightmareHour

* AfraidOfClowns: 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 [[{{Clownification}} turn him into one of them]].

* OhCrap: 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. [[spoiler: 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.]]
* OrWasItADream: "Nightmare Inn" features the protagonist Jillain 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. [[spoiler:Then she sees a werewolf claw mark on Priscilla's cheek.]]

* ThousandYardStare: 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. [[spoiler:For Lauren, it works the first time. For the second time, it does not.]]

* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:In “The Ghostly Stare,” the last time Lauren sees her brother, Mark, he is running away from another corpse 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 time, and this same corpse chases after her sister fairly afterwards, he probably was killed. That, or the corpse changed it’s mind about him and went after Lauren, instead.]]

* AdultFear: Many of the stories involve children being victimized in various ways. "Afraid of Clowns" particularly demonstrates this as a scared child is victimized by clowns essentially beating him and yet [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the audience just continues to laugh despite the child's obviously real pain]].

* FamousLastWords: Plenty in several of the stories.
** [[spoiler:Mike]] in “Pumpkin Head”: “Mr. Palmer will never sell these!”
** [[spoiler:Walter]] in “Alien Candy”: “You didn’t really want me to be your president.”
** [[spoiler:Lauren]] in “The Ghostly Stare”: “W-Why did you do that?”

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:In “The Dead Body”, Willy asks his Uncle Jake to pretend to be a living corpse as part of a prank. 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.]]

* OhCrap: In “The Ghostly Stare,” after Lauren uses the ghostly stare to get rid of the girl, she runs from the cemetery and back home. [[spoiler: While doing so, she hears another pair of footsteps running behind her, and she assumes that’s her brother. 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.]]

* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler:In the “Ghostly Stare,” the last time Lauren sees her brother, Mark, he is running away from another corpse 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 time, and this same corpse chases after her sister fairly afterwards, he probably was killed. That, or the corpse changed it’s mind about him and went after Lauren, instead.]]

* DeathOfAChild: In [[spoiler:"Alien Candy" and "The Black Mask"]]. Heck this is R.L. Stine we're talking about; the ''King'' of killing off kid heroes.

* ThousandYardStare: This is the technique needed to get rid of the dead in “The Ghostly Stare.” You look stare deep down in the ghost’s eye sockets, searching for their soul, and they sink beneath the ground. [[spoiler:For Lauren, it works the first time. For the second time, it does not.]]

* CruelTwistEnding: 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 [[spoiler: Stephanie's baby brother takes the pill they were supposed to use and the witch ends up switching with the baby. Shen then swears revenge on both of them.]]

* AbusiveParents: Stephanie'd mom in "Make Me a Witch":

* AbusiveParents: The Mom in "Make Me a Witch":

* AdultFear: Many of the stories involve children being victimized in various ways. "Afraid of Clowns" particularly demonstrates this as a scared child is victimized by clowns essentially beating him and yet [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the audience just continues to laugh despite the child's obviously real pain]]. In the TV version, the scared child is turned into a clown, with his parents explaining to him that it's a part of his growing up, as they're demon clowns who pose as humans. Either way, the child is scared shitless and everyone has fun at his expense.

* HalloweenEpisode: The setting of "Pumpkinhead" and "I'm Not Martin" both take place on Halloween day.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: [[spoiler: Priscilla and James]] of "Nightmare Inn" are revealed to be villainous werewolves.

** 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 ''[[Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse Star Trek]]'' novel amusing, which the newly elected club president finds odd. [[spoiler:Turns out they're aliens.]]

* AllHallowsEve: The setting of "Pumpkinhead" and "I'm Not Martin" both take place on Halloween day.

* InfantImmortality: ''Averted'' with [[spoiler:"Alien Candy" and "The Black Mask"]]. Heck this is R.L. Stine we're talking about; the ''King'' of killing off kid heroes.

It was followed by a sequel collection of sorts called ''Literature/TheHauntingHour'', which really has nothing much to do with the [[Series/TheHauntingHour TV series of the same name]], though stories from this and ''The Haunting Hour'' were used as episodes.

%% ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.

%%* AllHallowsEve: The setting of "Pumpkinhead" and "I'm Not Martin"
%%* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Clowns, according to "Afraid of Clowns"

%%* ArcWords: "You could DIE laughing!" in "Afraid of Clowns"
%%* ArtifactOfDoom: The titular Black Mask

%%* DownerEnding: Most of the stories, natch
%%* EnfantTerrible: Martin of "I'm Not Martin"

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: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]].

%%* InfantImmortality: ''Averted'' with [[spoiler:"Alien Candy" and "The Black Mask"]]
%%* KarmaHoudini: Virtually every villain/antagonist
%%* KidsAreCruel: Martin proves this in his story

%%* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Priscilla and James of "Nightmare Inn"

%%* TheSociopath: Martin, Margolin, the clowns
%%* WouldHurtAChild: ''Oh yes.''

-->'''Mom''': If you tried harder, you would look almost pretty

** [[spoiler:"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 FridgeLogic 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.]]

* [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil Illustrations Always Spoil]]: The illustration for "Alien Candy" gives away the twist

It was followed by a sequel collection of sorts called ''The Haunting Hour'', which really has nothing much to do with the [[Series/TheHauntingHour TV series of the same name]], though stories from this and ''The Haunting Hour'' were used as episodes.

* GenreAdultery: "The Most Evil Sorcerer" is a dark fantasy work in a DungAges setting in a collection of modern day horror stories (the TV show adaptation is the same way, though the [[spoiler:end where the sorceress is found centuries later in the woods by a jogger takes place in the present]]). Lampshaded by Stine in the story's intro when he relates it was the result of a bet that he could write a story outside of his usual setting and type.

* AllHallowsEve: The setting of "Pumpkinhead" and "I'm Not Martin"
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Clowns, according to "Afraid of Clowns"

* ArcWords: "You could DIE laughing!" in "Afraid of Clowns"
* ArtifactOfDoom: The titular Black Mask

* DownerEnding: Most of the stories, natch
* EnfantTerrible: Martin of "I'm Not Martin"

* InfantImmortality: ''Averted'' with [[spoiler:"Alien Candy" and "The Black Mask"]]

* KarmaHoudini: Virtually every villain/antagonist
* KidsAreCruel: Martin proves this in his story

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Priscilla and James of "Nightmare Inn"

* TheSociopath: Martin, Margolin, the clowns
* WouldHurtAChild: ''Oh yes.''

''Nightmare Hour'' is a 1999 collection of ten short stories by ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' author RLStine. 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.

''Nightmare Hour'' is a 1999 collection of ten short stories by ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' author RLStine. 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.

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:"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 FridgeLogic 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.]]

* {{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 ''[[Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse Star Trek]]'' novel amusing, which the newly elected club president finds odd. [[spoiler:Turns out they're aliens.]]

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: In the introduction to "The Most Evil Sorcerer", Stine comments that the evil sorcerer took over his body and finished the story for him.

* WouldHurtAChild: ''Oh yes.''

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:"I'm Not Martin" ends with Martin switching the charts so Sean is taken away for a foot-removal operation Martin had to undergo.]]

--'''Mom''': If you tried harder, you would look almost pretty