Night of the Living Dummy III

 Night of the Living Dummy III was the fortieth book in the Goosebumps book series. It was preceded by How I Got My Shrunken Head and followed by Bad Hare Day.

Plot
In Night of the Living Dummy III, the main characters are Trina and Dan O'Dell. Their father 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. Their father 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.

The next day, Zane leaves to go back home with his father. 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 Adaptation

 * In the book, the dummies attack Slappy. But in the television episode, he get's destroyed in a different way. After Rocky throws him out the window, he is struck by a bolt of lightning.
 * Slappy turns Zane into a dummy at one point. At the end, Zane's head twists all the way back. In an evil voice he says: "I'll be seeing you real soon...cousins." just before he enters the car. This implies that he is still part dummy somehow.
 * 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.

Television Episode Trivia

 * The original premiere of this television episode and its VHS release include R.L. Stine as the television episode's host. He is joined by a dummmy version of himself.
 * Blair Slater (Daniel O'Dell) played Cooper Holmes in Season 3's The Barking Ghost.
 * In some camera shots, Slappy has moving eyebrows, and in other camera 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 camera shots made from other angles were made with a different one.
 * Slappy is bigger in this television 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.
 * 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 camera shots are Zane's dummy, while others are human Zane with marker lines drawn over his mouth to simulate a dummy.
 * Goof: 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 television episode, the music recording is cut short, stopping before the credits are actually over, though just by an inch.
 * Near the end, when there's a scene with Rocky in the chair, there is some "Godfather" music playing in the background.