The Goosebumps book about the monstrous amusement park.
Lizzy and her family are all set to enjoy a day out at the zoo, but they can't seem to find it. What they do find, however, is HorrorLand, a monster-themed amusement park, staffed entirely by real monsters. But monsters don't have the best interests of humans at heart, and all the rides and attractions are designe to kill them in various spectacular ways. Lizzy needs all her wits to outwit the monsters, reunite her family, and escape with their lives.
It was adapted into episodes 8 and 9 of the third season of the 1995 TV series. It was also adapted into an installment of the Goosebumps Graphix series, included in the Terror Trips collection.
One Day at HorrorLand occupies an interesting place in the Goosebumps canon. While self-contained in the original run, the setting proved popular enough to be adapted into a board game
and a video game. It received a direct sequel, Return to HorrorLand, as part of the Goosebumps Series 2000 revival, and the setting served as the lynchpin of the Goosebumps HorrorLand spinoff, uniting the characters and plot threads from the first 10 books and spinning out plot threads that drove the stories of the final seven; this run of books had two video games and its own board game. And finally, HorrorLand was the setting for the first story of the IDW comics.
It was later reissued in the Classic Goosebumps line in 2009 as a companion to Dr. Maniac Vs. Robbie Schwartz.
The book provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Subverted, due to the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Morris are also being targeted by the Horrors. The parents manage to survive the Obstacle Course at the end, but it's Lizzy who saves the day when she figures out the "No Pinching" signs were also serious.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The HorrorLand monsters, who run a deadly amusement park to kill families for fun. They may act welcoming and friendly at times, but don't let this fool you — it's an act. They'd serve you up for lunch as soon as amuse you. And their idea of "amusing people" is to scare them to death or put them in lethal traps.
- Amusement Park of Doom: HorrorLand, where the customers go to die in the rides or become monster munch.
- Chekhov's Hobby: Luke's pinching hobby turns out to be key to beating the Horrors.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: One of the rides is the Doom Slide, and one of its signs says "Beware! You May Be the One to Slide to Your Doom!". It's claimed that if the attendee picks the actual Doom Slide (with a one-in-ten chance), they'll end up sliding forever. The Doom Slide actually just takes them to the other side of the park.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Luke is the foolish to Lizzy's responsible.
- Hall of Mirrors: HorrorLand is home to a Hall of Mirrors with the slogan "Reflect Before You Enter. No-one May Ever See You Again". The Hall of Mirrors traps the three kids in separate rooms and the walls move in to crush them. At the last second, the floor opens and the kids slide out safely.
- Oddly enough, mirrors are banned at HorrorLand in the spin-off series because they are portals to Panic Park.
- Immoral Reality Show: The entire park is designed around humans getting hurt and killed for the entertainment of monsters.
- Innocuously Important Episode: In the original run, this book had some dedicated merchandise but otherwise was just another book. After a couple of revivals, HorrorLand is at least as important as Slappy the dummy, and for a while was even more prominent.
- Show Within a Show: Late in the story, Lizzy and her family end up being captured by the Horrors and put on a TV game show for monsters, intended to end with them being killed for the audience's amusement.
- The Walls Are Closing In: The house of mirrors ends in a room where this happens. The floor drops out at the very last second.
