Night of the Living Dummy III

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

The cover shows Slappy the Dummy surrounded by a bunch of dummies.

Plot
In Night of the Living Dummy III, the main characters are Trina O'Dell and her brother, Dan. Their father, Danny O'Dell, 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 and 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 suspects Zane, and tell Trina, 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 thought it could put him to sleep too. 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 start learning ventriloquism. Also, Trina was asked to give him a dummy as a gift, and Trina gives him Slappy. Trina watches Zane get into the car, and the dummy winks at her..!

Television Adaptation

 * In the book, the dummies attack Slappy. But in the television episode, he gets destroyed in a different way. After Rocky throws him out the window, he is struck by lightning and explodes. At the end, Zane's head twists all the way back. In an evil voice he says, "I'll be back ...cousins," just before he enters the car. This implies that he is still part dummy somehow and that Slappy has some control over him.
 * In Night of the Living Dummy when Slappy's head falls on the fireplace, his entire face breaks off. But when they show what is left of him in the sequel, only the part around his eye is missing.
 * This is the only book in which the parents don't see Slappy in action or that the kids weren't lying.

Television Episode Trivia

 * Rocky's voice actor, Eugene Lipinski, played Mr. Mortman in The Girl Who Cried Monster.
 * 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 dummy version of himself.
 * Blair Slater (Daniel O'Dell) played Cooper Holmes in Season 3's The Barking Ghost.
 * Cousin Zane was played by a young Hayden Christensen, better known to fans of the Stars Wars movies as teenage/young adult Anakin Skywalker.
 * In some camera shots, Slappy has moving eyebrows, and in other camera shots he does not. In these camera 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 will 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 actor Hayden Christensen as 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 is a scene with Rocky in the chair, there is some "Godfather" music playing in the background.