Night of the Living Dummy III

Plot
In Night of the Living Dummy III, the main characters are Trina and Dan O'Dell. Their dad collects dummies, and he brings Slappy (the dummy) 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 wrapped around Slappy's body, then Slappy slaps her across the face. Naturally, nobody believes her. Trina and Dan's cousin, Zane, is coming for a visit and their dad makes them promise not to scare Zane, as had done so previously during a visit. After a while, a dummy called Rocky pops up in weird places, scaring Zane while Trina and Dan get the blame for each incident. Many things are ruined, like 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 trying to have some fun without them. The three make a truce not to prank each other like that next time afterwards.

More catastrophes occur afterward, each with Rocky at the scene of the crime. Dan and Trina suspect Zane, but nobody else believes them. To prove that Zane is guilty, Dan and Trina sneak up in 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 words she read to bring Slappy to life. 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.

Surprise Ending:

The next day, Zane leaves to go back home with his dad. Trina gives Zane Slappy as a parting gift. He wants to learn ventriloquism. Also, Trina was asked to give him Slappy as a gift. Just as Zane gets into the car, the dummy winks at her.

Television Episode Trivia

 * Instead of the dummies attacking Slappy like in the book, he get's destroyed when he is struck by a bolt of lightning after Rocky throws him out the window. Slappy's destruction is similar to Return of the Jedi. Slappy makes Rocky his second in command, but he turns on Slappy. Darth Vader is Emperor Palpatine's second in command, but turns on him. Slappy and the Emperor are both thrown by former allies.


 * And at the end, instead of the dummy winking at Trina, implying him to still be alive as Zane take's him home. Zane's head twists all the way back and in an evil voice he says: "I'll be seeing you real soon...cousins." just before he enters the car. This is a twist is following on from the subplot where Slappy turns Zane into a dummy, with both this plotline and the surprise ending not appearing in the book.


 * Instead of the kids reading the words aloud, Trina reads the words backwards but doesn't work.


 * The original premiere of this episode and its VHS release include R.L. Stine as the episode's host.


 * In some shots, Slappy has moving eyebrows, and in other shots he does not. In these shots he has a different looking face. This is because two dummies were made to appear in different scenes.


 * In certain camera angles in the scenes of Zane's bedroom and the hallway as Trina and Daniel swept, a black line can be seen at the bottom of the screen. This is clearly a crack in the special camera's lens, as it only appears in the two types of angles, while the shots made from other angles were made with a different one.


 * Slappy is bigger in this episode (and the continuation) than he was in "Night of the Living Dummy II". This is because, in this installment, Slappy needs an actor to properly animate him (in the previous installment, he was simply a puppet with limited motion). For consistency, they made the puppet the same size as the actor.


 * Most of the "dummies" are actually dolls.


 * In "Night of the Living Dummy II", when Slappy's head falls on the fireplace, his entire face breaks off, but when they show what's left of him in the sequel, only the part around his eye is missing.


 * If you pay close attention, you'll be able to tell when Slappy is a dummy or an actor in a costume. The costume's face stretches like rubber when the mouth moves, and it can't move its eyes or eyebrows. The dummies also have human hands when actors wear costumes.


 * When Dan and Trina talk to Slappy in Zane's bedroom, you should notice that some shots are Zane's dummy, while others are human Zane with marker lines drawn over his mouth to simulate a dummy.


 * If you look very carefully as Slappy tries to squirm away from Trina and Dan as they wait for Zane, you can faintly see black wires moving his arms.


 * On the VHS/DVD release of this episode, the music recording is cut short, stopping before the credits are actually over, though just by an inch.


 * The title, both for the episode and book, spoofs the title of the famous movie, Night of The Living Dead.


 * Near the end, when there's a scene with Rocky in the chair, there is some "Godfather" music playing in the background.