Goosebump a thon #40: Night of the Living Dummy 3

Hello, Spongey here.

Welcome back to Goosebump-athon!

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SEQUEL TIME!

Night of The Living Dummy 3

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Cover: Pretty cool. I like all the dummies, and I like slappy is in the biggest chair, like he’s the king

dummy3

Reprint Cover:  Another zoom in, with less dummies. I like it well enough, just not one that does a lot for me.

Front Tagline: “Every day has his day,…and his night!”. lame

Back Tagline:

Summary:

Another one I don’t own, nor do remember it word for word Well, I’ll do the best job I can, k?:

Trina and Danny’s dad used to be a ventriloquist. He  collects old dummies now, and he has 12 of them as of now. The most famous is Rocky, who sadly does not look like …well rocky.

One day he brings in a broken dummy he found in  a trash can: Slappy! But for now, he’s called Smiley. I like how they keep continuity with the last one, by having him broken.

Their cousin Zane comes to visit. He’s a scaredy cat and every year the kids love to scar him,, but they are warned not to scare him this year or else.

Oh, and they say the words, but In an admittedly clever twist, it’s ROCKY who pops up everywhere.

Rocky pops up in weird places, scaring Zane, and Trina and Dan are blamed for each incident. Many things are ruined, like Zane’s camera, the dinner table, and the film in Zane’s camera by the ‘dummy’. The usual stuff, ya know

One night, they sneak up the attic and see who is messing the dummies. And…turns out Zane has been doing all this. Damn it Stine, stop that. I don’t want to wait half a book for my dummy action!

Also, Zane is almost cool for doing this. Almost.

The three make a truce not to do that again.

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.

But here’s a shocker: it was Slappy. He was doing this to make them think it was zane And to get them to blame rocky. He goes through the typical slave speech.

. 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.

Of course, he tells them that shit don’t work, bitch .

Slappy is still alive and well, but all of the other dummies come to life. Then the dummies beat the SHIT out of him, in a awesome scene. He lays dead.

Zane pops up seeing them, and think that they have been doing this, and tells on them, grounding them. Oh god fuck you zane. So much.

Twist 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 Zane Slappy as a gift.

“Sure, I’ll give the evil dummy”

Just as Zane gets into the car, the dummy winks at her.

Good riddance, dickhole. Okay twist, I guess.

TV Episode:  

Another great episode of a meh book!

Oh, and much like Fever swamp., It was written by Neal Shusterman, which is why this episode kicks so much ass. It’s hosted by RL Stine…and a dummy version of him. I had a hard time figuring out who the dummy was.

This is one where they changed a lot, but let’s talk about the basics

Zane is played by Hayen Christensen.

Oh boy, here we go…

It is the same basic stuff until we find out zane did it. Suddenly, we see Slappy come to life and say “let me show you how the pros do it”. He then brings Rock to life.

Oh, and rocky looks like a Godfather style gangster. They even play the godfather music! Can you say lawsuit? Oh, and In the episode “Bride of the living dummy” Slappy says “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’ refuse”

We get a lot of funny/awesome scenes with Slappy. For example, Slappy pops up in a table and Trina thinks he is alive. Zane questions why he isn’t doing anything…so he bends over and says “kick me”

He doesn’t and he goes “why didn’t he do it, eh?”

Then he does.

“You didn’t say please”

Okay, PLEASE kick my ass.

Oh, and when they throw him in the well, he pops up and…spits out a frog. The they turn Zane into a dummy,. Though he’s still not as wooden as he was in attack of the clones.

Then we get the climax, with Slappy and rocky about to kill the kids. They both laugh evilly about it.

SLAPPY: Shut up, who said you could laugh?

…He is so much like a…slave driver, it’s insane.

Rocky advances on them,..but then trina reminds of him of how dad cared for him. How he fixed him up when he was broken, he is a real part of their family, just as much as Trina is.

“When dad found you, you were falling apart, but he fixed you. Is this how you will repay us?”

“I gave you life, who will you listen to, her or me?!”

Rocky then…beats him up. Holy crap, crowning moment of heartwarming, and awesome. Rocky is awesome.

So they fight, until Slappy hanging from the roof

“don’t you get it?! I’m invincible!”

Lighting hits him and he blows up

I’ll give you a moment to laugh as hard as I did.

Anyway, so in the last scene, zane is leaving. But Trina puts rocky where he belongs. We see a close up..where he sheds a single tear.

Oh god, that’s just too much, show.

Okay, so the ending? Zane walks away…and he turns around

“I’ll be seeing you real soon, cousin”

…that’s so amazing.

So yeah, great episode.

Notable Lines: Look above for a gold mine

Useless Fact:  None

Final Thoughts:

This one was just okay. I like some of the clever ideas, but it was just a bland rehash, with an annoying character known as Zane. It was predictable, boring, and gave us nothing new. It wasn’t BAD, it was fairly well written at times. I just couldn’t get into it. I hesitate to say it is bad, but I cannot call it good. So I shall give it…

Grade:  C

UPDATED FINAL THOUGHTS:

Eh. It’s almost good, I’ll say that much. I like the idea of these kids having wrong ed their cousin and wanting to make up for it, only for Slappy to come in. It almost works well enough, with some decent moments.

But sadly, the story doesn’t quite gel. The thing with him having done some of this could have worked but then that arc is basically dropped and things end on a bad note. The TV episode handled that better, along with all that other crazy stuff they added.

So yeah, almost decent but the main thing I was digging falls through in the end.  Not as much Slappy action too, so eh.

UPDATED RATING: Average

See ya!

About Spongey444

I'm 25 and I mostly spend my time watching TV and movies, hence why I ended doing a blog all about those things. I tend to have weird tastes, but I like think I'm just fair on things. Actually nah, I have bad tastes.
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