Based on The Headless Ghost, book #37 of the original Goosebumps series.
Duane and Stephanie tour a haunted house, and discover the ghostly legends about the place are real.
The episode provides examples of:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Seth in the book has blonde hair and gray eyes. In the episode, he has brown hair and brown eyes.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Unlike in the book, where Andrew graciously thanks the protagonists for finding his head, the Andrew in the TV show is an Ungrateful Bastard who insults and threatens them even after they find it for him. He also turns out to be one of Otto's henchmen.
- Adaptational Villainy: While in the book Otto was a good guy, in the episode he turns out to be the sea captain. Not only is he the one in charge of the ghosts in Hill House, he is also a vindictive Child Hater who tries to subject Stephanie to a Fate Worse than Death.
- Adapted Out: Edna, another tour guide of Hill House in the book, is absent from the show.
- And I Must Scream: The ghost of the sea captain tries to inflict this on Stephanie via trapping her in a painting. She's rescued by Duane just in the nick of time.
- Ascended Extra: The Sea Captain. In the book, he was long gone by the time the main events of the story took place. Here, it turns out he was Otto all along.
- Bittersweet Ending: Although Duane and Stephanie narrowly escape Hill House with their lives, Otto goes unpunished for his crimes and it's revealed at the very end that he's about to lure another couple into becoming ghosts.
- Child Hater: Otto in the TV episode. He's also the ghost of the sea captain, and punishes children who cause trouble in Hill House, such as the titular ghost Andrew. He very nearly inflicts the same fate on Stephanie.
- Composite Character: In the book, Seth is just messing around with Duane and Stephanie via telling them the story of a boy who loved ice cream until he leaned too far into the dumbwaiter and fell to his death. In the episode, he's that boy's ghost AND one of Otto's henchmen.
- Haunted House Historian: Otto the old tour guide, as in the book. Unlike the book, he's actually evil and tries to use magic to trap the main character inside a painting.
- Persona Non Grata: After pranking a family during a tour at Hill House, Duane and Stephanie are kicked out of the place by Otto. At another tour, he is willing to give the two children another chance if they behave themselves, but they decide to sneak away from the tour and hide in a closet. They are again caught by Otto, by which he kicks them out again, saying that they're banned from the place permanently. They still sneak in one night, anyway.
- Pet the Dog: Otto, sensing that Duane isn't as bad as Stephanie, gives him a chance to leave. Subverted when Duane ruins his attempt to turn Stephanie into a painting.
- Wham Shot: Stephanie believes that she's going to get the usual lecture from the curmudgeonly Otto, before she turns around and sees that Otto is actually a ghost — Captain Otto Bell.
