Night of the Living Dummy III

Night of the Living Dummy III is the fortieth book in the original Goosebumps book series and the third book in the Living Dummy saga. It was first published in 1996.

The cover illustration depicts Slappy the Dummy, sitting in an armchair in a room which seems to be the attic, surrounded by nine other dummies.

Blurb
''WHEN DUMMIES SPEAK... EVERYBODY LISTENS!''

Trina O'Dell's dad used to have a ventriloquist act. That's why he has all those dummies in the attic. He calls it his Dummy Museum. There's a dummy with freckles. And one with a sneer just like Rocky. Trina and her brother, Dan, think the dummies are pretty cool. But now there are voices in the attic. And dummies keep showing up in the strangest places. No way those dummies could be alive! Right?

Plot
In Night of the Living Dummy III, the main characters are Trina O'Dell and her brother, Dan O'Dell. Their father, Danny O'Dell, collects various ventriloquist dummies. One day, Mr. O'Dell brings Slappy home after finding him in a dumpster. After repairing his broken shaft, he names him Smiley, unaware of the dummy's past. Trina finds a piece of paper in Slappy's front pocket and reads it. Shortly after, Slappy slaps her across the face. Naturally, nobody believes her. Trina and Dan's cousin, Zane, is coming for a visit. Their father makes them promise not to scare Zane, as they had done in a previous visit. After a while, one of the dummies called Rocky pops up in weird places, scaring Zane while Trina and Dan get the blame for each incident. Many things are ruined: Zane's camera, the dinner table, and the film in Zane's camera by the dummy.

Dan and Trina eventually catch Zane taking Rocky from the attic and it is revealed that Zane was placing Rocky in the weird places for fun. The three make a truce not to prank each other like that going forward. More catastrophes occur afterward, each with Rocky at the scene of the crime. Dan suspects Zane and tells Trina, but nobody else believes them. To prove that Zane is guilty, Dan and Trina sneak up to the attic to wait for Zane to come up and steal Rocky.

To their horror, they discover Slappy trying to sneak off with Rocky, and Slappy tells them that they are his slaves. Dan and Trina try to dump Slappy in a well, but he comes back the next morning. Trina thinks back and remembers the magic words she read to bring Slappy to life. Trina thought it could put him to sleep as well. Trina and Dan sneak up into the attic and read the magic words out loud. Slappy is still alive and well, but all of the other dummies come to life. They all huddle around Slappy, as he screams. It is then described that the dummies "pulled and tugged him," but Slappy is not killed. Afterward, all the dummies fall down lifeless just as Zane walks into the attic. Zane spots Dan and Trina in the attic with the dummies lying around and rats them out to their father.

The next day, Zane leaves to go back home with his father. After being asked to give Zane a dummy, Trina gives Zane Slappy as a parting gift as payback for getting her and Dan grounded. Trina watches Zane get into the car and sees the dummy wink at her.

Differences

 * The Classic Goosebumps reprint was released as a tie-in to the Goosebumps film. Also, the title of the reprint uses traditional numerals instead of Roman numerals, meaning the reprint is titled Night of the Living Dummy 3.

Differences

 * In the Portuguese adaptation of the story there are some notable differences:
 * Trina and Dan are called 'Tina and Daniel'
 * Zane is called 'Zeca'

Television adaptation
Night of the Living Dummy III was adapted into a two-part episode of the Goosebumps TV series. It is the twenty-fourth (Part One) and twenty-fifth (Part Two) episode of season two, and the forty-third and the forty-fourth episode overall.

Tear-Outs
Night of the Living Dummy III was the first book in the series to offer special tear out trading cards and bookmarks inside the book, which would continue throughout most of the books that followed in the original series.

Trivia

 * Night of the Living Dummy II and Night of the Living Dummy III were released 9 months apart, making this the shortest time between sequels in the original series.
 * The plot of this book is similar to that of Night of the Living Dummy; like Lindy Powell, Zane tricks the protagonists into thinking that a dummy is alive by causing mayhem. It isn't until halfway through the book that a dummy actually comes to life.
 * This is the first book in the Living Dummy series where one of the protagonists is male.
 * The book references the video game series NBA Jam.