Characters from the Goosebumps novel Welcome to Dead House.
Amanda and Josh Benson
Josh (left) and Amanda (right)
Portrayed By: Amy Stewart and Ben Cook (TV)
The very first protagonists of the series. Amanda and her younger brother Josh move to the town of Dark Falls after their father inherits a house from a dead uncle. While Josh is adamant about refusing to go along with the plans to move, Amanda tries to keep an open mind about the situation, until she learns her new home has a terrible secret.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Josh has curly brown hair in the book but is played by a blonde actor.
- Adaptational Hair Style Change: Amanda and Josh both have curly brown hair in the books but in the TV series, Amanda wears her hair straight and styled as a bob while Josh has straight and dirty blonde hair that goes down to his neck.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Josh, but only slightly. He's said to be a tad impatient and spoiled but in the story it's generally toned down and in the end they get along okay.
- Badass Normal: Josh, at one point, attempts to bash Mr. Dawes' head in when he realizes that he's not alive.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: It's hard to imagine that Amanda and Josh are protagonists in a Goosebumps book due to the fact that neither of them have any of the Flanderization traits prominent in the other protagonists, especially those with younger siblings. Amanda isn't a Straw Loser who is The Un-Favourite to her Annoying Younger Sibling, nor is Josh a raging Spoiled Brat doted on by their parents. This makes more sense when considering that they were the very first protagonists and actually set the mold for the characters to come.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Josh is the foolish to Amanda's responsible. Josh is more self-absorbed and less willing to go along with their family's move, while Amanda, who has her own reservations about moving, recognizes that arguing about it is just going to cause tension. Though once the truth comes out, Josh becomes pretty understandable.
- Kid Hero: It falls upon both Benson siblings to rescue their parents after they are taken captive by the Dark Falls residents, and in doing so, they end up killing most of the townspeople... except Mr. Dawes.
- Nice Girl: Amanda, she's certainly one of the more likable protagonists. The only mean thing she does is scare her brother, but that's only because he previously scared the crap out of her with a prank of his own.
- Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Her first night in Dark Falls, Amanda has a nightmare about her family as living skeletons devouring human bones. Which is almost exactly what would've happened to the Bensons if the people of Dark Falls had succeeded in draining their blood.
- Spoiled Brat: Josh. Amanda and their parents acknowledge that he's slightly spoiled, but unlike the other spoiled siblings seen in the later books, Mr. and Mrs. Benson do little to encourage it.
- Straw Loser: Averted. Neither Benson sibling come close to the levels of Straw Loser some of the other protagonists share. Amanda mentions that she can be kind of klutzy when it comes to playing softball, but it's not something Played for Laughs or Played for Drama. Indeed, they are probably the most heroic protagonists until Deep Trouble.
Dark Falls Residents
The undead inhabitants of a remote town who lure new residents there to eat them.
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In Goosebumps HorrorTown, they became the way they are after being bitten by Countess Yvvone. Oh and they are also full vampires instead of simply having some of the traits of them.
- Affably Evil: You wouldn't be able to tell their true nature until it's too late.
- Anti-Villain: They feast on living beings to sustain their town's existence, but seemingly hold no ill-will towards them. Some, like Karen, are quite remorseful for their abominable lifestyle.
- Almighty Janitor: Compton Dawes, Dark Falls' mild mannered real estate agent, is not only a bloodsucking mutant, but he's also the most responsible for keeping the town alive.
- Big Bad: Again, Compton Dawes. He's the one most responsible for luring new victims in his role as Estate agent, and thus keeping the town active for so long. It's also possible his survival at the end of Dead House would have been the premise of the cancelled Goosebumps Gold sequel.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: They seem nice at first, but the children of Dark Falls enjoy messing with Amanda and Josh for no reason other than they feel like it, and once their true nature is revealed, they drop all pretenses of being nice in order to satisfy their hunger.
- Creepy Child: Karen and the rest of the Dark Falls children. They especially like to hide in Amanda and Josh' rooms while they sleep and fool around with their belongings. When they're not doing that, they like to randomly manifest in front of Amanda while she's alone and make her believe she's going crazy when they disappear. Josh mentions that there were a couple of boys in his room who were "mean" but Josh refuses to go into detail over what they did to him.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: When most undead monsters are destroyed by light, it's portrayed as simply crumbling to dust or burning to ash. Not these guys; they graphically rot and fall apart, including loving descriptions of their faces melting, skulls shattering and eyeballs falling out. Averted in the TV series, where they just kind of evaporate.
- Fate Worse than Death: Little Karen Somerset (and presumably other residents) thinks this way of her undead living.
- Gaslighting: The children of Dark Falls make it a habit of screwing with Amanda and Josh. They'll randomly pop up in front of Amanda while she's alone, then disappear. They also like to mess with the siblings' belongings, and have tried to do things to them while they're asleep.
- Haunted House: Inverted. They inhabit every other home except the titular "dead house" where the living family stays.
- Karma Houdini: Compton Dawes survives the destruction of the other townspeople, and goes on to feed on more families.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They drink blood and are destroyed by sunlight like vampires, but bare more of a resemblance to ghosts or zombies.
- Shady Real Estate Agent: Compton Dawes is the realtor who uses his business skills to lure families into Dark Falls so the residents can feed on them. He's a rare Anti-Villain example since he's not outright malicious and is trying to allow himself and the other residents to maintain their existence. Unusually, he doesn't sell anything, as he lures people into the town by lying that they inherited Dead House from a deceased relative.
- Starter Villain: The entire Goosebumps franchise began with these guys.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Dark Falls. With a name like that, it's no surprise.
- Undead Child: Ones that are a weird mix between vampires, zombies, and ghosts.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Most of the children, probably. They outright state that they were nice before they died.
- The Virus: In their town, they'll welcome you as one of them — literally.
- Weakened by the Light: Bright light will destroy them. Unusually for The Undead, it doesn't have to be sunlight. Any sufficiently intense light will do.
