I don’t remember reading this book or watching this episode as a kid because the plot didn’t sound that interesting, but now I wonder why I thought that because it’s probably the most similar to a horror movie so far… Maybe I just thought the cover was boring!
Anyway, it’s another two-parter introduced by everyone’s favourite children’s author, R.L. Stine! This time he’s in the attic of Dead House and talks to us as if we’re about to move in [I’ll pass, thanks, Stine]. He leaves us with some words of warning – “Look under the bed at night before you go to sleep, and when you make new friends, always check to see who’s dead and who’s alive.” [Great advice that we can all apply to our real lives].
Time for the main story now, and the Benson Family, consisting of Mum, Dad, protagonist Amanda and younger brother Josh [Who played Jerry in Piano Lessons Can Be Murder!], are arriving in the perpetually gloomy town of Dark Falls [Great name] to move into their new house. Josh continuously whines about the move during the drive [Which is fair enough. I will always sympathise with the poor kids who are collateral damage of a parents’ decision, forced to uproot their lives and start again somewhere new] because he doesn’t want to move and he definitely doesn’t want to live in a town with a stupid name like Dark Falls, a name that Mum thinks is “charming and evocative,” [Me too, fuck you, Josh >:|].
Anyway, their new house was super cheap thanks to the town losing some jobs recently, but luckily all Dad needs to make a living “is a room with a computer” [What, he couldn’t use a computer at their old house?]. Dad wants Josh to be more like Amanda, who he believes wants to move here despite her doing nothing but miserably look out the window so far.
We finally arrive at their new place, which is a bit of a dump, and as they climb out of the car, their cute dog Petey immediately starts barking. Amanda follows his gaze up to a second-floor window and spots someone staring back at her through the curtains [Ooky spooky!]. Whoever it is is gone by the time she alerts Mum, and Amanda concludes that it must have been the wind moving the curtain [Amanda, you saw a face and a hand, you know it wasn’t the wind]. Inside a few minutes later, Amanda heads upstairs to look for Petey, but instead finds an intruder [!!!!!!] in a creepy little shot reminiscent of basically any horror move:
It’s just ghostly pale real estate agent Compton Dawes, who switches the lights on via the power box that’s in the room [Why is it upstairs? Doesn’t it make more sense for it to be on the ground floor? And he was definitely just standing there in the dark before she screamed lol?]. Mum comes running in, alerted by Amanda’s screams, and Compton apologises for scaring them, claiming “It was so restful in the dark, I must have fallen asleep.”‘ [So you got overwhelmed by tiredness when you entered the room and fell asleep standing up? What kind of excuse is that hahaha]. Dad and Josh arrive too, along with Petey, who had been sniffing at the closet in another room [An uninvited guest in the closet, maybe?!] and takes an instant disliking towards Compton, [Is he a ghost? Dogs can tell when someone’s a ghost, remember?], although no-one seems to notice how nervous Compton seems by the dog.
The gang heads downstairs where Mum presents the good luck charm she’s brought with her – an ugly, framed wreath [That I think is dried flowers and random plastic? I can’t really tell what it’s made out of]. Compton seems unnerved by the wreath, although again no-one notices, and Mum explains that it’s a good luck charm that’s been passed down through the generations of her family [Hear that, kids? One day this’ll belong to you!]. The kids have never seen it before since Dad wouldn’t let Mum hang it in the old house [For good reason lol it’s hideous], but she proudly puts it on display on the living room wall for everyone to see. Still visibly nervous, Compton quickly gets the parents to sign some final bits of paperwork, declaring that one of the great pleasures of his job is “bringing in new families into our community” [OK so he’s a bad guy] before hauling ass.
Later that night, Amanda’s getting ready for bed when she hears a squeaking noise from outside. Moving to the window, she sees a man staring at her from a window in the opposite house, but he quickly closes his shutters because I guess he doesn’t like snoopers. As Amanda turns around, she glimpses an ooky spooky dark figure in a hat walking past her open door [Another horror movie trope!]. Assuming it’s Josh, she calls out to him as she investigates the hall, but he’s brushing his teeth in the bathroom and is definitely not wearing a hat.
She alerts their parents, but Dad finds no intruder after searching the house. Mum and Dad think she’s just “wound up from the move” and imagining things, and everyone returns to bed [Poor Amanda. I don’t know if I’d be able to sleep after that]. Amanda awakens later to a voice chanting “Fresh blood!” which stops as soon as it starts, and I think it’s supposed to be coming from somewhere within her open closet, because that’s what the camera shows us [Although I don’t think Amanda realises, so I’m not sure].
The next morning, Amanda’s dressed like she’s about to do a viral dance on TikTok [She walked so TikTokers could run :’)] when the family receives a visit from their friendly neighbour, Agnes Thurston, who just waltzes is without knocking, but at least she’s brought some breakfast muffins over [Cute!]. Mum’s like “Come on in” even though Agnes is inside and standing right in front of her already, and Agnes also also looks a bit wary when she notices the lucky wreath. Petey doesn’t seem to like Agnes either, and just like Compton, she pretends to be unbothered but we can see she’s nervous around the dog. Agnes also mentions something about the chemical factory closing, so I’m sure that will have some relevance later.
Amanda and Josh take Petey for a walk, where they notice all the other houses seem boarded up and rundown, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone else out and about. Josh continues to complain about how dark and gloomy the town is because that’s his whole personality, and Petey starts barking at a guy peeking out of his window at them who quickly closes the shutters [I think it’s the same guy Amanda saw last night through her window]. They walk past Agnes’ house, where her husband is sawing some wood in the garage, but he just stares at them when they politely say hi, and Petey also barks at him [I’m fkn sick of this dog barking already]. The sun briefly shines through the clouds once the kids are gone, and Mr. Thurston quickly steps back into the shade, seemingly afraid of the light [The sky is non-stop cloudy in Dark Falls, and these pale-skinned townspeople clearly need it that way. Maybe they’re vampires, not ghosts?].
Later on their walk, Amanda, Josh and Petey are surrounded by a group of pale kids wearing hats and drab clothing that doesn’t show much skin [It’s like the colour got sucked right out of them!] who are very glad the Benson’s have moved her [I bet you are!]. They form a tight circle around the Benson kids [Like, kissing distance hahaha] before another kid appears, and from the hat he’s wearing, Amanda realises he’s the guy she saw last night. The other kids break up their little huddle as the kid advances, introducing himself as Ray and claiming “I haven’t been in that house in a long time” [I saw you in there too, Ray, you dirty liar. Unless someone else in town has that same-shaped hat]. He explains he used to live in that house when he first moved to Dark Falls, but before he reveals when he moved here, another girl appears – Agnes’ daughter Karen!
The townie kids invite Amanda and Josh to play baseball, but Ray [Who must be their leader or something] disapproves of the timing after noticing the sun starting to peek through the clouds again, much to Josh’s confusion. “Maybe tomorrow,” suggests Ray, and the townie kids all stalk off.
That night in bed, Amanda’s restless sleep is interrupted by a pale, greasy-haired girl who urges Amanda to “Get away while you can.” Horrified, Amanda covers her eyes as her screams bring the rest of her family to her rescue, but of course the girl is gone by then, and Amanda tells them the girl looked dead, “but she wasn’t.” After Petey starts barking at the closet, Dad finds a big hole in the wall, so Mum and Dad dismiss Amanda’s claims as a nightmare prompted by the sound of the wind whistling through the hole.
The next day, Dad patches up the hole, declaring “That ought to keep the bogeyman out! Or bogeygirl” [Good one, Dad], but Amanda’s a little disheartened that everyone thinks she’s just seeing things and insists there’s something wrong with the house. Dad isn’t so sure because he hasn’t seen anything [Well if Dad didn’t see it, you must be wrong, Amanda!], but Amanda explains it’s not just the house – the whole town is strange, including the perennial darkness and the weird kids they met yesterday. Dad sits her down and explains how most of the people in town are out of work, and their family is extremely lucky to be able to live off the money from selling their old house while Dad works on the book he’s writing [Wow, not Dad selfishly uprooting his whole family’s lives so he can write a fucking book lol]. Amanda promises to “try to remember we’re more fortunate than most,” and before they leave the room, they notice the closet door refuses to stay closed [Ooky spooky!].
Later, Amanda and Josh are doing something in the backyard with their moving boxes and bubble wrap [I really have no idea what they’re doing. Separating them? Why in the backyard?], and Amanda asserts she really did see a girl last night. Josh reckons she was just dreaming, like when she thought she saw Ray the other night, so Amanda points out that if she was dreaming, it’s still pretty weird that she allegedly imagined Ray, and then they met him the next day [Yeah, explain that, Josh!]. As the kids become distracted by Petey barking at an unknown figure walking back and forth on the other side of the fence, the episode ends with a hand reaching up through the damaged cellar door.
So far so good, but come back for Part 2 to get my final thoughts on this double episode!
