Welcome to Dead House/TV episode

Welcome to Dead House is a two-part episode of the Goosebumps TV series. It is based on the first Goosebumps book of the same name. The episodes aired on Fox Network on June 29, 1997. Parts one and two were the twentieth and twenty-first episodes of Season 2, and the thirty-ninth and fortieth episodes overall. The episode was directed by William Fruet.

Cast

 * Amy Stewart as Amanda Benson
 * Ben Cook as Josh Benson
 * Elizabeth Saunders (a.k.a. Elizabeth Brown) as Penelope Benson
 * Benedict Campbell as Mr. Benson
 * Ian D. Clark as Compton Dawes
 * Jessica Greco as Karen Thurston
 * Mairlyn Smith as Agnes Thurston
 * Frank Pellegrino as Mr. Thurston
 * Scott Wickware as Hard Hat Worker
 * B.J. McLellan as Jerry Franklin
 * Damien Whitely as George Carpenter
 * Marc Marut as Ray
 * Anna Henry as a Girl
 * John Friesen as Mayor
 * David Blacker as Townsperson
 * Matthew Galliford as the 'window ghost' (uncredited)
 * Eliska Sursova as Letta (uncredited)
 * R.L. Stine as Himself / Host

Plot
Teenage girl Amanda Benson moves into the gloomy industrial town of Dark Falls with her parents, her younger brother (Josh Benson) and the family dog (Petey). As they drive through the town to their new house, several decaying industrial buildings are shown, including a factory, which has a plywood sign in front of it reading, ‘''Dark Falls Chemicals: CLOSED! DANGER!''’ Mr. Benson tells Josh that the town had recently lost a lot of jobs.

When they arrive at their house, Amanda and Josh are really disappointed; it's a huge house but it's old and gray and looks as decayed as the rest of Dark Falls. Petey starts barking at the window so Amanda looks up, only to see a face staring back at her from her new bedroom window. Mrs. Benson tells her that it was just the wind. Mrs. Benson goes inside and flips the light switch but finds that the power is completely out in the whole place. Josh sulks and sits in the family van as Mr. Benson tells him to stop making things difficult. When Petey runs upstairs, Amanda follows him and looks out the window of one of the upstairs rooms, but a man comes out of nowhere and scares her. She screams, but the man apologizes for startling her and turns on the fuse box, thus letting all the lights come on. Mrs. Benson rushes in worriedly but then tells Amanda that the man is just Compton Dawes, the real-estate agent who sold them the place. Mr. Dawes is unusually pale and dressed in out-of-style faded clothing, but he's well-mannered and nice and the family all like him immediately. Mrs. Benson invites him to join the family while she hangs up a crusty old wreath above the fireplace, but Dawes becomes nervous at the sight of the wreath and abruptly has the contracts signed, then leaves. "I hate this place", is Josh's conclusion on the house. Mr. and Mrs. Benson look frustrated.

That night, Amanda sits on an old mattress on the floor writing a letter to her best friend, Jennifer. She writes that Josh is acting bratty so it's up to her to make the best of things. Mrs. Benson tells her to go to sleep and turns of the lights. Just as Amanda is about to go to sleep, she hears noises at her bedroom window, and when she looks out she is startled by a very pale-looking man clad in factory work clothing, watching her from the next-door house. He glares at her and closes the shutters as lightning strikes in the sky. Amanda is further frightened when she sees the shadow of a boy in her doorway but her parents and brother check the whole house and don't believe her at all. She's sent back to bed but can't get to sleep because of the strange noises coming from her bedroom closet, whispering voices repeating the word ‘danger’ over and over again.

The next morning, the movers are bringing all the family's possessions into the house while Mrs. Benson directs them. It's pouring rain outside, a nasty thunderstorm, and Amanda tells her mother that it was hard to get to sleep. Suddenly a lady from next-door, Agnes Thurston, comes in after meeting Mr. Benson outside. She's brought some home-made goods. She looks really pale, keeps bursting out laughing for no reason and is dressed in an outdated, faded old house dress. Mrs. Benson learns from her that her husband used to work at the Dark Falls Chemical Factory before it was closed and she gets nervous of the wreath hanging above the door. Mrs. Benson sends Amanda and Josh outside to walk Petey and explore the neighbourhood, as Mrs. Thurston says that they'll both love Dark Falls.

As Amanda and Josh wander through the town, they notice that all the other houses in Dark Falls look decayed, in fact many of them have been boarded up. Josh asks why anyone would want to live in Dark Falls and Amanda tells him that the other townspeople probably got cheap houses just as their family did. As they walk by, they both notice a pale-looking man dressed in factory clothes - the same man Amanda saw in the next-door neighbors' window the previous night - and he quickly draws the blinds shut on his house, but his eyes continue to watch them from a slant between the blinds as they both walk away. Amanda also notices a Dark Falls Realty sign tipped over on someone's lawn, and the sign is very similar to the one outside their own house. They walk past a man, presumably Mrs. Thurston's husband, and notice that he's pale like the other Dark Falls residents and dressed in faded factory clothing to boot. They say hi to him but he just glares at Petey so they quietly leave him alone and head for the woods. After some wandering, they arrive at the rusty old bridge at the entrance to the town and Amanda hears a snapping noise. Josh tells her that "she's losing it" but then a gang of pale looking kids dressed in faded clothing and wielding baseball bats circle around them. Suddenly somebody whistles and Petey stops barking; it's an older boy, pale and dressed in faded clothes like all the other kids, but Amanda recognizes him as the shadow of the boy she saw in her bedroom doorway the previous night. He tells her that his name is Ray and that he used to live in the house when he first moved to town but that he hasn't been in there in years. When Amanda asks him where he currently lives, he doesn't reply. Their conversation is interrupted by one of the kids, a girl with a bowler hat, red hair and a shirt with a G-Crown symbol on it. She introduces herself as Karen Thurston, Agnes Thurston's daughter. One of the kids asks Josh if he plays baseball, but Ray says it's not a good time to play baseball. He offers to play ball with them tomorrow.

That night, Amanda is asleep and her closet door starts creaking open. A pale girl dressed in a decaying purple and black dress creeps into the room and stands above Amanda's bed. When Amanda wakes up she sees the girl and screams; the girl tells her to "get away, get out while you can! Get away..." The rest of the Benson family and Petey all rush to Amanda's room at the sound of her screaming, but the girl is gone. Amanda says the girl looked dead, but not like a ghost, and that her face was horrible (the girl has completely white eyes and rotten holes in her face during her presence). Josh says that the house smells bad and Mr. Benson goes to the closet, finding a very large hole in the wall. "The wind whistles right through here," he says, and offers to patch it the next day. Mrs. Benson stays with her until she falls asleep.

The next day, Mr. Benson bolts a piece of wood to the wall to cover the hole, and tries joking with Amanda, but she doesn't laugh. She tells him that something is wrong with the house and that the whole town is weird, that none of the townsfolk are normal people. Mr. Benson tells her that most of them are out of work since the town chemical factory closed and that some people aren't as fortunate as she is. She promises to consider that from now on. Mr. Benson tries to close the closet door but finds that it just drifts open on its own. He tells her it'll need shimmed out and as they both walk out of the room, Amanda leans against the door and is able to get it closed - after they're both away from the room, the door drifts open again, creaking loudly.

That afternoon Amanda and Josh are playing with the bubble wrap from their moving boxes in the backyard. Josh is complaining about the house and town as usual, so Amanda brings up the girl she saw in her closet. He tells her that the girl was a nightmare but she insists that the girl was real. She also tells him that it's really strange that supposedly Ray is just her imaginary friend but then they met him in the woods. Josh, getting freaked out by her talk of dead-looking people, is about to go inside but he drops his moving box. Money falls out of the box and rolls down into the cracks in the porch. Josh notices a large hole in the porch where some of the boards have been pushed forward, and he blames Petey. He sticks his hand inside and fishes out a quarter. Suddenly Petey starts barking at an unknown stranger on the other side of the fence and Amanda and Josh call out, "who's there?" to no avail. Petey backs away, visibly frightened and making whimpering noises, and while Amanda and Josh aren't looking a rotten hand covered in mold spots rises from the porch and slides the boards back to make the hole larger.

While Amanda is asleep in her room, her closet door creaks open and strange moaning noises are heard. Suddenly a hand that has gone blue with mold and rot breaks right through the plaster, waking Amanda up. She goes to get her parents and brother, but the noises are gone. Mr. Benson turns on the lights but no one is there. "Are you sure you didn't have another bad dream?" Mrs. Benson asks. Frustrated, Amanda heads forward to open the closet. Mr. Benson tells her to wait but she doesn't listen, and when she pulls open the closet door a bunch of old papers and junk falls from the top shelf. Mr. Benson finds the new hole in the plaster and starts inspecting it more closely, but Petey comes in from nowhere and snatches some of the fallen closet clutter, heading downstairs with it and crawling under the living room coffee table. The family chases after him and Amanda takes the clutter from him, realizing that it's a newspaper. It's from several years ago and the headline is "Accident At the Chemical Factory Kills Workers".

The next day, Mr. Benson has a falling out with Mr. Dawes in the kitchen of the house, showing him the newspaper and asking him why he never told the family about the accident. Mr. Dawes argues feebly that it was a long time ago, but Mr. Benson wants to know about pollution and says he still thinks it was something the family should have been told about. Mr. Dawes tries to leave but Mr. Benson brings up the closet, saying that something tore a hole in the drywall. Mr. Dawes says it was likely raccoons and that Dark Falls has excellent exterminators. He leaves the house and Mrs. Benson shrugs it off, looking very annoyed, while Mr. Benson drops the newspaper in one of the moving boxes.

Amanda, meanwhile, is sitting on her front porch writing another letter to Jennifer. Karen drops by and tells Amanda that she knows what it's like to be a new resident of Dark Falls. As the sun breaks through the clouds, Karen pulls the brim of her bowler hat down and asks to come in. Amanda offers her something to drink but Karen notices the ugly wreath on the wall. "What's that thing over your fireplace?" she asks in disgust. Amanda makes a few jokes about it and Karen laughs nervously.

Amanda confesses to Karen that something has been bugging her, that she thinks people are trying to get into the house while the family sleeps at night. Karen says that the wreath is scary and that it reminds her of something out of a horror movie. She advises Amanda to get rid of it, but suddenly Josh runs into the house, screaming that something is wrong. Karen and Amanda both turn to glance fearfully at the wreath.

Petey has gone missing; something ripped a huge hole in the backyard fence and now the dog is completely gone. Mr. and Mrs. Benson are little help, they've invited the Thurstons for lunch and can't help look. Amanda and Josh decide to go out to the woods and track Petey down. As they crawl through the fence, they step over a ripped blue piece of fabric, and it turns out to be Petey's collar - ripped right off of him. Amanda and Josh call out his name repeatedly as the sky gets sunnier, and finally they find him, but he looks afraid of them and he keeps avoiding the sunlight. He runs off and leads them to an old cemetery. Amanda is very reluctant to go in but Josh tells her that they have to go in or else they'll never find Petey. As they crawl through the rusty iron gates, Ray walks by and stares at them. Petey has completely disappeared and they keep calling out his name, but they both stop when they hear people arguing in the distance. They sneak up behind a tree and see a group of moldy-looking townspeople: a fat mayor, sheriff, a construction worker, an old lady, a fireman, the movers who helped bring the Benson family's possessions into the house and a lot of workers from the Dark Falls Chemical Factory, dressed in safe-suits and rotten, grey lab coats. They all have a bluish-green complexion and dark circles under their eyes, and the construction worker has skin rotting right off his face. As Amanda and Josh listen to their conversation, they learn that they were sold the house at such a low price because the people of Dark Falls planned on breaking into the house and killing the family, but something had prevented them from doing so. As Amanda and Josh listen in horror, Amanda accidentally squashes a sapling under her foot, making a loud snapping noise. The townspeople all turn to look at the tree and the mayor asks who's there. They see Amanda and Josh and the construction worker's eyes get wide. "Don't leave! ...We need you," he says, and the townspeople begin to move towards the tree. Josh instructs Amanda to run, but they end up running right into Ray and the other Dark Falls kids, including the creepy dead girl Amanda saw at her bedside, who are all as rotten and decayed as the town adults are. Ray tells Amanda that he used to have her room when he lived in her house but that he was killed one night because the townspeople needed his blood. The mayor tell Amanda and Josh that they're next, but not to be afraid. Ray agrees. The construction worker grabs Amanda and tells her he needs to feed, but suddenly the sunlight filters through the trees overhead, corroding part of his hand, allowing Amanda and Josh enough time to run by.

As Amanda and Josh run home, an old lady grabs them but they both get away, locking themselves inside the house with their parents and the Thurston family as well. Mrs. Benson thinks it's all a joke when Josh shouts out, "there's a bunch of dead people walkin' around!" but then Mr. Thurston tells her that the kids aren't joking. As he and Karen start blocking the doors and windows, Mr. Thurston tells Mrs. Benson that many people were killed in the Dark Falls Chemicals accident many years ago, and that something in the chemicals made all the contaminated factory workers of Dark Falls into mutated, murderous entities called "the walking dead". It is heavily implied that the factory workers must have murdered the Dark Falls children and other townspeople after they came back to life. Mrs. Thurston says that something must have brought the dead factory workers back again, and Amanda suggests they burn the wreath. Once the wreath is gone, the townspeople continue to pound on the doors and windows, breaking right through one of the windows and climbing in. Mrs. Thurston cackles an evil laugh and says that her plan all along was to trick the Bensons into burning the wreath because it has a power that was keeping the family safe. As the Thurstons begin to make sadistic jokes, more of the dead residents break down the door, letting everyone in. Mrs. Thurston also tells the Bensons that Mr. Dawes was her victim and implies that he's also one of the dead. The Bensons all hurry up the stairs to escape the residents, who form a chain and begin to walk up the stairs, chasing the Bensons. The construction worker rips right through one of the walls, revealing that he was the one putting holes in the walls of Amanda's closet, and that he has been residing right inside the walls of the house for some time. As he shouts that's he's starving, Ray grabs Josh but Josh slams a vase against his head. Ray isn't at all hurt by this, he just keeps on following the rest of the Dark Falls residents as they corner the Bensons in the attic. Amanda notices that the large bay windows of the attic have had pressboard nailed over them, and she and Josh begin to yank the boards down just as the dead are about to eat Mr. and Mrs. Benson. The sunlight from outside floods the room, killing the construction worker, the sheriff, the mayor, an old lady, someone from the Dark Falls moving company and Karen. The sunlight corrodes them and they melt into nothing but their clothes once the light hits them.

The family heads downstairs, getting into their van, but it won't start. Mr. Dawes appears beside the car, looking into the window, and Mr. Benson screams. Mr. Dawes starts trying to negotiate an agreement so that the family will stay in the house, but they just speed down the road immediately after starting the van, not looking back. Mr. Dawes, his face gray and moldy-looking, attempts to chase after the van, screaming that he's hungry in a whiny voice.

As the family hits the road out of Dark Falls, Mr. Benson questions if anyone wants to stop in Dark Falls for lunch jokingly. Nobody laughs, they just suggest waiting until they get to the next town over. Over the radio, the weatherman for the Dark Falls radio station, likely one of the dead as well, advises dressing in layers and avoiding the bright sunlight. Just as they approach the gated Dark Falls Chemical Factory site, Josh spots Petey waiting by the side of the road. The family lovingly lets him in and Amanda and Josh begin to hug and kiss him, but he stinks really bad. Amanda's mouth hangs open and Josh looks nervous as Petey begins to rot like the living dead in the backseat, turning gray.

Differences from the Book

 * In the book, the 'Dead House' is described as a tall redbrick house with a sloping black roof and rows of windows framed by black shutters. In the TV episode the house is shown to be a white weatherboard house with a wooden porch.
 * In the book there is no reference to waterfalls at all, however in the TV episode, we see the Benson family driving into town past the 'Welcome To Dark Falls' sign, which contains a waterfall image.
 * In the book, R.L. Stine makes a point of writing that Mr. Dawes is young and has a handsome face. In the TV adaptation, Mr. Dawes is shown to be middle-aged.
 * In the book there is no good luck charm in the house. In the TV adaptation Mrs. Benson puts up a 'lucky wreath' on the wall above the fireplace, and declares, 'Here's to good luck!'.
 * In the book we learn that many years ago, most of the residents of Dark Falls used to work at a plastics factory on the outskirts of town. However, there was an accident at the factory, where a yellow gas escaped and quickly floated over the whole town, killing all of the residents. At the beginning of the TV episode, the Benson family drive past an abandoned factory with signs that say 'CLOSED - Dark Falls Chemicals' and 'DANGER'.
 * In the book, the Benson's drive a Honda. It's unknown exactly what model, however given that at one point Mr. Dawes is driving the car with all of the Benson family including Petey, it's most likely a Honda Odyssey. In the TV adaptation, the family drive a first generation model blue Ford Windstar
 * In the book, Amanda's bedroom window is described as a 'bay window with a window seat' however in the TV episode, her bedroom window is shown as a basic medium sized square shaped window.
 * In the book, Petey is described as a white curly haired terrier, a smaller breed of dog. In the TV adaptation, Petey is a cross-bred border-collie / golden retriever mix.
 * In the book, Amanda's best friend from her old neighbourhood is Kathy, however in the TV adaptation it's Jennifer.
 * In the book it is unknown what colour Petey's collar is, however in the TV adaptation we see it is blue.
 * In the book, Amanda's walk-in closet light is on the closet ceiling, however in the TV adaptation, we see it is on the right inner closet wall with a pull-cord switch.
 * In the book, Amanda first sees a boy (Ray) standing in her bedroom doorway as the family attend an inspection of the house with Mr. Dawes before moving in. Once the family returns to Dark Falls on moving day, she sees him a second time in one of the second-floor bay windows above the porch from the front yard. In the TV episode however, as the family arrive at the home on moving day, Petey begins barking immediately at the upstairs window of Amanda's future bedroom from the front lawn. Looking up at the window, Amanda then first sees Ray behind moving curtains before anyone has entered the house. Later on as she is settling in for her first nights sleep, where she is startled by noises around the upstairs level of the house, and sees the shadowy figure of Ray a second time as he passes by the hallway near her bedroom.
 * In the book, Ray's surname is Thurston, and Karen's surname is Somerset. In the TV episode, Karen's surname is Thurston, and Ray's surname isn't revealed.
 * In the book, Amanda hears whispers and sees the Dark Falls kids around the house however none of them warn her. In the TV adaptation, a teenage corpse-looking girl with milky white eyes and stringy, unwashed black hair steps out of her closet in the middle of the night. She warns Amanda to 'Get away, get out while you can! Get away....'.
 * In the book, Amanda notices that there are hardly any trees in and around the Dark Falls Cemetery. In the TV episode however, it's very clear that there is dense foliage and shrubbery in and around the cemetery.
 * In the book, the the amphitheater is described in detail by Amanda, whereas in the TV adaptation the hoard of bloodthirsty townspeople are just huddled around among trees and gravestones in the cemetery.
 * At the end of the book, the Benson family decide to move back to their old house after Amanda and Josh save their parents from the Dark Falls townspeople. As they are leaving, Amanda sees what she thinks is Mr. Dawes helping another family moving in to the 'Dead House'. At the end of the TV episode, the family escape the horde of zombie townspeople after most of them are killed by sunlight. They manage to reach their car and drive off, with Mr. Dawes begging for them to return because he's starving. They manage to pick up Petey after they notice him on the highway well out of town, but Petey is revealed to have become one of the dead, and he turns gray after hopping in the back of the car. There's no other family who moves in the house.

Episode Trivia

 * The original premiere of the television episode, as well as the VHS and DVD release, included R.L. Stine as the television episode's host.
 * Ben Cook (Josh Benson) previously appeared as Jerry Hawkins in Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, and would appear again as Marty in A Shocker on Shock Street.
 * Scott Wickware (The Hard Hat Worker) previously appeared as The Masked Mutant in Attack of the Mutant, and the Haunted Mask in The Haunted Mask II.
 * This is the only Goosebumps episode to feature zombies.
 * If you look closely at the real estate signs shown in part 1, you can make out 'Mr. Compton Dawes' on the real-estate signs in Dark Falls.
 * The street name is unknown, however the number 10 can clearly be seen on the porch of dead house.
 * During an interview with young author Rebecca McNutt, she mentioned that 'A lot of inspiration for my books comes from the Goosebumps episode 'Welcome to Dead House'. The story of a tragic chemical factory accident has so much potential, but the production company never went much into the past with the accident, and focused more on the present moments with the new family moving in. I used to make up all kinds of stories about the Dark Falls chemical factory in grade seven.'
 * While the main TV show theme was released (Jack Lenz), the background music that plays throughout Welcome to Dead House (mostly piano music and creepy noises composed by Welcome to Dead House background track composed by Brad Macdonald) was never released at all. The company with rights to the music has yet to inform whether or not that soundtrack still exists, or if it will ever be released.
 * When the Benson's drive into Dark Falls across the town bridge, some of the signs visible include a 'Fishing prohibited from bridge' sign and a 'speed limit 20' sign.
 * The character Karen Thurston's 'G crown logo' shirt that she wears throughout parts 1 and 2 of Welcome to Dead House was also worn by the character Margaret Brewer in part two of 'Stay Out of the Basement' in Season 1. It was never revealed where the logo is from, but it was likely from a now shut-down Canadian company, or it was designed specifically for the characters in the show. The logo itself is an oval formed by two black curved arrows, filled in with gold and a graphic of a capital letter G with a plus symbol underneath it and a three-pointed crown above that.
 * During the opening scenes where Mr. Benson is driving through the outskirts of Dark Falls and talking about the town recently losing jobs, Mrs. Benson's side mirror on the family van reflects a truck driving behind them with it's lights on, including a visible cameraman.
 * While Mr. Benson drives the family van across the town bridge, a partial shot of Toronto's C.N. Tower is visible between the steel beams.
 * When Mr. Dawes holds up the Dark Falls Daily Newspaper with the headline ' Accident At Chemical Factory Kills Workers ', the sub-headline text, though near-illegible, reads: 'What is the damage to our lovely town? Should we evacuate? How toxic is it? ' The author is listed as 'John Lamont, town reporter'. On high-definition versions of the show the text is easier to read, however the smaller text that tells the story of the factory accident is still unreadable except on the original film recording of the show. There is no known copy of the prop newspaper in existence.
 * According to the script, none of the Dark Falls residents can be in the sunlight. When the family is driving away in part two, Compton begins to chase the van into the sunlight and his hat falls off. He is standing in direct sunlight but not dying like the other zombies did just earlier in the attic.
 * In the uncut / original version of this episode there a scene where Amanda momentarily trips over something just outside the cemetery gates while being chased home by the townspeople. The construction worker wraps his hands around her feet, making odd yelling noises. Josh slaps the construction worker on the top of his head and Amanda is able to escape. As they run past the gate, many of the townspeople, including Ray and the dead ‘closet girl’ - who warned Amanda to get away in the previous episode - and she's the only one of the residents who looks regretful for what the town is doing.

Film Locations

 * The opening scenes of the TV adaptation were filmed along Unwin Avenue in Toronto's Port Lands area. The episode shows the tall smokestack at the Hearn Generating Station, a now decommissioned power plant in Toronto.
 * Further along Unwin Avenue is the bridge that the Benson's drive across as they pass the 'Dark Falls' town sign. The bridge was rebuilt in 2015, however here's an image showing a comparison.
 * Other factories seen in the background include a dismantled Canadian sawmill nearby the generating station.

Digital Releases

 * Both episodes are available as part of 'Goosebumps Vol. 3' release on ITunes.
 * Both episodes are available on Netflix.