Author R.L. Stine has been creating nightmares for years. Nothing scared this 90s kid more than that one story about the haunted mask! Perhaps the most iconic piece of nightmare fuel gifted to us from Stine’s brilliant mind is Slappy the Dummy from his ‘Goosebumps’ series.
Recently, Stine took to Twitter to announce a new book that will feature everyone’s favorite creepy ventriloquist dummy to be released in March.
The evil dummy returns March 3. Know an evil kid who will enjoy this? Have you preordered? pic.twitter.com/vr01uAP6yZ
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) January 13, 2020
We first met Slappy in the book ‘Night of the Living Dummy’ before he appeared in eight more ‘Goosebumps’ stories, including two sequels to the original story. Slappy also scared us to death in both the 2015 and 2018 ‘Goosebumps’ feature films. Furthermore, Slappy acts as the narrator of the ‘Goosebumps SlappyWorld’ series. In short, this doll is having a ball!
RELATED: The Latest ‘Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween’ Clip Features Slappy Doing Some Shopping
The ‘Goosebumps’ feature films have both seen moderate success as they blended elements from all across the author’s library. However, there is one story that Stine wishes could be made into its own feature movie. Remember ‘The Haunted Mask?!’ Stine said:
“I would like to see ‘The Haunted Mask.’ I think that one would make a good feature. And maybe put together ‘Haunted Mask’ one and two. That’s my best Halloween book, I think. If they did a third [movie], I would want them to make it a little scarier, and less funny. They go for laughs, which is wonderful, and they have scary scenes, but […] I’d like to see the movies just heighten the scares a little bit.”
Another favorite from Stine’s original novels is ‘Welcome to Dead House.’ In fact, it was his very first novel. Fans have long asked for a film based on the story, but Stine is not so sure. He explained:
“Well that was the first one, and I didn’t really have the formula, I didn’t really know what I was doing. See, now I look at ‘Welcome to Dead House,’ and I think it’s too scary for the series. It doesn’t have the humor of the other books. I didn’t quite have it yet. But that’s interesting you said that, ’cause I think it does stand out, as far as scariness goes.”
Make sure to pick up your copy of ‘Goosebumps SlappyWorld: Diary of a Dummy’ on March 3rd!
