History YMMV / TheHauntingHour

*** It's also didn't help that even Will wanted nothing to do with Jake once he learned he was a ghost, as if he had a choice in having been murdered. At this point, Will had sided against the only character who actually tried to help him over the janitor, who is heavily implied to have been Jake's killer. It is really tempting to read [[spoiler: Jake's betrayal]] as a LetMeBeEvil moment.

** It's generally agreed "Dead Bodies" was made to address (and reverse) how dark "The Dead Body" was. However, some think the sequel went too far in vilifying Jake, who was ultimately just a murdered, bullied kid. It doesn't help that some of the initial controversy actually came from how much "The Dead Body" changed the original story, in which Jake really was Will's friend (and uncle.) Some viewers also wanted some closure to what happened to Jake's killers, considering they were too blame for the whole mess. Of course, there are even fans who liked "The Dead Body" because of the CruelTwistEnding and didn't like the sequel changing it.

** Jake from "The Dead Body" was a bullied loner who was ultimately burnt to death by the popular jocks while in high school. You can't help but feel a little bad when he's begging for his life in the flashback. Even the adults who should've protected him wrote him off as a strange kid. In fact, his backstory's not that different from Curtis Danko from ''Film/WhenGoodGhoulsGoBad.'' Granted, him [[spoiler: having Will take his place]] keeps him from being too sympathetic, but it's not like he asked to die in the first place. Of course, not too many people must've felt too bad for him, considering [[spoiler: a sequel episode undoing his second chance at life was made in response to the first one.]] It also helps that Jake really was a good guy in the orignal story.

* TheyChangedItSoItSucks: For some fans of the original version of "The Dead Body," Jake going from a good ghost in the original story to a bad ghost. Made somewhat more egregious by the television adaptation [[TragicMonster giving him a tragic death.]]

%%* SpiritualSuccessor: To the Series/{{Goosebumps}} tv series.

** With its concept of an egg monster that turns out to be good, with the real villains being scientists, ''Bad Egg'' is as close as we'll get to a TV episode of the Literature/{{Goosebumps}} book ''Egg Monsters from Mars''

*** Jeffery's dad tells Jeffery that the Klemit (a sugar-addicted demon that lives in his bedroom wall) didn't kill the old man who lived in their house; it was the fact that the old man was 114 and had a 29-year-old girlfriend.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: When it comes to "The Dead Body" and its sequel, some viewers wanted to have seen the forgotten bullies who killed Jake, and started the whole mess, get a comeuppance. Some even hoped they would've been dealt with in the sequel episode. A popular fan theory has the janitor be one of Jake's killers, but this is never confirmed in the episode. He could've just seen the memorial.

** Jake from "The Dead Body" was a bullied loner who was ultimately burnt to death by the popular jocks while in high school. You can't help but feel a little bad when he's begging for his life in the flashback. Granted, him [[spoiler: having Will take his place]] keeps him from being too sympathetic, but it's not like he asked to die in the first place. Of course, not too many people must've felt too bad for him, considering [[spoiler: a sequel episode undoing his second chance at life was made in response to the first one.]]

** It's generally agreed "Dead Bodies" was made to address (and reverse) how dark "The Dead Body" was. However, some think the sequel went too far in vilifying Jake, who was ultimately just a murdered, bullied kid. It doesn't help that some of the initial controversy actually came from how much it changed the original story, in which Jake was Will's friend (and uncle.) Some viewers also wanted some closure to what happened to Jake's killers, considering they were too blame for the whole mess. Of course, there are even fans who liked "The Dead Body" because of the CruelTwistEnding and didn't like the sequel changing it.

* FridgeHorror:
** The end of "Dreamcatcher." Unless the Dreamcatcher is confined to that camp, those two girls are going to have a very miserable and short rest of their lives.
** Also invoked in pretty much any episode that ends with the protagonist dead or trapped forever, when you realize that their parents are eventually going to wonder what happened to them, and will likely never find out. In "My Old House", we actually get to see this happen (sort of) when we see the girl's parents sadly looking for her, then leave in tears when they realize that their daughter is gone forever.

* EvilIsSexy:
** Abigail Raven, played by the gorgeous Creator/EmmanuelleVaugier, in "The Red Dress" is pretty beautiful for a blind witch.
%%zce** Griselda in "The Most Evil Sorcerer."
%%zce** Cassandra (the photographer for ''Teen Teen'' magazine implied to be the Devil) in "Headshot."
** The witch in "Stage Fright" who told the audience that she didn't eat the kids in ''Hansel and Gretel'' isn't all that bad looking either.
** The evil fairy (Lyria) in "Intruders".

** Big Yellow from "Mascot" thanks to his ''Sesame Street'' look.

* AssPull: It's a bit obvious that "Dead Bodies," a sequel to "The Dead Body," wasn't planned early on. The main character Will [[spoiler: has visibly aged despite being a ghost and more or less dead in the interim.]]

** Jake from "The Dead Body" was a bullied loner who was ultimately burnt to death by the popular jocks while in high school. You can't help but feel a little bad when he's begging for his life in the flashback. Granted, him [[spoiler: having Will take his place]] keeps him from being too sympathetic, but it's not like he asked to die in the first place.

* AssPull: It's a bit obvious that "Dead Bodies," a sequel to "The Dead Body," wasn't planned early on. The main character Will [[spoiler: has visibly aged despite being a ghost and more or less dead in the interim.]]

* PeripheryDemographic: A lot of the show's fans are older viewers who grew up on ''Goosebumps'' (the books and the TV show) and ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark?''.

* SeasonalRot: The first half of season three is seen as the point where the show reached its peak and went downhill. The second half of season three (shown as season four in North America) is somewhat better (because of episodes like ''Dead Bodies'', ''Coat Rack Cowboy'', ''Detention'', ''Long Live Rock and Roll'', ''Toy Train'', and ''Uncle Howee''), and season five seems to be a return to the basics, though some people will complain that the constant use of {{downer ending}}s is a bit tiresome (in fact, the only episodes that have happy endings are "Grandpa's Glasses," "Near Mint Condition"[[note]]though "Near Mint Condition" is more esoteric, since there is a chance that Mangler will repair itself and claim another victim[[/note]], and "Goodwill Toward Men"[[note]]Missy begs the angel to set things to the way they were, and Missy ends up in a reality where her former gardener and his son are rich while her selfish, formerly rich family are the hired help[[/note]]).

* AuthorsSavingThrow: After the massive fan backlash toward the ending of "The Dead Body," after [[TheWoobie Will]] is seemingly punished for doing an act, saving Skinner from the bullies prank in the past, out of the kindness of his heart, only for it to backfire, and Skinner having set him up, so Will would die in his place and he could steal Will's life, a part two "Dead Bodies" was written and filmed years later, punishing Skinner for his evil ways and giving Will a happy ending.

* CompleteMonster: The titular ghost of the season 1 finale ''Scary Mary'', based on the UrbanLegend of [[MirrorMonster Bloody Mary]], was superficially vain in life, burning to death because she was too busy looking at herself in a mirror. Taking a vicious streak as a ghost, Mary takes to stalking young beautiful girls before dragging them to her realm to imprison her until they become her slaves. There Mary would [[TearOffYourFace remove their faces]] and frequently wear them to see if a boy has called upon her, reacting in a violent rage when none does. When she gets her hands on a girl named Hannah, her friends try searching for her before her friend Eric learns the means to enter Mary's realm. Upon doing so, Mary forcibly takes Hannah's face, and locks her in a trunk posing as Hannah when Eric comes to rescue her. When Eric see's through her, and manages to rescue Hannah, Mary mocks Eric by saying Hannah has no face as her rage burns the farm house around them. Even as Eric and Hannah successfully escape, the episode's ending shows Mary is still stalking Eric.

** The owner of the funhouse in "Funhouse". Sure, he psychologically tortures Chad with the model replica of the arguing family and urges him to vent his rage on his family, but it wasn't out of evil; it was for Chad to learn that he should face his inner demons. When Chad is cured of his anger, the carnie doesn't steal Chad's soul or force him to live in the funhouse forever; he just disappears. In fact, the only things weird about him are that no one knows where he came from and that he somehow knows about Chad and Kelly's family dinner night.

-->'''House:''' ([[SlasherSmile Smiling]])Welcome.\\

*** She does it again in "The Return of Lilly D". She tries twice to kill a bird Natalie was taking care of, knocks out the Doll Maker, kicks Natalie's wheel-chair bound grandfather down the stairs, and finally attempts to murder Natalie with a knife.

** Meg in "Dreamcatcher". She acts rude to Lisa and Amelia while at summer camp (she's jealous that Amelia has decided to spend more time with Lisa, a newcomer), and purposefully damages their dreamcatchers, causing them to be plagued by the titular demon haunting the camp (even if she didn't really believe in the story, destroying someone else's belongings is a pretty crappy thing to do). Later on, she finds them trapped in the Dreamcatcher's web and decides to leave them to die, commenting "I'm an only child; I don't like to share." [[spoiler: It's really hard to feel sorry for her when she ends up alone in the web, with the ending implying that she dies.]]

** Dylan Minnette plays Corey in Season Two's ''Brush With Madness'' (about a comic book geek who meets his idol, who turns out to be a jerk who isolates himself from the world because of how obsessed and shallow his fans are). Minnette also plays the male protagonist in the [[Film/Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' movie]], which also stars Jack Black as a fictional version of R.L. Stine. Coming around full-circle, eh, Dylan?

** Dylan Minnette plays Corey in Season Two's ''Brush With Madness'' (about a comic book geek who meets his idol, who turns out to be a jerk who isolates himself from the world because of how obsessed and shallow his fans are). Minnette also plays the male protagonist in the upcoming ''Goosebumps'' movie, which also stars Jack Black as a fictional version of R.L. Stine. Coming around full-circle, eh, Dylan?

** The revelation that the setting of "Are We There Yet?" is [[spoiler:a dystopian America where the population is culled by SocialDarwinist standards of bravery and intelligence being placed upon children]] raises a lot of this. Sure, [[spoiler:Tammi and Artie managed to beat the odds by using their smarts to turn the dogs onto the judge to make him pass them]], but what about any other children subjected to that fate? One can only imagine their parents.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

* IdiotPlot:
** "Bad Egg" has this in ''spades''. The government agents accidentally release a dangerous set of monster eggs upon the world by sheer incompetence, our hero lies to everyone instead of warning them about the serious danger, AdultsAreUseless at every turn, and the truth about the situation could have avoided most of the protagonist's troubles.
** "My Robot" is almost worse than "Bad Egg" in this regard. To make it short, most of the entire conflict could've been resolved had the heroes just gone to the police or contacted the creators of the robot rather than foolishly trying to take it on all by themselves with a pretty risky BatmanGambit.
** "Poof de Fromage" (considered the show's least-loved episode by most fans) has an alien agent infiltrating planet Earth's society in order to prevent an alien invasion from taking place. How does he do this? By inserting himself into some random American family to scan ''one house'' for the evil aliens plotting to invade. Needless, to say [[TheBadGuyWins he doesn't get very far in his mission.]]
** The Alp's attempts to kill Georgia in "Red Eye," while horrifying, could've been taken care of immediately if [[BondVillainStupidity he jumped her every time she was completely unaware of him being right behind her]]. Even though the twist ending showed that [[spoiler: he possessed her dad to kill her]], he could've accomplished this earlier if he just [[spoiler: took over]] the mailman ''who sees her everyday''.
** The CruelTwistEnding of "My Old House" could have all been prevented if [[spoiler: the house revealed its sentience to Alice's parents or [[ReedRichardsIsUseless used any of its magical powers to help benefit the family financially]]]] in order to prevent them from leaving or causing Alice's severe depression in the beginning.

* LesYay: Becky and her obsession with "The Girl in the Painting" has a lot of underlying subtext. It really doesn't help that throughout the episode Becky fantasizes about the other's life because she thinks she's so perfect. Becomes HarsherInHindsight when [[spoiler: it turns out that said girl in the painting was luring Becky to her death.]]

** Travis of "My Imaginary Friend" is already established as a PoisonousFriend who keeps risking Shawn and David's well-being by prompting them to engage in dangerous, potentially lethal acts. The climax even shows this, with Travis pushing Shawn to go out onto the thin ice, and David nearly drowning when he goes into the icy water to save Shawn. [[spoiler:However, with the revelation that both Travis and Shawn are imaginary friends conjured by David's mind as a result of his parents' divorce, it almost seems like the kid has some virtually suicidal thoughts running through his head. Even worse, at the end, "Travis" returns and tries to push the hospital-ridden David to run away]].

* DesignatedVillain: Priscilla doesn't really ''do'' anything except make some catty remarks to Cassie about her fashion sense, and Cassie retaliates by inflicting DisproportionateRetribution on her. [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality Yet apparently we're supposed to find this acceptable, [[DoubleStandard but not feel the same toward Priscilla's attempted revenge]]

* DesignatedVillain: Priscilla doesn't really ''do'' anything except make some catty remarks to Cassie about her fashion sense, and Cassie retaliates by inflicting DisproportionateRetribution on her. [[DoubleStandard Yet apparently we're supposed to find this acceptable, but not feel the same toward Priscilla's attempted revenge]]

* HilariousInHindsight: Plenty of people have pointed how similar the premise of the Film/TheByeByeMan is this movie.
* TheScrappy: Max to some, for being scared of everything.
* SoOkayItsAverage: The general consensus.

* WTHCastingAgency: They got [[Franchise/{{Saw}} Jigsaw]] for this!?

* SeasonalRot: As noted in Base Breaker above, season three (the first half) is seen as the point where the show reached its peak and went downhill. The second half of season three (shown as season four in North America) is somewhat better (because of episodes like ''Dead Bodies'', ''Coat Rack Cowboy'', ''Detention'', ''Long Live Rock and Roll'', ''Toy Train'', and ''Uncle Howee''), and season five seems to be a return to the basics, though some people will complain that the constant use of {{downer ending}}s is a bit tiresome (in fact, the only episodes that have happy endings are "Grandpa's Glasses," "Near Mint Condition"[[note]]though "Near Mint Condition" is more esoteric, since there is a chance that Mangler will repair itself and claim another victim[[/note]], and "Goodwill Toward Men"[[note]]Missy begs the angel to set things to the way they were, and Missy ends up in a reality where her former gardener and his son are rich while her selfish, formerly rich family are the hired help[[/note]]).

* WhatAnIdiot:
** The protagonist in ''Wrong Number''. If you're being haunted by an old Russian lady who is haunting you and your mean girl friend because you crank-called her before she died, maybe it's best to actually be sincere in your apology. [[spoiler: Otherwise, you'll end up trapped in your cell phone on a video file and deleted forever by the Goth girl -- who turns out to be the dead Russian woman's ''grand-daughter'' -- whom you picked on as well]]. This is even worse because the old lady was prepared to open the door and let them both leave after the obviously insincere apology, but Steffani just had to go and toss of one more insult, resulting in the fate described above. One has to wonder what could have possibly led her to think that would end well.
** Additional note on "Wrong Number": Before you go looking for help from the person you've been bullying, you should take some time to consider that this person may not have your best interests at heart. If you still decide to ask them for help after that, play nice. Insulting the person you're relying on to save you is a really dumb idea.
** Scott from "Pumpkinhead". When you're threatened by a psychopathic farmer who doesn't want you near his creepy farm, you should probably do what he says. But Scott ''still'' wanted to go back even after finding a human TOOTH in one of the pumpkins he stole from the pumpkin patch.
** Maggie on "Terrible Love" when it's revealed that Stuart has hired Cupid to make Maggie fall for him. She should have run the moment she saw Cupid draw his bow, then again, she wouldn't have learned her lesson if she didn't get a taste of her own medicine.
** Molly in "Mrs. Worthington." When the insane babysitter who appears from your brother's drawings and has the power to control your cell-phone, knit a voodoo doll out of you, and conjure eyeballs and scorpions -things you actually ''witnessed yourself''- is asking you to apologize to your little brother for your nasty attitude, you should probably do it.
** Jamie from "The Red Dress": You walked into TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday, met the creepy-as-hell blind proprietor, and decided that you could get away with ''stealing'' from her? What in the world were you thinking? At the very least, you were going to get caught eventually and do time for it, which would have been a slap on the wrist compared to [[spoiler: having the lady take your own vision as payment.]]
** The end to "Near Mint Condition": Okay, the cyborg bear that was recalled for killing and maiming kids, has been decapitated with a katana. You'd expect Ted and his brother to locate the toy company that made this monstrosity (it probably wouldn't be around due to the backlash and reported deaths caused by Mangler) and sue them (or sue the woman whose son sold the toy to Ted)? Nope; Ted and his brother decide to pack up Mangler (with its head duct taped to its body) and sell it online to the next poor sap (but not after stating that it's in [[TitleDrop "Near Mint Condition"]] and charging nearly $1000 for it).
** Alice's parents in ''My Old House''. They go to their old house when she goes missing, a ''fairly'' smart move considering she'd been so distraught over leaving, then proceed to put no effort into actually searching the house. They seem to look in only her old bedroom, maybe the entire upper floor, before deciding to leave, as if there's no possible way she could be hiding anywhere else. And because of this, they ended up missing her hiding spot in a closet that was roughly five feet from them.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the Series/{{Goosebumps}} tv series.