Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Literature / Goosebumps HorrorLand

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goosebumps_horrorland_logo.png
Goosebumps HorrorLand is a 2008-2012 spinoff of the original Goosebumps series, and the first new prose series based on it since the ending of Goosebumps Series 2000 and Give Yourself Goosebumps in 2000.

Unlike the previous series, HorrorLand features an ongoing storyline. Each of the first ten books is divided into two sections; the first introduces a set of kids and villains, some from the original series and some being completely new, who have a scary adventure. The second section, titled "Enter HorrorLand" in each book, features the protagonists receiving invitations to the HorrorLand theme park as Very Special Guests for unknown purposes, sometimes finding hints that their enemies may have followed them. At the climax of book 10's "Enter HorrorLand" segment, Luke and Lizzie Morris from the original One Day at HorrorLand novel arrived at the park and joined the Very Special Guests for the last two books of that story arc.

Alongside the main books, Scholastic released two websites, the game-centered Enter HorrorLand and the Escape HorrorLand blog, ostensibly a blog operated by Luke and Lizzie in which they investigated the recent strange happenings at HorrorLand. The blog itself was discovered and read by some of the Very Special Guests in book 7.

The series was also accompanied by Classic Goosebumps, which reprinted ten of the original series' books (and later more) as companions to each of the new books. Each book also contained new bonus material related to the story and the HorrorLand series.

Following the conclusion of the original twelve-book arc, a second arc of seven books was announced. Each started with one or more kids who had visited HorrorLand. On their way out, they stopped at the strange Chiller House gift shop, where owner Jonathan Chiller would offer each of them a miniature Horror figure and a "free" souvenir, with a promise of payment later. The seventh book featured these kids being drawn back to HorrorLand so they could pay — not in money, but in a special entertainment for Jonathan Chiller.

The Hall of Horrors arc, which was more in line with the original series, was released in 2011-2012 and concluded the series. Each is a standalone adventure being told to the Story-Keeper, a Horror who stays in the Hall of Horrors in the depths of HorrorLand and records all the terrifying stories that are told to them.

The series consists of:

    open/close all folders 

    Arc 1 — books #1- 12 

    Arc 2 — books #13- 19 

    Arc 3 — Hall of Horrors 

  • #01: Claws!
  • #02: Night of the Giant Everything
  • #03: The Five Masks of Dr. Screem
  • #04: Why I Quit Zombie School
  • #05: Don't Scream!
  • #06: The Birthday Party of No Return!

    Tie-ins 

  • Welcome to HorrorLand: A Survival Guide
  • Write Your Fright!

Tropes:

    In general 

The series in general contains examples of:

  • All There in the Manual: Some of the HorrorLand books, the Classic Goosebumps reprints, and HorrorLand Survival Guide have information about certain monsters that isn't mentioned in the actual books.
  • Canon Discontinuity: Several in the HorrorLand spinoff.
    • The HorrorLand series continues the stories of Carly Beth, the Haunted Mask, and the Deep Siblings, but the events of the sequels are never mentioned, and the characters are the same age as they were in the originals.
    • The evil camera from Say Cheese and Die!! only returns, and not Greg or Shari. In fact, the camera's backstory is rewritten so that it was originally created specifically for a movie called Say Cheese and Die Screaming that was scrapped because of unexplained accidents that kept occurring on set.
    • Monster Blood is the only exception to this since it focuses on the substance and not Evan Ross.
  • Canon Welding: All the books from the original series that got sequels are now combined into a single universe, linked by HorrorLand.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Thanks to Goosebumps HorrorLand, many of the human characters from the original series don't reappear alongside the enemies they fought, including the cast of the first four Monster Blood books, who are completely replaced with brand new characters in Monster Blood for Breakfast. Considering how widely disliked the majority of the old cast was (except for Andy), the use of this trope isn't too surprising.
  • Covers Always Lie: The HorrorLand books do this fairly consistently. The cover to Monster Blood for Breakfast for example features (presumably) the protagonist engulfed in the eponymous Blob Monster, while the main section of the book actually deals with Body Horror. Who's Your Mummy features a mummy ringing a doorbell; the only stereotypical mummies in the book are immobile.
  • Cruel Twist Ending: This tradition continues in the HorrorLand books. For example, My Friends Call Me Monster ends with Michael and his family eating a cake baked with eggs made to turn them into monsters... but since the story has to continue into HorrorLand, it is later, almost casually explained how they undid it. Given the two-story format of the series, this happens a lot.

    Arc 1 (books 1-12) 

Arc 1 contains examples of:

  • Actionized Sequel: While the first Deep Trouble was an adventure story, the action was mostly in the last act. Creep From the Deep features more action and peril throughout the whole book.
  • Ambiguously Absent Parent: Abby and Peter's parents in Who's Your Mummy? are completely absent with no explanation; it's only said that Abby and Peter have been living with their Granny Vee since they were little, and she's the only family they have.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Discussed in Dr. Maniac Vs Robby Schwartz. Robby is forced to delete his brother, who had turned out to be Dr. Maniac, in order to save the town. After it is revealed that the whole book was a comic strip he wrote, Robby comments on how the ending was "triumphant, but sad".
  • Chekhov's Gun: Who's Your Mummy? has a more literal example, with the kids having squirt guns that end up being useful, since the villains are hurt by water.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Early on in Creep from the Deep, Dr. D is teaching Billy how to use a spear. Later on, he uses this to throw Captain Ben's leg into him, which destroys him.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Doctor Maniac in all of his books.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Creep from the Deep has a supernatural antagonist, whereas its predecessor Deep Trouble relied on immoral humans as villains.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: While the first four Monster Blood books had Straw Loser Evan Ross, Monster Blood for Breakfast had Matt Daniels, who is athletic and popular.
  • Crisis Crossover: The first arc brings together classic Goosebumps villains (and the odd protagonist) into a single storyline for the first time (the stage show doesn't count).
  • Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion: It's somewhat hard to take the antagonists from My Friends Call Me Monster seriously when they are defeated by being dropped into a giant egg. Which one of them was hatching.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Dr. Maniac and Purple Rage.
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The HorrorLand book Doctor Maniac vs Robby Schwartz, in which the comic characters emerge into the real world. Sort of. This was also the plot of the 2015 movie, in which an army of villains from the books escape into the real world.
  • Ghostly Animals: The Scream of the Haunted Mask sees Carly-Beth Caldwell visiting a farm rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of a herd of horses. Her kindness towards them later results in the ghost horses helping her remove the titular Haunted Mask again.
  • Ghost Pirate: Captain Long Ben One Leg and his crew from Creep from the Deep.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard:
    • In Revenge of the Living Dummy, Slappy tries to use the Mind Stealer to steal Britney’s mind and make her his slave, but it ends up stealing his mind instead.
    • In Creep from the Deep, Captain Long Ben One-Leg desires to retrieve his lost leg. He gets it back... by having it thrown at him in the motion of a spear being thrown and knocking him overboard.
    • In Monster Blood for Breakfast, Bradley Wormser steals one of Matt’s ivy plants infused with Monster Blood to win the science fair, but it instead wraps around him.
    • In Dr. Maniac vs. Robby Schwartz, Dr. Maniac and the Scarlet Starlet anger The Purple Rage to the point where he explodes into a million pieces.
    • Subverted in Say Cheese - and Die Screaming!. Julie attempts to do this to the camera by having it take a photo of itself in a mirror, but this just results in another camera being created.
    • In Welcome to Camp Slither, Boone and Heather manage to trick Dr. Crawler into biting and poisoning himself.
  • In Medias Res:
    • Revenge of the Living Dummy starts with Brittney and Molly digging in a graveyard, then jumps back two weeks earlier.
    • My Friends Call Me Monster starts with Michael, Daisy and DeWayne sneaking into their teacher's house in order to prank her. The next chapter picks up two weeks earlier.
  • Kill It with Water: In Who's Your Mummy, the villains are destroyed by contact with water. Even a small handful that Abby spits out from her mouth is enough to cause them to disintegrate into ashes.
  • Magic Hair: In Who's Your Mummy?, Abby and Peter's hair contains a rare protein that keeps mummies alive.
  • Magic Mirror: The first arc made it a plot point that mirrors could be used as a gateway from HorrorLand to Panic Park.
  • Middle Child Syndrome: Robby's brother Sam in Dr. Maniac Vs Robby Schwartz. This becomes his motivation for becoming Dr. Maniac.
  • Nested Story Reveal: The majority of Dr. Maniac Vs. Robby Schwartz is revealed to be a comic strip Robbie was doing, which his mother is reading over his shoulder after he finishes it.
  • No Social Skills: Subverted with Robby Schwartz from the HorrorLand series who denies that this is the reason why he spends so much time on his computer — he just really likes designing webcomics.
  • Nonindicative Name: The book Revenge Of The Living Dummy never explains exactly what Slappy is getting revenge for.
  • Oddly Named Sequel: Some of the HorrorLand books serve as sequels to the classic books — but with extremely strange names. Monster Blood for Breakfast! is perhaps a notable example.
  • Police Are Useless: In Dr. Maniac Vs Robby Shwartz, some officers are searching for Robby's little brother Sam, and take a random kid assuming it's him, even while he insists he's not Sam.
  • The Power of Hate: Panic Park is home to a ride called "The Tunnel of Hate", which causes the people who travel inside it to turn into raving lunatics.
  • Professor Guinea Pig: In Welcome to Camp Slither, Dr. Crawler and his assistant had created an experimental cure for snake venom, and used themselves as test subjects. Instead of the desired results, they ended up turning themselves and a bunch of other people into were-snakes.
  • Put on a Bus: Some of the younger siblings from the first segments in books 1-10 don't go on to appear in the Enter HorrorLand segments — Matt's sister Livvy, Abby's brother Peter, and Boone's sister Heather are all left out.
  • Questioning Title?: HorrorLand's Who's Your Mummy?
  • Raised by Grandparents: Peter and Abby in Who's Your Mummy? have lived with their Granny Vee since they were little.
  • Revenge of the Sequel: Nearly all of the sequels in this series use stock titles of this type, starting with Revenge of the Living Dummy, rather than numbering them.
  • Shout-Out: If the inspiration for the Say Cheese and Die books wasn't clear enough, someone in Say Cheese-And Die Screaming! says "it's a very... unusual camera".
  • Snake People: Dr. Crawler in Welcome to Camp Slither, who's revealed to have accidentally turned himself and a whole bunch of other people into were-snakes.
  • Summer Campy: Welcome to Camp Slither from the HorrorLand series.
  • Take Over the World: This is the goal of Hyborg-Xrxuz/ Mrs. Hardesty in My Friends Call Me Monster.
  • Telepathy: The power Jillian gains in Help! We Have Strange Powers!
  • Theme Twin Naming: Jackson and Jillian, the protagonists of Help! We Have Strange Powers!.

    Arc 2 (books 13-19) 

Arc 2 contains examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Jonathan Chiller, the antagonist of the second HorrorLand arc, had a mom that kept him inside all day to "nurture his mind" and his dad only protested because he wanted him to be a hunter like his father. When a hunt resulted in Jonathan getting hurt, his dad only laughed. Is it really no surprise he became as messed up as he is?
  • Distant Prologue: The first chapter of The Horror at Chiller House is a prologue set decades prior to set up the backstory, in this case showing Jonathan Chiller as a child.
  • Halloween Episode: Weirdo Halloween
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The Horror at Chiller House has Jonathan Chiller and his hunters hunting for kids under the guise of a scavenger hunt.
  • New Year Has Come: Slappy New Year!
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: The HorrorLand book, Little Shop of Hamsters.
  • Time Travel Episode: Heads, You Lose!
  • Treacherous Advisor: The Duke of Earle and the court wizard Henway in Heads, You Lose!.

    Hall of Horrors (books 20-25) 

The Hall of Horrors arc contains examples of:

  • Bad Luck Charm: The Vulture's Claw in The Birthday Party of No Return.
  • Chekhov's Gun: In Why I Quit Zombie School, Matt is a horror movie nut and is into creating scary make up. He later uses it to fool the zombie students into thinking he is one of them.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In Night of the Giant Everything, Stephen accidentally breaks an egg in Ava's kitchen. Her and Courtney respond by mixing up chemicals in the lab and putting it in his water to ruin his magic trick. However, downplayed as it turned out they lied and just put vinegar in.
  • Here We Go Again!:
    • Night of the Giant Everything: Steven gets bigger again but Bugsy, the bird that made him shrink to begin with, licks him again.
    • Why I Quit Zombie School; Matt leaves his zombie school but moves to a school for vampires.
  • Halloween Episode: The Five Masks of Dr. Screem
  • Incredible Shrinking Man: The premise of Night of the Giant Everything, which is actually a reworked version of a scrapped Series 2000 book, fittingly called The Incredible Shrinking 5th Grader.
  • Never Trust a Title: The Birthday Party of No Return has only one scene taking place at a birthday party, which is just used for a dramatic setting for the climax of the story and doesn't intrinsically have anything to do with the problem at hand (the protagonist being affected by a cursed artifact.)
  • Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies in Why I Quit Zombie School are indeed undead but they are capable of dying for good, and they need a place called "The Reviver Room" to renew their energy or fix any major problems.
  • Shout-Out: The eponymous zombie school in Why I Quit Zombie School is called Romero Academy.
  • Stranger in a Strange School: This is the premise of Why I Quit Zombie School.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top