Book 31: Night of the Living Dummy Part II
Well it’s been fun. I’m excited to get to end this first round on the only sequel that’s arguably more famous than the original. You see while most people talk about how much they loved Night of the Living Dummy... usually they’re actually talking about the sequel. There’s two reasons for this.
Reason 1: People remember “SLAPPY” who wasn’t the evil dummy in the first book. In fact he only comes to life in the last sentence of the original book
Reason 2: It’s a way better book
The book follows Amy who loves Ventriloquism, however her dummy Dennis’ head always falls off. Eventually her dad buys her a new dummy Slappy. She’s excited until the dummy starts causing trouble around the house and Amy is getting blamed.
Suddenly Slappy begins speaking to her and telling her that if she doesn’t be his slave he’ll make sure that her life is miserable forever. Eventually she convinces her family to believe her and the put together a plan. Her brother Jed will dress up in Dennis’ clothes and attacks Slappy, cracking his head.
However as they celebrate Jed runs out of his room admitting her forgot to set his alarm. Dennis came to life all by himself.
THE BAD: I realize the supernatural circumstances and all but the parents are pretty quick to just believe that their daughter (who before the whole dummy showed up was typically good) is suddenly this cruel and destructive monster. Also the ending is basically the same as the first book... just less dark.
THE GOOD: Slappy is a great villain and that’s why he’s always been the face of Goosebumps. I believe he’s also had more books than any other Goosebumps creature (if you don’t count Horrorland having an entire spin-off series).
THE TV SHOW EPISODE: It’s a pretty good episode. They sped up the plot to keep it down to just 20 minutes. The dummy is terrifying looking which is kind of the point. While there’s been plenty of these episodes where the horror is downplayed they really keep the horror of the situation at the forefront. That being said when Slappy is walking around the midget in a costume effect looks pretty awful.
<------ 30.="30." a="a" book="book" href="http://saintmort.blogspot.com/2012/10/31-days-of-goosebumps-part-1-30-it-came.html">It Came From Beneath the Sink
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