Compton Dawes is the main antagonist in the first book in the Goosebumps series, Welcome to Dead House, as well as its television adaptation. He is the real estate agent that helps the Benson's move into Dark Falls. He turns out to have been dead like the rest of the town.
History[]
Book[]
Compton Dawes is the local real estate agent of Dark Falls. He shows the Benson family their new home. However, unbeknownst to the Bensons, Mr. Dawes and the other residents of Dark Falls have lured the family to their doom. After an accident at the local plastics factory cast a poisonous fog over the town, all of the residents ended up in a state of living dead. Unable to survive in bright light, yet immune to aging and granted supernatural powers. Needing fresh blood once a year to maintain their undead existence, they took one house in the town (selected for its very spacious interior and enticing old-fashioned furnishing) and dubbed it the "Dead House". having Dawes pawn it off to outsiders to lure unsuspecting families and feast on their blood, also transforming their victims into the undead as well. When Amanda and Josh soon learn about this, they save their parents, while also seemingly destroying the residents of the town. However, as the Benson family escapes, they see that Mr. Dawes is still alive (somehow having escaped the sunlight) and has already lured a new family to begin repopulating the town.
TV Show[]
The television adaptation does not feature him as much as the book, and he is not present for the climax of the episode until the very end. He is also much older in the episode in comparison to the book as his tombstone in the book suggests he died at age 30.
General information[]
Personality[]
While Mr. Dawes appears kind at first, he shows a sinister side when he is revealed as another member of the undead. He has deliberately led many families to their deaths by luring them to the Dead House. In the TV series, he's also shown to be completely insane when his hunger makes him desperate. Despite the Benson's family knowing what their intentions were, he foolishly pleads for them to stay giving them more real estate offers in hopes it'd convince them. However, when the family manages to get some distance from him and the other undead, he tearfully pleads for them to come back, before angrily declaring that he's hungry.
Physical appearance[]
Compton Dawes is described as being a young-looking man, with short blond hair. In his undead state, his skin and hair are a dull gray.
List of appearances[]
| Title | Role | Date | Series | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome to Dead House | Main antagonist | 1992 | Goosebumps | Book |
| "Welcome to Dead House" | 1997 | Goosebumps (TV series) | TV episode | |
| Goosebumps HorrorTown | Monster | 2019 | Goosebumps (video game series) | Mobile game |
Trivia[]
- In Goosebumps HorrorTown, he owns a business called "Better Call Dawes", a reference to the television series Better Call Saul.
- It is possible that Dawes, as well as the other Dark Falls residents, were set to return in the Goosebumps Gold book Happy Holidays From Dead House, but both the book and Goosebumps Gold were cancelled not long after R.L. Stine parted ways with Scholastic.
- According to Mr. Dawes' tombstone, he died 12 years before the Benson family arrived in Dark Falls.
- An error is made early in the book when Mr. Dawes offers to drive the Benson family around. The story suggests that Mr. Dawes is driving his own car; he even retrieves his hat from the trunk. After driving the family, Mr. Dawes stops by his real estate office and gets out, and the Benson family drives off with their car. Either Mr. Dawes had a car in or near the Benson's driveway (that he got his hat from), or R.L. Stine forgot that Mr. Dawes was not driving his own car. Another error is presented later on. Despite Dawes's death date on his tombstone being later than that of Karen Somerset, Dawes implies through his story that he was one of the original town inhabitants transformed by the fog. Notably, the second error is not fixed in later editions of the book despite the dates on the tombstones being updated (which was incidentally unneeded since the townspeople are immune to aging).