Welcome to Dead House was the first book in the original Goosebumps book series. It was first published in 1992. Along with this, it was then rereleased in 2010 as the thirteenth book in the Classic Goosebumps series, featuring new artwork by Brandon Dorman.
The cover illustration features an old, dark house at night, with the front door slightly ajar, and a strange figure illuminated in the window by an orange light.
Blurb
LOOK ALIVE!
Amanda and Josh think the old house they have just moved into is weird. Spooky. Possibly haunted. And the town of Dark Falls is pretty strange, too.
But their parents don't believe them. You'll get used to it, they say. Go out and make some new friends. So Amanda and Josh do. But these new friends are not exactly what their parents had in mind. Because they want to be friends...forever.
Plot
The Benson family takes their first trip to Dark Falls to meet with the local real estate agent Compton Dawes, and see their new home. Mr. Benson inherited a house that belonged to his late great-uncle that he didn't even know existed. Amanda Benson, her little brother Josh, and their dog Petey immediately sense that something is not quite right. Despite the fact that it is the middle of July, the entire neighborhood seems covered in an artificial darkness created by the shadows of massive, overhanging tree limbs. Dead brown leaves, shade, and shadows are everywhere. Then there is the creepy old house, that appears to have been built many years ago. It is an enormous, dark, antique home with two large bay windows on the second floor that look eerily like a pair of dark eyes staring down at the street below. While Josh proceeds to impatiently whine in protest over the family move and how tragic it is for him, Mr. Dawes welcomes the family into the home. Whilst exploring her new room, Amanda watches with amazement as she catches a glimpse of a boy standing in the doorway, before quickly disappearing down the hall.
Amanda feels much better after seeing her bedroom. She goes outside to tell Josh about it, but both he and Petey are gone. Mr. Dawes offers to provide directions while the family drive around town to find the missing pair. On the way Amanda finds it odd that there aren't any people in the houses or yards, or even on the street. Eventually, the group find Josh trying to catch Petey amongst the gravestones of the Dark Falls cemetery. The kids' father Jack ends up catching Petey and putting him on a leash despite how frantic his behavior is. The family then drops off Mr. Dawes at his real estate office in Dark Falls, where he mentions to the Bensons that they can come back the following week to finalize the contracts for the house. After an eventful first visit, the Benson family leave Dark Falls and head back home to their old neighborhood.
Amanda's best friend, Kathy, comes over on the family's last night in their old house, reassuring Amanda that Dark Falls is only four hours away. The following morning is moving day, and it's a rainy, windy arrival in Dark Falls for the family at their new house. Amanda keeps seeing other children in her home and hearing strange sounds. Amanda and Josh start meeting the locals, such as Ray Thurston who seem friendly enough, but also seem a bit strange and off putting. Both Ray and a girl named Karen claim they used to live in their house.
Two weeks later, Petey goes missing and they can't seem to find him. That night, Josh comes into Amanda's room and theorizes that Peter went into the cemetery, just like last time. When they head out to check, they bump into Ray, who warms them about being out here so late. In the cemetery, they find gravestones with their new friends names on then, including Ray's. Ray confirms that it's his, and he is actually one of the living dead.
Once a year, they must have the blood from a freshly killed person to sustain their "living dead" existence for another year. They killed Petey because dogs always sense the living dead. Ray attacks Amanda but Josh saves her at the last moment, when he shines his light on Ray's face. This results in Ray disintegrating and becoming a pile of bones. Amanda and Josh run home but when they arrive, they are attacked by the dead children who explain that there is no dead great-uncle and that the letter sent to their parents was a trick to bring the Benson family to Dark Falls. Suddenly Mr. Dawes, the real estate agent, appears at the door and the dead children vanish.
He tells them that he has already found their parents and that he will take the kids to join their parents. Although Amanda and Josh think he's saving them at first, a gravestone reveals Mr. Dawes is also dead. He explains to the children that Dark Falls used to be a normal town years ago, but a yellow gas escaped from a nearby factory and spread throughout the town, transforming the citizens into the undead. Amanda and Josh manage to escape Mr. Dawes after Josh hits him on the head with his flashlight. It turns out the dead children are zombies that crumble under light, and they knock down a tree to kill all of the living dead. They rescue their parents and go home to quickly pack up.
As the Benson family is leaving Dead House, they see a new family on the driveway. Amanda notices that these people are being guided by someone that looks like Mr. Dawes. She brushes this off and tells one of the kids that she used to live in their house, and the Benson family drives away.
Reprints and rereleases
Welcome to Dead House is the most rereleased Goosebumps book. It has received four standalone reprints, was included as a story within the omnibuses of Monster Edition #1 and Hair Raising Collection, and is included in the Retro Scream Collection tin. Additionally, it appeared as one of three stories within Scholastic's Tales of Suspense for Boys omnibus (alongside Chasing the Falconers from On the Run and The Encounter from Animorphs).
Differences
- In 2008, before the Classic Goosebumps series officially began, Scholastic printed Welcome to Dead House: Special Collector's Edition. It used Tim Jacobus' original artwork and came with a limited edition poster. This reprint features the same logo as books in the Classic Goosebumps series.
- This print of the book also featured an excerpt from Revenge of the Living Dummy, the first book in the Goosebumps HorrorLand series.
- The gravestones in the Classic Goosebumps version were updated. Each character's date of birth and death were moved forward multiple years.
- "Josh had hold of Dad's hand" is changed to "Josh had grabbed Dad's hand"
- "trying to tug his hand out of Josh's grasp" is changed to "struggling".
- "“Let go, Josh,” I said quietly, grabbing Josh by the shoulder" is changed, so that the second "Josh" says "him"
- "dead flowerbed" is changed to "overgrown flowerbed".
- "And my room was huge and had its own bathroom and an old-fashioned window seat where I could sit at the window and look down at the street" is changed to remove the second mention of the window, likely changed to avoid redundancy.
- The sentence "Even a finished attic filled with old furniture and stacks of old, mysterious cartons we could explore" adds "There was" at the start, likely to make the sentence more complete.
- "I took one more look at my closet, a long walk-in closet with a light in the ceiling, and wide shelves against the back wall" is changed to "I took one more look at my long walk-in closet, which had a light in the ceiling and wide shelves against the back wall"
- "He was chasing after Petey" removes the "after"
- "Even though it was the middle of the afternoon" is changed to "Even though it was the middle of the day"
- "Blonde" is changed to "Blond"
- "I hadn't screamed" is changed to "I didn't scream".
- "big potluck dinner party" is changed to just "big party".
International releases
Title: Welcome to Dead House
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Release date: September 17, 1993
Publisher: Scholastic
Title: La Casa Della Morte
Translated title: The House of Death
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Release date: June 1994
Publisher: Mondadori
Title: Det döda Huset
Translated title: The Dead House
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish
Release date: 1994
Publisher: Ritchers
Title: منزل الموتى
Translated title: House of the Dead
Country: Egypt
Language: Arabic
Release date: 1994
Publisher: Dar Nahdet Misr
Title: Το σπίτι των νεκρών
Translated title: The House of the Dead
Country: Greece
Language: Greek
Release date: 1995
Publisher: ΚΕΔΡΟΣ
Title: Bienvenidos La Casa De la Muerte
Translated title: Welcome to the House of Death
Country: Mexico
Language: Spanish
Release date: 1995
Publisher: Scholastic
Title: La Maison Des Morts
Translated title: The House of the Dead
Country: France
Language: French
Release date: March 23, 1995
Publisher: Bayard Poche
Title: La Casa De la Muerte
Translated title: The House of Death
Country: Spain
Language: Spanish
Release date: 1996
Publisher: Ediciones B
Title: Willkommen im Haus der Toten
Translated title: Welcome to the House of the Dead
Country: Germany
Language: German
Release date: May 1, 1996
Publisher: Omnibus Verlag
Title: Bem-Vindos à Casa da Morte
Translated title: Welcome to the House of Death
Country: Portugal
Language: Portuguese
Release date: 1997
Publisher: Abril
Title: добро пожаловать в мертвый дом
Translated title: Welcome to the Dead House
Country: Russia
Language: Russian
Release date: 2000
Publisher: РОСМЭН-ПРЕСС
Title: We Zijn Niet Alleen
Translated title: We Are Not Alone
Country: Nederlands
Language: Dutch
Release date: April 2001
Publisher: Kluitman Alkmaar BV
Title: De Dødes Hus
Translated title: The House of the Dead
Country: Denmark
Language: Danish
Release date: 2002
Publisher: Borgen
Title: 我的新家是鬼屋
Translated title: My New Home is a Haunted House
Country: China
Language: Chinese
Release date: 2003
Publisher: Cite Publishing
Language: Chinese
Reprint ver.: 2
Release date: July 30, 2015
Publisher: Shang Zhou Publishing
Title: 死亡古堡•神秘实验室
Translated title: Death Castle • Mystery Lab
Country: China
Language: Simplified Chinese
Release date: 2003
Publisher: Relay Press
Title: خانه مرگ
Translated title: Death House
Country: N/A
Language: Persian
Release date: N/A
Publisher: Genesis
Title: به خانه مردگان خوش آمدید
Translated title: Welcome to the House of the Dead
Country: Iran
Language: Persian
Release date: N/A
Publisher: Vida Publishing
Title: La Maison Des Morts
Translated title: The House of the Dead
Country: Canada
Language: French
Release date: November 9, 2004
Publisher: Scholastic
Title: Bem-Vindo A Casa Dos Mortos
Translated title: Welcome to the House of the Dead
Country: Canada
Language: French
Release date: 2006
Publisher: Fundamento
Title: 恐怖の館へようこそ
Translated title: Welcome to the House of Terror
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Release date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Iwasaki Shoten
Title: Chào Mừng Đến Với Ngôi Nhà Chết
Translated title: Welcome to the Dead House
Country: Vietnam
Language: Vietnamese
Release date: December 2006
Publisher: VHTT Publishing House
Title: Добре дошли в мъртвата къща
Translated title: Welcome to the Dead House
Country: Bulgaria
Language: Bulgarian
Release date: 2009
Publisher: New Imprese Agency
Title: 빈집의 숨바꼭질
Translated title: Hide and Seek of Empty House
Country: Korea
Language: Korean
Release date: July 1, 2014
Publisher: Gorilla Box
Classic Goosebumps
Title: Το σπίτι των νεκρών
Translated title: The House of the Dead
Country: Greece
Language: Greek
Release date: 2015
Publisher: ΚΕΔΡΟΣ
Title: La Casa De la Muerte
Translated title: The House of Death
Country: Spain
Language: Spanish
Release date: October 10, 2016
Publisher: Hydra
Title: منزل الموتى
Translated title: The House of the Dead
Country: Egypt
Language: Arabic
Release date: January 1, 2017
Publisher: Nahdet Misr Publishing House
Title: La Casa De La Mort
Translated title: The House of Death
Country: Catalonia
Language: Catalan
Release date: April 2017
Publisher: Hidra
Audiobooks
Differences
French:
- There are a few renames:
- Amanda is called "Anna"
- Josh is called "Jimmy"
- Petey is called "Pat"
- Ray is called "Eric"
- The town of Dark Falls is called "Tombstone"
Adaptations
TV series
For the television adaptation, visit the episode page.
Audiobook
Audiobook | Release date | Length | Narrated by | Published by |
---|---|---|---|---|
May 1997 (limited release) | 46 minutes | Ted Kryczko | Walt Disney Records | |
|
April 2015 | 2 hours, 43 minutes | Tara Sands | Scholastic Inc. |
Gallery
Trivia
- Amanda and Josh's father was mentioned by name in the book: Jack Benson. Their mother was referred to as Penelope Benson in the television episode, but it is unknown if that really was her name in the book.
- Stine claims that this book may be too scary for kids, because he didn't have his funny elements yet, and he says that if he could rewrite the book, he would make it a little funny.
- A follow-up to the book titled Happy Holidays from Dead House was planned for the Goosebumps Gold book series in the year 2000. However, both the book and the series were never released due to R.L. Stine's fallout with Scholastic.
- First edition copies of the book do not feature a number on the spine.
- At one point, Amanda has a dream where her family are all skeletons. A similar dream appears in Say Cheese and Die!
- However, the dream sequence in this book is much more detailed in comparison.
- Certain copies of the original book advertise not one, but two books on the back cover; Stay Out of the Basement and Monster Blood.
- The Classic Goosebumps reprint changes the back tagline to “Enter at your own risk!”.
- The first word of this book is ‘Josh’, this book being the first Goosebumps book, and it’s first word being ‘Josh’ means that the first word ever in a Goosebumps book was ‘Josh’, and the first letter was ‘J’.
- Legendary horror filmmaker George A. Romero once wrote a concept for a film adaptation of Welcome to Dead House. [1]
Errors
- Early in the book, 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.
References in other Goosebumps media

The house as it appears in the game.
- In the Goosebumps Series 2000 book, Revenge R Us, protagonist Wade Brill is forced to enter an abandoned house which her friend, Carl Jeffers, has nicknamed "The Dead House".
- The original cover of the book is featured in the end credits animation in the film Goosebumps.
- However, the color palette seems to resemble the newer release cover.
- The Dead House appears as a location in Goosebumps: The Game, as well as on the original cover.
- There is an event based on this book in Goosebumps HorrorTown.