History Series / TheHauntingHour

** [[spoiler: Chang]] the bully in "The Dead Body" is mauled to death by a ghost, but considering how he proudly admits that he loves beating people up, nobody cared. Travis comes close to this trope too, but he's merely [[MindRape mind raped]] instead of outright murdered.

** The scene where the janitor reveals Jake is a ghost in "The Dead Body" is lifted straight from ''Film/SuzieQ.'' Complete with a memorial photo. Except the janitor is a bit nicer about Suzie.
*** Similarly, Jake's death, being burnt to death by bullies and being written off as a strange kid by authorities, seems to be a reference to Curtis Danko's death from ''Film/WhenGoodGhoulsGoBad.'' Ironically, Jake from the original story greatly resembles, and might have been the inspiration for, the film's Uncle Fred.
*** Jake helps the protagonist in order to make a deal. His last name is Skinner...[[FairyTaleMotifs as in ''Rumplestilskin'']]. Of course, Will and his Uncle Jake probably had the same last name in the original story.

* BittersweetEnding: "A Creature Was Stirring" ends with [[spoiler:the family's home destroyed, leaving them with little but the clothes on their backs. However, they got through the episode alive and were brought closer together, with the parents canceling their divorce.]]

Compared to ''Goosebumps'', the stories are much, ''[[DarkerAndEdgier much]]'' [[DarkerAndEdgier darker]]. There was even [[ContentWarning a disclaimer about its content]] before the episodes began! Some of the episodes were adapted from R.L. Stine's works, mainly from the ''Literature/NightmareHour'' and ''Literature/TheHauntingHour'' short story collections.

** In "Lovecraft's Woods," the trio become stuck in a TimeLoop and are doomed to make the same journey over and over again.

* DarkerAndEdgier: It's darker than Stine's earlier works ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'' and the short-lived series ''The Nightmare Room'', and, while some episodes do have happy endings or come off as the kind of cheesy stories that R.L. Stine did in the 1990s, the majority of ''Haunting Hour'' episodes are darker and have endings that are either cruel or [[GainaxEnding don't make any sense, no matter how many times you watch it]].

** The scene where the janitor reveals Jake is a ghost in "The Dead Body" is lifted from ''Film/SuzieQ.'' Complete with a memorial photo. Except the janitor is a bit nicer about Suzie.

* HalloweenEpisode: "Pumpkinhead" and the sequel episode "Return of the Pumpkinheads"[[note]](though "Return of the Pumpkinheads" only touched on Halloween and didn't feature many characters in costume, a costume party, trick-or-treating, or any events/characters associated with the typical Halloween episode.[[/note]]. For a horror TV show based on Creator/RLStine's books (and given that ''Goosebumps'' and ''The Nightmare Room'' had more), it's surprising that there are only two Halloween episodes in this series.

** In "The Dead Body" short story, Will Johnston was a ShrinkingViolet who was afraid of everything and couldn't stand up for himself. While this trait is used for the most part in the adaptation, he later grows into a brave BullyHunter who stands up to his vicious ghost bully by partaking in a fistfight with him. On a related note, Jake from the original story needed a mask to pose as a zombie. Here, he's capable of shapeshifting and time-travel.

** Jake Skinner was actually Will's loving uncle who helped the kid out with his bullying problems out of the goodness of his heart, but in the show, he is a sadistic monster who gleefully harms his enemies and grows into Will's archenemy.
** Downplayed with [[TheBully Travis]], who was a FalseFriend towards Will and at least [[BitchInSheepsClothing pretended he was a nice guy]]. In the television version, he's a malicious bully who doesn't hide his love for picking on people.

** In "The Dead Body" short story, Will Johnston was a ShrinkingViolet who was afraid of everything and couldn't stand up for himself. While this trait is used for the most part in the adaptation, he later grows into a brave BullyHunter who stands up to his vicious ghost bully by partaking in a fistfight with him.

[[FourIsDeath After just four seasons on the air]], [[WordOfGod R.L. Stine confirmed]] that Discovery Family [[https://twitter.com/RL_Stine/status/541279154583650304 removed the show from their schedule]], making the last season the shortest one with [[CutShort only ten episodes]]. The last episode aired was the ChristmasEpisode "Goodwill Toward Men."

** Melvin's father in "Spores". Although he isn't physically abusive, he ''is'' emotionally and mentally abusive towards his family. He guilt-trips everyone else into coming along on ''his vacation'' and constantly tries to defend his actions.

** [[RichBitch Missy's parents]] in "Goodwill Toward Men". They make fun of Missy for showing kindness to the gardeners they hired, tell her that the hired help have no business mingling with the upper-crust because it disrupts the "natural balance of things," favor their son Henry over her (because Henry is just as selfish as his mom and dad), and, even when they're poor, cold, and starving, all they care about is contacting their former connections (lawyers, credit card companies, etc.) so they can get their old lives back.

** Also PlayedForDrama in "Goodwill Toward Men", where Missy and her family are cursed to become poor and homeless thanks to the angel statue she received, even though, unlike her parents and older brother, Missy actually cares about the less fortunate (even when she herself is in the same boat as the homeless people). She ends up in a new reality where the gardener, his wife, and his son are the rich family (and have Missy as their daughter/sister) while Missy's former family (the selfish, money-grubbing ones) are the hired help with no memory of ever having a daughter/sister.

* ChristmasEpisode: "A Creature Was Stirring" and "Goodwill Toward Men," making for a nice {{Bookends}} for the series, as it started with a Christmas episode and ended with a Christmas episode ("Really You" was a pilot/series sneak peek, and doesn't count as an official episode).

** The Christmas angel in "Goodwill Toward Men" may have been cruel enough to send a family to live on the streets with homeless people (not that most of them didn't deserve it. Missy didn't, though this can be interpreted as a test to see if she really is a good person), but when she warps reality so that way Missy now lives with the Donaldsons (the now-wealthy family that used to be her original family's gardeners), she makes Missy's former selfish and elitist family the hired help who are humbler, kinder, and don't have a daughter rather than leave them to rot on the streets, as "even the rich deserve Christmas cheer, too."

** "Goodwill Toward Men": While there is a supernatural character (the Christmas angel statue), it's more of a morality tale (akin to what ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'' puts out) and the scares are more based in reality than fiction (Missy and her family become poor, their gardener and his family are as rich and selfish as Missy's family used to be, and Missy's family is forced to live on the streets).

-->'''Kelly''': What did you do with my brother?
-->'''Carny''': I didn't do a ''thing'' to your brother.

** "Terrible Love" is what happens when you mix a toned-down version of ''Film/FatalAttraction'' with ''Be Careful What You Wish For'' from the original ''Goosebumps'' book series, a ''Fear Street'' story about unrequited love driving someone into insanity, and add a sarcastic, middle-aged man as Cupid).

** Possibly the twist ending of "Swarmin' Norman" [[spoiler: after Manny and the insects turn against mankind.]]

** "Mrs. Worthington" has Nate's mother, who sides with Molly whenever Nate tries to tell her that Molly's being a bully. Mrs. Worthington even tells Nate that his mom is worse than Molly, as she allows the bullying to happen and needs to be taught a lesson. Sadly, this doesn't happen, but given that the episode ended with Mrs. Worthington's disembodied hand sketching herself so she can be alive again, it's implied that Nate's mom will also get her comeuppance.

** Alice, of "My Old House," tries to gently break up with the titular building; unfortunately, it goes full {{Yandere}}, sucks her into its depths, and permanently traps her as part of its walls. It's unclear if she's still conscious.

** [[spoiler: Steffani]] in "Wrong Number" was a {{Jerkass}} AlphaBitch who picked on ''everyone''. Nobody feels sorry for her when [[spoiler: she's trapped in her own phone as a video and deleted by the girl she bullied the most.]]
** [[spoiler: Meg]] in "Dreamcatcher" was an [[AttentionWhore attention]] [[SpoiledBrat brat]] who spooked Lisa with a scary story, cut her and Amelia's dreamcatchers, and left them to die in the claws of the titular Dreamcatcher. [[spoiler: She finally gets her comeuppance when she's stuck in his web, about to be eaten]].
** [[spoiler: Gracie]] in "Headshot" is revealed to be a BitchInSheepsClothing who tossed away her own friends just to be famous. [[spoiler: She later gets her face permanently disfigured while her human face hangs on the wall of Cassandra's office at ''Teen Teen'' Magazine studios.]]
** [[spoiler:Maggie]] from "Terrible Love" can be seen as an asshole victim, considering that her insecurity drove her to force Cupid to give Brendon another hit of the love arrow (which causes very obsessive and deranged behavior in the name of love). Cupid even told Maggie while she was hiding out from Brendon's rampage that, ordinarily, he wouldn't intervene because he's doing what Maggie asked him to do and this is exactly what she wanted.
** [[spoiler:Melvin's abusive father, Jack Dixel,]] in "Spores" is a huge {{jerkass}} who treats Melvin like dirt and forces his family on a vacation they don't want all because Jack wants to beat his co-worker at a hiking record.
** The end of "Stage Fright" reveals that [[spoiler: the story of Hansel and Gretel really happened...but the witch did ''not'' attempt to eat Hansel and Gretel and get killed by them as a result, she instead took pity on them and ate their parents, who had abandoned them to die in the woods to start with.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: Since this is a horror show after all, expect the villain to succeed in haunting their targets sometimes.

** [[BigSisterBully Naomi]] in "Séance" arranges a fake séance to bring out an AxeCrazy ghost ''just'' to scare her little sister when they're staying home alone. [[spoiler: What she didn't realize was, the ghost she was bringing back "had a mean sister too" and is looking for a fresh new leg...]]
** Molly from "Mrs. Worthington" is another BigSister ully, tormenting her little brother and deliberately getting him into trouble for no particular reason--that is, until the titular babysitter shows up...

** [[spoiler: The House]] from "My Old House, when [[spoiler: Alice tries to leave the house to be with her parents again, the House has a VillainousBreakdown and (possibly) kills the scared girl after revealing itself as a {{Yandere}}.]]

* ChekhovsClassroom: The science lessons on chemical reactions (and how human emotions are connected to it) prove to be the basis for the episode "Terrible Love."

** Cynthia in "Uncle Howee" gives off this vibe, seeing how she doesn't mind the fact that her brother has been transformed into a puppet for her favorite show (or perhaps is oblivious to Uncle Howee's true self)

** "Ghostly Stare" ends with [[spoiler: the sister being revealed to be replaced by a ghost after losing a staring contest with her brother.]]

** "Terrible Love"'s ending is kind of a gray area. If you believe Maggie is an AssholeVictim because her insecurity drove her to force Cupid to give Brendon another hit of the love arrow (which causes very obsessive and deranged behavior in the name of love), then the ending [[spoiler:in which Stuart summoned Cupid too and made a deal with him to hit Maggie with one of his love arrows]] doesn't count as a cruel twist, as she's getting what she deserved. However, if you think Maggie learned her lesson and has suffered enough, especially after wishing the love-crazed Brendon would leave her alone and seeing him fall down the stairs and be sent to the hospital, then it is cruel, as she's forced to love Stuart forever (it's heavily implied that, because Cupid's love arrows contain the human hormones of serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline, ''and'' because it was a direct hit with the proper balance of hormones, the feelings of love you have for whoever you see when you wake up are permanent).

* DeadGuyOnDisplay: [[spoiler: Sadly, Alice from ''My Old House'' is killed and has ''her face'' mounted on the wall of her old room by [[{{Yandere}} the House]].]]

** The House from "My Old House" is a sentient building with the ability to summon food, manipulate everything inside of it, communicate through dreams, [[spoiler: turns into a blood red snake made out of its wiring, and can speak]], but we have absolutely ''no idea'' as to what the heck it actually is and how it even came into existence. Which makes its presence all the more horrifying if you realize that it's been watching the family for years. According to Website/TheOtherWiki, it's implied that it might be a demon.

* EvilAllAlong: The antagonist of "My Old House."
* EvilFeelsGood: In "Funhouse," Chad is encouraged to let out his anger by taking a mallet to a display featuring an arguing mannequin family. Initially, Chad feels great that he's unleashing his anger, but soon he gets hooked on it, and the anger begins warping his personality and his appearance, and the only way out is to destroy the mirror that reflects what he's become.

* FailedASpotCheck: In "My Old House," Alice runs away from her new home and goes back to the titular building instead of heading for school. While her parents do think to search for her there, they only spend about five minutes looking and miss the fact that their daughter is ''literally'' hiding five feet away from them in a closet.

** "Coat Rack Cowboy" is a minor example. Yes, Ethan does defeat Mad Dog [=McCoy=] and returns to the present, but two of the outlaws Ethan mentioned before look over Ethan's bed and comment that, now that Ethan defeated Mad Dog [=McCoy=], they want to challenge him to a shoot-out as well, since they heard he killed him without shooting him.

* KillTheCutie: In "My Old House", [[spoiler: Alice is ''horrifically murdered'' by the House after she tries to part ways peacefully with it.]]

* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Melvin's father acts like he's a natural in nature, but he's a total moron and a jerk.

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: What happens when Cupid hits the same target twice, as seen in "Terrible Love." See below as to why that happens.

* LovePotion: Played with, as the "potion" Cupid used in "Terrible Love" is a mix of serotonin, adrenaline, and dopamine, which are common hormones in the human body (as opposed to a magical potion with unexplained ingredients, like in so many other Cupid story variations) and associated with strong emotions like joy, anger or, in this case, love. Accordingly, getting shot with too much of it has [[{{Yandere}} unpleasant]] [[LoveMakesYouCrazy effects]] on people.

** "Terrible Love" explains that attraction is chemical and the potion in Cupid's love arrows are a balanced mixture of serotonin, adrenaline, and dopamine (common human hormones associated with strong emotions), which is why one hit is enough. Any more, and the target will [[{{Yandere}} go insane from love]].

** Maggie in "Terrible Love" after she explains to Brendon that his attraction to her was brought on by a hyperdose of chemicals from Cupid's arrow.
** Nate, in "Mrs. Worthington", who realizes that his imaginary punishments for his sister and desire to have the titular babysitter enact them are too extreme.

* NotGoodWithRejection: [[spoiler: The house in "My Old House" didn't like hearing the JustFriends line and wouldn't let Alice leave to her parents.]]

** The ending of "My Old House". [[spoiler: Alice became absorbed into the house and ended up as a ''facial imprint on the wall'' with the strong implication that the building will kill another little girl]].

--> '''Alice:''' We're still friends right?
--> ([[OhCrap Lights flash two times]])

** [[spoiler: In "My Old House," the titular building reveals its true form by ripping its wires and pipes out of the walls to ''form a blood red snake''.]]
** {{Downplayed|Trope}} in "Intruders", with an extra dose of NothingIsScarier thrown in for good measure. Lyria, when angered, has [[RedEyesTakeWarning her eyes turn bright red]] while cursing Eve. [[spoiler: In the end, ''hundreds of red eyes'' are shown looking out from the forest, and it's implied that the Fair Folk have assumed more monstrous forms to confront Eve with.]] This is foreshadowed during the episode's climax, where Lyria ominously tells Eve that the Fair Folk aren't just "dancing lights and pretty flowers."

** Alice in "My Old House" is a downplayed example. She has no friends, a lack of social skills, and believes that her only true friend in the world is her house. [[spoiler: When the house is proven to really be alive, she immediately accepts the idea of being alone with it forever. Which makes the CruelTwistEnding all the more harsher when the House exposes itself as a {{Yandere}}.]]

** In "My Old House," [[spoiler: the last time we see Alice alive she screams just as the [[{{Yandere}} House]] closes in to kill her.]]

* SuddenlySpeaking: [[spoiler: The House can talk at the end of "My Old House."]]

** "Poof de Fromage" ends with an all out alien invasion.

** Alice's parents in "My Old House." They spend about ''five minutes'' hunting for their daughter in their former house. Her mom delivers a tearful monologue about how much she loves Alice...and then they go. And they didn't even bother to search the entire building! Alice herself qualifies for not immediately emerging from her hiding place when she hears her parents talking, stopping to say goodbye to the house (which at this point has clearly demonstrated sentience), and ''then'' trying the JustFriends route to a [[GeniusLoci living, breathing building]]. Come ''on,'' Alice.

** Also [[spoiler: the House from "My Old House" is revealed to be this as well. Unfortunately, Alice found out a little too late.]]

* YourMindMakesItReal: Nate's drawing of Mrs. Worthington comes to life after he wishes she were real so Molly (his bullying older sister) would be put in her place.

** [[spoiler: Meg]] in "Dreamcatcher" was an [[AttentionWhore attention]] [[SpoiledBrat brat]] who spooked Lisa with a scary story, broke her and Amelia's dreamcatchers, and left them to die in the claws of the titular Dreamcatcher. [[spoiler: She finally gets her comeuppance when she's stuck in his web, about to be eaten]].

** Cupid on "Terrible Love" even says as such when Maggie begs him to give Brendon another love arrow (cf. his speech on how he's sick of humans always asking for more love and more power, as it always leads to destruction and disaster and him [and other gods] getting blamed for it).

** Jeffrey's parents on "The Walls" [[spoiler: were willing to gaslight their own son into insanity so they wouldn't have to tell him that the monster living in their walls is actually a good luck charm who is harmless and only brings good things to their family. Their son rightfully calls them out on this and they do get what they deserve in the end -- namely, Jeffrey gets their room with the new TV while his parents have to put up with the Klemit making noises in the walls and keeping them awake at night.]]
** Meg on "Dreamcatcher" [[spoiler: is one of the few human kids who was completely on board with ''allowing her former best friend to die'' at the hands of the monster all because she felt abandoned by her.]]

* TheSociopath: Meg in "Dreamcatcher" starts out seeming like just a mean girl, but shows herself to be much more than that in the climax when she prepares to callously and even gleefully leave two other girls to ''die'' at the hands of the titular creature. Fortunately, she is hit with LaserGuidedKarma immediately afterward and becomes an AssholeVictim.

** Jillian's Dad in "Nightmare Inn" died before the story began and stays that way. The episode reveals that [[spoiler: he actually just became a werewolf]].

** Naomi is a [[BigBrotherBully Big ]]''[[GenderFlip Sister]]'' [[BigBrotherBully Bully]] in "Séance," arranging a fake séance to bring out an AxeCrazy ghost ''just'' to scare her little sister when they're staying home alone. [[spoiler: What she didn't realize was, the ghost she was bringing back "had a mean sister too" and is looking for a fresh new leg...]]
** Molly from "Mrs. Worthington" is another Big Sister Bully, tormenting her little brother and deliberately getting him into trouble for no particular reason--that is, until the titular babysitter shows up...

* HappilyAdopted: Played with Eve in "Intruders". When she is first introduced, she's shown to have grown distant from her parents, and is also unaware that she is adopted, being a changeling. By the episode's end, she decides she'd rather stay with her adoptive parents if it means her brother will be safe.

* KillerTeddyBear: In "Near Mint Condition", Ted is obsessed with buying collectable toys online, and spends five thousand dollars (which he was supposed to use to buy a car) on a rare Robo-Bear toy from the 80's named Mangler with a mysterious link to accidents and deaths that occurred to the children that received the toys. Mangler comes alive that night, and goes after Ted's younger brother Mark and friend Jason for using him to mock Ted.

** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in "Intruders", with an extra dose of NothingIsScarier thrown in for good measure. Lyria, when angered, has her eyes turn bright red while cursing Eve. [[spoiler: In the end, ''hundreds of red eyes'' are shown looking out from the forest, and it's implied that the Fair Folk have assumed more monstrous forms to confront Eve with.]] This is foreshadowed during the episode's climax, where Lyria ominously tells Eve that the Fair Folk aren't just "dancing lights and pretty flowers."

** Happens in "Intruders": Lyria the forest fairy acts kind and generous to Eve, but once Eve refuses to hand her brother over for the Fey Folk to sacrifice, in addition to harming Lyria with ColdIron, the fairy's eyes flash red as she swears to Eve that she will rue the day she defied the Fey. [[spoiler: The episode ends with Eve holding her baby brother and looking out the window, where she sees ''hundreds of red eyes staring back at her from the woods'', and the Fair Folk beginning to descend upon her house...]]

** The titular company from "Really You" is essentially a satire on ''Toys/AmericanGirl'', complete with outrageously expensive prices.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Lilly in "Really You." According to her brother, "[she] used to be cute", until her father's constant showering of gifts made her a SpoiledBrat. [[spoiler: The ending, however, implies that she'll get better.]]
** Eve in ''Intruders'' is also implied to have been this.

*** It should be noted, however, that for every time they do show kids dying on this show, there are a few times where this is subverted and the kids are saved. Cases in point: "Detention" (Audrey, Kate, and Halftime do discover that they're dead, but when Kate and Audrey atone for the events that led to their death, they get their lives back and the voting scandal and parade accident are [[{{Retgone}} erased]]), "The Black Mask" (the three kids discover that the mask that showed the colonial kids dying in the past was actually a prediction of their own deaths and they stop it before it can happen), "A Creature Was Stirring" (Timmy and his family escape the house before the Krampus can burn it down), and "The Weeping Woman" (Chi saves his friend and his friend's sister from being lured into the lake and drowned by La Llorona).

** Corey when he uses Allan Miller's brushes on "Brush with Madness", even though the end of the episode reveals that [[spoiler:the entire story was just an unpublished work Allan Miller did as "therapy" after being hounded by fanboys at a comic book convention]].

** In Season 1 "A Creature Was Stirring", Timmy and his family have to deal with a Krampus-like monster that's terrorizing them on Christmas. After the monster burns their house to the ground and the family are able to escape, they're just happy that they're all together. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler:later that night, a SUV-limo drives up to the burned house and the limo window rolls down to reveal Santa Claus, who summons the monster back to him and drops a letter on the ground revealing it belonged to Timmy, who wished his family would get along again, and Santa granted his wish by sending the monster to terrorize the family into doing so]].

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The Mad Artist in "Brush With Madness" for a Comic character come to life, looks like a regular man in a black hat and trenchcoat. [[spoiler:And before he kills the main characters, he shows his face-Corey's face!]] The overall mundanity makes for one of the most genuinely disturbing episodes.

** Both protagonists in "Brush with Madness". They both eventually die because they chose ''not to call the police'' when they're being threatened by a MadArtist.

* WouldHarmAChild: Many of the villains, especially those from ''Really You'' (Lilly D), ''The Dead Body'' ([[spoiler:Jake Skinner]]), ''Pumpkinhead'' ([[spoiler: Farmer Palmer]])[[note]]the SequelEpisode doesn't have Farmer Palmer around to harm kids, but his influence is strong enough for the pumpkinheaded zombies to claim more victims[[/note]], ''The Girl in the Painting'' ([[spoiler:The mother of the titular girl who is fine with feeding whoever loves their painting enough to go inside their world to a dragon/dinosaur outside their window, as well as the monster itself]]), ''Grampires'' ([[spoiler:the elderly vampires, except for Grampa Montgomery]]), ''Brush With Madness'' ([[spoiler:Allan Miller, if you believe that he trapped his biggest fan and his friend in his comic and shredded it, and not that Allan Miller simply made them up as therapy for being hounded by fans who only like his work because it's "edgy" and "dark" and not because the stories are deeper than that]]), ''Checking Out'' ([[spoiler:the cult of [[ChildHater child-hating adults]] who live in the hotel]]), ''Coat Rack Cowboy'' ([[spoiler:Mad Dog [=McCoy=] challenging Ethan -- who doesn't know how to handle a gun -- to a shoot-out at high noon]]), and ''Mrs. Worthington'' (the title character).

** Melvin's father in "Spores". Although he isn't physically abusive, he ''is'' emotionally and mentally abusive towards his family. He guilt-trips everyone else into coming along on ''his vacation'' and tries to defend himself for his actions.
** Jason's father from "Bad Egg" constantly belittles his son and calls him a loser. He eventually gets so fed up with his son disappointing him that he threatens to ship him off to military school if he so much as screws up one last time. He even cherishes his ''dog'' more than his own children.
** Jeffrey's parents in "The Walls" [[spoiler: are revealed to have known about the monster living in their son's walls the whole time, but they kept it a secret and tried to gaslight him so they wouldn't have to share all their good luck coming from the monster with him. That is to say, "sufficient" good luck, as they do tell him if they would receive good luck as would he, but obviously, they wanted much more than he would have and did not want him telling anyone else in chance of ruining the good luck.]]

** Downplayed with Farmer Palmer on "Pumpkinhead" since he's still a filthy farmer, but he doesn't look like a rotting pumpkin like he does in the original short story.

* AdaptationalHeroism: In "The Most Evil Sorcerer", Ned is a decent person who merely gets too obessed with wanting to do magic, while in the original story he was a prankster who kept that nature even in the end.

** In "The Dead Body", Jake Skinner was actually Will's loving uncle who helped the kid out with his bullying problems out of the goodness of his heart, but in the show Jake Skinner is a sadistic monster who gleefully harms his enemies and grows into Will's archenemy.
** Also in "The Dead Body", [[TheBully Travis]] was actually a FalseFriend towards Will who at least pretended he was a nice guy, but on the television version he's a malicious bully who doesn't hide his love for picking on people.
** The [[spoiler: aliens]] Greg and Bonnie were originally just dim-witted jerks on "Alien Candy", but on the show they were actively sadistic in their villainous misdeeds.

** In "Really You" the mother is more concerned with the fact that there was a camera in her room as opposed to the fact that ''someone sneaked into her room and took the video card at some point''.

** "Mrs. Worthington" has Nate's mother, who sides with Molly whenever Nate tries to tell her that Molly's being a bully. Mrs. Worthington even tells Nate that his mom is worse than Molly, as she allows the bullying to happen and needs to be taught a lesson. Sadly, this doesn't happen, but given that the episode ended with Mrs. Worthington's disembodied hand sketching herself so she can be alive again, it's implied that both Nate's mom will get her comeuppance.
** Sam's parents in "Argh V," who act like irresponsible teens, while Sam herself is the sane and mature one. Sam immediately figures out that something is wrong with the RV they buy, and repeatedly attempts to warn them that something is suspicious, but they are too busy planning a "life of adventure" to listen or care. What makes it even worse is that this ends up killing the family and dooming them to an eternity travelling on the highway.
** Notably averted in "Lotsa Luck," as Greg's mother and her side of the family have dealt with Seamus the leprechaun in the past and Greg's mother is afraid that Seamus will come for Greg because he caught him and already made two wishes with him ([[spoiler:Seamus still gets Greg anyway, because Greg's mother's grandfather wished that his next male descendant would be targeted by Seamus instead of him]]).
** Missy's parents in "Goodwill Toward Men". They make fun of Missy for showing kindness to the gardeners they hired, tell her that the hired help have no business mingling with the upper-crust because it disrupts the "natural balance of things," favor their son Henry over her (because Henry is just as selfish as his mom and dad), and, even when they're poor, cold, and starving, all they care about is contacting their former connections (lawyers, credit card companies, etc.) so they can get their old lives back.

** "Detention" has Kate, Audrey, and Halftime. Although {{Subverted}} when his real name is revealed to be Henry.

* AGodAmI: The eponymous protagonist of "Swarmin' Norman" becomes this when he realizes that he can control bugs, but [[{{Deconstruction}} it comes back to bite him]] when he crushes some bugs and the bugs eat him alive in bed...

* AmbiguousEnding: In "Flight", Jeremy and Death have a farewell to which Death replies "without a doubt". Whether this means [[WeAllDieSomeday that he'll see her when he finally dies]] or that he has a short lifespan, it's never revealed.

** Although not a permanent example, from "Really You", [[spoiler:Lily, after being forcefully turned into a doll, is heavily implied to be fully aware of what's going on around her, as her doll form sheds a tear after seeing how much her parents liked her replacement.]]

** [[spoiler: Jack Dixel, Melvin's abusive father]] in "Spores" is a huge {{jerkass}} who treats Melvin like dirt and forces his family on a vacation they don't want to go on all because Jack wants to beat his co-worker at a hiking record.

* BabyDollBaby: In the episodes "Really You" and "Really You 2", Lily's mom starts treating Lily D (the doll) more like her daughter than the real Lily.

* BadHumorTruck: In "Catching Cold", the ice cream truck that Marty tries to catch is run on the souls of those obsessed with ice cream and was behind the disappearance of a child who, like Marty, was obsessed with ice cream and tracking down the Kreamy Kold truck so he can get his fill.
* BalancingDeathsBooks: Or "Balancing a Leprechaun's Books." In "Lotsa Luck," Greg's mother explains that whenever a mortal earns three wishes from a leprechaun, the cost of the final wish is always the soul of the wisher. Her great-great-grandfather Daniel is the only person who's ever escaped this fate, and ever since, Seamus (and, it is implied, the entire leprechaun race) has been attempting to gain a soul from his descendants to make up for his loss.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: "Best Friends Forever," "A Creature Was Stirring" (the first episode with this trope that [[{{Reconstruction}} has a more-or-less happy ending]] as [[spoiler:Timmy's parents decide not to divorce after losing their house to the Krampus as the children need love and support from both of them while they try to find a new place to live]]), "Headshot," "The Red Dress," "The Girl in the Painting," "Terrible Love," "Worry Dolls," "Long Live Rock and Roll" (another episode that has a happy ending as [[spoiler:Holden defeated Sir Maestro in the guitar duel and was able to save his friends]]), and "Mrs. Worthington" (another episode with a more-or-less happy ending as, while Nate and his sister begin to be more civil towards each other, they don't notice that Mrs. Worthington's hand is still in the attic and has drawn herself so she can come back to life).

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Natalie in "The Return of Lily D." She takes care of injured animals and fixes up the titular doll when she finds some boys dragging it around with their bikes. When Lily D. tries to drown the injured bird she found and '''''pushes her wheelchair-bound grandfather down the stairs''''', she [[LetsGetDangerous decides to kill her]].

** Lily D can't speak, but she's a completely insane murderer.

* BigBrotherInstinct: While Brandom from "Really You" acts like a standard Big Brother Bully at first, he turns out to be the OnlySaneMan and inclines to believe that Lily isn't the one responsible for what the doll's been doing, even going as far as to sneak into the company with his friend to figure out how Lily D works.

** In "The Dead Body" [[spoiler: Jake]] turned out to be this when Will found out that [[spoiler: he's really a ghost who only helped him with his bully problem to gain his trust, so he could trick Will into taking his place the day he was killed in 1961.]]

** The mutants in ''Spores'' are half human, half plant and ''still alive, but can't think of their own free will''.

** Also PlayedForDrama in "Goodwill Toward Men," where Missy and her family are cursed to become poor and homeless thanks to the angel statue Missy received, even though, unlike her parents and older brother, Missy actually cares about the less fortunate (even when she herself is in the same boat as the homeless people) and ends up in a new reality where the gardener, his wife, and his son are the rich family (and have Missy as their daughter/sister) while Missy's family (the selfish, money-grubbing ones) are the hired help with no memory of ever having a daughter/sister.
** The "Really You" two-parter is one big HumiliationConga for the SpoiledBrat of a main character being framed for things the doll's been doing ([[FridgeLogic some regardless on if it even made sense]]).

* CallingTheOldManOut: Missy does this in "Goodwill Toward Men" when, despite the angel cursing Missy and her family to live like the less fortunate, they still act selfishly and refuse to help the other homeless people that they are staying with. She points out that they have never truly known what it's like to be cold, hungry, or in pain nor have they been in a situation where their wealth and connections can't bail them out.

** "The Dead Body" ends with [[spoiler: Will ending up dead in the 1961 explosion while Jake Skinner takes his life and his girlfriend]]. The sequel episode "Dead Bodies" (or "The Dead Body 2," as it's informally called) was created for thought the ending was too depressing.
** "The Red Dress" ends with [[spoiler: Jamie keeping the dress, but going blind when the shopkeeper steals her glasses, and, by proxy, her eyesight, though the ending isn't all that cruel when you realize that Jamie didn't pay for the dress and kept stalling in trying to give it back to the owner of The Raven's Chest]].
** "Ghostly Stare" ends with [[spoiler: the sister being replaced by a ghost after losing a staring contest with her brother.]]
** "Game Over" ends with Kell-Raiser [[spoiler: beating the game, but getting sucked into the game and made the new boss and taking in a new player.]]

** "Catching Cold" ends with [[spoiler:Marty catching the mysterious ice cream truck and finding the missing boy -- now a fat, insane man -- who tells him that he's been waiting 30 years for someone to give his soul to the ice cream truck so he won't have to do it anymore.]]
** "Mascot" has [[spoiler: Willie and the kid in the wolf costume be eaten by Big Yellow, who turns out to be an actual monster that just ''looks'' like a man in a cheesy monster costume, Drake later finds out that Willie was eaten by Big Yellow during the next game, via calling him on his cell phone, where we find out [[AndIMustScream Willie is still alive inside Big Yellow]] and slowly being digested.]]
** "Headshot" combines this with DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Gracie's friend, Lexi, learns that Cassandra is the Devil and that Gracie inadvertently sold her soul to her to make her wish of being the prettiest girl in the world come true, so Lexi decides to reverse the spell by deleting Gracie's headshot from her cell phone -- which grows uglier as the real Gracie gets prettier. Sadly, Lexi didn't know that Gracie and only Gracie had the power to erase her own headshot and not go through with her DealWithTheDevil. On top of that, she had already won Teen-Teen's "Most Beautiful Face" contest, so there would have been no way to reverse it. Because of this, Gracie's human face is on Cassandra's wall of other girls who sold their souls and their looks to her and now wanders the Earth, her pretty face replaced by an even more hideous figure than her picture]]

** "Terrible Love"'s ending is kind of a gray area. If you believe Maggie is an AssholeVictim because her insecurity drove her to force Cupid to give Brendon another hit of the love arrow (which causes very obsessive and deranged behavior in the name of love) then the ending [[spoiler:in which Stuart summoned Cupid too and made a deal with him to hit Maggie with one of his love arrows]] doesn't count as a cruel twist, as she's getting what she deserved. However, if you think Maggie learned her lesson and has suffered enough, especially after wishing the love-crazed Brendon would leave her alone and seeing him fall down the stairs and be sent to the hospital, then it is cruel, as she's forced to love Stuart forever (it's heavily implied that, because Cupid's love arrows contain the human hormones of sertonin, dopamine, and adrenaline ''and'' because it was a direct hit with the proper balance of hormones, the feelings of love you have for whoever you see when you wake up are permanent).
** "My Old House": [[spoiler: After returning to the House that she loves so much, Alice notices her parents suffering from worriness and decides that she should be with them. She finally says goodbye to the house, but the house has a VillainousBreakdown and [[AndIMustScream absorbs her into its walls so she'll never leave.]]]]
** "Argh V": [[spoiler: Sam and her parents die when their RV hits an oncoming truck -- though it looked as if the truck passed them-- and they, along with the Applebaums--the previous owners of their RV--are reduced to slow-speaking, deathly zombies, doomed to drive the highways forever.]]
** "Lotsa Luck": [[spoiler: Greg uses his third wish to [[ResetButton wish he had never met Seamus the leprechaun]], thinking that this was the wish his great-grandfather Daniel made to save his soul. Seamus comes for Greg anyway and reveals that wishing for everything to turn back to normal wasn't the wish that defeated him; rather, Daniel wished to keep his own soul in exchange for that of his next-born male descendant.]]

** "My Imaginary Friend" seems like its heading to a typical Happy Ending, with Shawn having defeated Travis and saving David, and he finally agrees with his father and brother its time for him to start growing up and leaving the imaginary friend behind. David happily agrees, [[spoiler:only for him to start fading out of existence too. Tearfully, Shawn admits to David that he was also imaginary and that he too will have to go away to let Shawn mature, with David's final words being a frightened and sad "But I don't want to go..." before ceasing to exist.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: In "Funhouse," the Carny that runs the funhouse seems to be an evil person who's getting Chad hooked on anger and destruction. He's actually genuinely trying to help Chad by showing him the consequences of that anger. It's [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when Kelly confronts the Carny:
-->'''Kelly''': Fix him!
-->'''Carny''': I'm ''trying'' to.

** Sam and her family (along with the previous owners of the RV) at the end of "Argh V," although the time between the accident that Sam's family apparently avoided and TheReveal that they are actually dead after they pick up the family that turns out to be the previous owners of the RV (who also died when a truck ran them off the road) is very brief.

** The title character in "Mrs. Worthington" (Her line "What a ''lovely'' greeting," spoken to the rude Molly, is an EstablishingCharacterMoment).

** "The Dead Body" sees Will make a deal with Jake Skinner: in exchange for getting revenge on his bullies, he'll do a Jake a favor in the future. [[spoiler:Jake's favor turns out to be being sent back in time to die in Jake's place, letting Jake steal his life.]] In the sequel "Dead Bodies", it turns out [[spoiler:Death never accepted the deal and curses Jake to decay. Jake tries to make a deal with Will's love interest Anna to extend his life, but Will's ghost saves her. Death then [[DraggedOffToHell claims Jake]] and returns Will's life, essentually undoing the deal.]]
** Heavily implied in the episode "Headshot" with Cassandra the photographer implied to be The Devil. Justified, as the episode is based on ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', which followed a similar story of a vain protagonist selling his/her soul to be beautiful forever, only for it to backfire, though subverted as, while Cassandra steals the souls of girls who want to be beautiful and be the face of ''Teen-Teen'' Magazine, she doesn't warp their personalities to be evil, as the girls who take the offer are already shallow, vain, and cutthroat and the ones that delete the headshot are considered good.

** Farmer Palmer is still alive in the short story, but in "Return of the Pumpkinheads" he was stated to have been KilledOffscreen. Downplayed with the protagnist, as it's certainly ''implied'' they will be killed but it's left up in the air while the episode [[spoiler: has them become a pumpkinhead.]]

** "Wrong Number" (Steffani gets sucked into a cell phone video, sent to the Goth girl she bullied and deleted forever)
** "Swarmin' Norman" (Norman's insect pals attack him after they find that they're being used for evil)
** "Pumpkinhead" (the kids who trespassed on Old Man Palmer's farm get murdered and turned into zombies). Similarly, the SequelEpisode implies that Katie and her brother will die at the hands of her newly-transformed parents and the other pumpkinheads that just rose from the garden
** "Sick" (Alex discovers too late that his "fever dream" of the government putting him in quarantine and preparing to blow up the house to control the infection is real...[[MindScrew maybe.]])
** "Mascot" (Willie is digested after finding out that Big Yellow is a monster that only looks like a man in a cheesy mascot costume)
** "Ghostly Stare" (Lauren loses a staring contest against her brother and complains of feeling cold, meaning she fell into the open grave and is now dead)
** "The Girl in the Painting" (Becky is eaten by a dragon while living her new life in the painting she found)
** "Dreamcatcher": Meg gets trapped in the Dreamcatcher's spider web, and Lisa and Amelia are able to get out because they set their clock alarm. Meg, on the other hand, was asleep outside the cabin and couldn't hear the alarm, leaving her to be devoured by the Dreamcatcher and die in her sleep.

** "Argh V": Sam discovers that the family her parents picked up during their RV trip were the same ones who died in the crash that she read about online, and now she and her parents met the same fate as them.

* DescentIntoAddiction: In "The Girl in the Painting," Becky becomes increasingly hooked on the titular art. At first she just stares at it for hours, but then she starts rearranging her room to match its layout, talks as if the subjects are alive, and even fishes it out of the trash when her mother, who realizes that she's becoming obsessed, tries to get rid of it. Becky's addiction eventually gets so strong that she's pulled into the world of the painting, where she's [[EatenAlive almost immediately devoured by a monster.]]

** In "Funhouse," Chad goes from a quiet but polite teenager to a destructive, rage-fueled jerk as he continues to indulge his temper in the titular attraction. The drug parallels are probably the most blatant in this episode, complete with Chad sneaking out of the house, shaking like an addict with bad cravings, and screaming "I need more!"

** In "Uncle Howee," the home audience never finds out the truth behind the titular kiddie-show host. We know he has [[spoiler: powers including teleportation, directly interacting with his audience, the ability to slip from the TV to reality and back again, and transforming people into cast members of his show]], but what exactly is he? A wizard? A human who was literally cursed with TV magic? Cynthia's imaginary friend who can communicate with her through reflective surfaces, like the TV and the bathroom mirror? The ghost of a long-dead children's show host whose spirit is alive because his show is always on in reruns and always watched by children Cynthia's age[[note]]it does seem that way, given how outdated the show looks, as if it used to be on in the 1950s, when live-action kids' shows really did have character actors like "Uncle Howee" entertain children in front of a live audience[[/note]]? Some kind of monster or otherworldly creature posing as a human kids' show host? Is the television under some kind of curse? Has Cynthia's love and devotion to the show somehow make Uncle Howee and his friends real? Has Uncle Howee done this to other kids in the past? The answers are never even hinted at, making him all the more frightening.

* DirtyCoward: Greg's great grandfather ''didn't'' outsmart Seamus in "Lotsa Luck". All he did was save his own hide by allowing the leprechaun to claim the soul of his next male descendant. Greg was unlucky enough to be born a boy.

** Jake forcing Anna to shake his hand so he can steal her life is very akin to rape. His guilt-tripping to force her to do it--"Don't you love me?"--also sounds a lot like someone in an abusive relationship trying to convince their partner to stay.
** Marty's behavior in "Catching Cold" is disturbingly similar to that of a drug addict: In one scene, he's shown repeating "Kreamy Kold" to himself like a MadnessMantra and a few scenes later, he casually sells off a bike that his dad got him for twenty bucks so he can buy ice cream. Exactly one scene later, he blatantly lies to his parents about where he's going so he can sneak out to buy ice cream. Cut to him repeating "Come on, come on, come on" as he waits for the truck to show.

* DontFearTheReaper: In "Flight" TheGrimReaper takes the form of a nice old lady and is good-natured, but still has a job to do and will kill everyone on-board an airplane if the spirit doesn't come with her.

** In "Dead Bodies" [[spoiler:Death takes Jake Skinner to Hell and brings back to life Will, who was sacrificed by Jake to prolong his own.]]
* DontGoIntoTheWoods: In ''Spores'', this is the case with Melvin's family.
** In "Lovecraft Woods" the titular woods [[spoiler:imprison whoever enters them in a GroundhogDayLoop.]]
* DontYouDarePityMe: In "Really You", when Jill calls her husband out on spoiling their daugther, he clearly does not like it and brushes her off.

* {{Dreamweaver}}: Implied to be one of Fear's powers in ''Fear Never Knocks''.
** Also "Dreamcatcher".

* EarnYourHappyEnding: If an episode has a happy ending, chances are the main characters are going to have to go through hell to get it (cf. "Really You," "Game Over"[[note]]in that Kell-Raiser learns that his friends are worth more than being the best at a video game. Sadly, he doesn't return to the real world with them, as he won the video game and is forced to be the new game master until another player defeats him, which could take forever, depending on how good the next player is[[/note]] "Bad Feng Shui," "Flight," the original cut of "Spaceman," "Creature Feature," "The Golem," "Grampires," "The Weeping Woman," "Checking Out," "Detention," "Funhouse," "Coat Rack Cowboy," "Dead Bodies," "Toy Train," "Grandpa's Glasses," and "Goodwill Toward Men")

* EquivalentExchange: This is how leprechaun magic works in "Lotsa Luck." Any wish that is granted comes at a price. For instance, protagonist Greg wishes to be lucky; Seamus, the leprechaun who he catches, gives him incredible luck, but gives Greg's father horrible luck as a trade (Greg's father gets fired from his job and breaks his hand while fixing his car).

** The Christmas angel in "Goodwill Toward Men" may have been cruel enough to send a family to live on the streets with homeless people (not that most of them didn't deserve it. Missy didn't, though this can be interpreted as a test to see if Missy really does care about the poor), but when she warps reality so that way Missy lives with The Donaldsons (the now-wealthy family that used to be the gardener and his son), she makes Missy's former family (the ones that were selfish and elitist) the hired help who are humbler, kinder, and don't have a daughter rather than leave them to rot on the streets, as "even the rich deserve Christmas cheer, too."

* ExactWords: Uncle Howee has Jared be his friend to see his sister again. [[spoiler:Turns out Jared will see his sister whenever she watches the Uncle Howee Show since Jared has become one of his new puppets.]]

** Seamus the leprechaun in "Lotsa Luck."

** "Swarmin' Norman": [[spoiler: Norman is eaten alive by millions of insects onscreen.]]

** In "Terrible Love," Cupid tells Maggie that she's "not his only client." [[spoiler: Turns out that client is Stuart.]]

** In "The Girl in the Painting," a shot of the titular artwork after Becky turns away reveals not only that it's a CreepyChangingPainting, but that one of the changes is a giant yellow repilitian eye glaring through the window. Guess what ends up eating Becky at the end of the episode?
* FormulaBreakingEpisode

** "Headshot": It's ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' set in the world of teen modeling. Much like "Terrible Love," the fears are more based in reality (in "Headshot"'s case, it's the promises of fame and glamor bringing out a person's worst qualities, how the famous often have to sacrifice what really matters to them in order to succeed only to lose everything when their star fades, and how evil lives in all mankind and only comes out if a person chooses to surround themselves with evil influences).

** "The Cast": Gives more psychological scares, despite having a crazy cat lady who may or may not be a witch or have godlike powers over her cats. Lex's guilt over not telling the truth about what he did to the cat lady's house is what drives him crazy (as symbolized by the rats making a nest in his cast). It's been described as an homage to ''The Telltale Heart'' (only instead of a beating heart under the floorboards, it's rats making a nest in a boy's arm cast).
** "Goodwill Toward Men": While there is a supernatural character (the Christmas angel statue), it's more of a morality tale (akin to what ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'' puts out) and the scares are more based in reality than fiction (Missy and her family are poor, their gardener and his family are as rich and selfish as Missy's family used to be, and Missy's family is forced to live on the streets).

* FriendToBugs: Norman in "Swarmin' Norman"...until he abuses them and they fight back against all mankind (or at least Norman).

* GamesOfTheElderly: In the "Grampires" two parter, the vampiric retirement community capture the protagonists, Mike and Cristen, but rather than have the residents fight over who gets to feed on them. The lead vampire decides to have them as prizes for the bingo game.

* GenderFlip: "Pumpkinhead" changes the male protagonist to a girl.

** Jamie from "The Red Dress" really would have benefited from checking out a couple of horror movies before she decided to steal the eponymous dress: If [[TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday a mysterious shop you've never seen before suddenly appears in town]] and is run by a creepy proprietor, then you can be damn sure that you are going to pay for anything you take, one way or another.
** Greg thinking that the "I wish everything turned back to normal" wish would work on a leprechaun, who (a) has probably heard that wish 1000 times before, (b) knew that that wasn't the wish his great-great grandfather used to defeat him, and (c) is said to be a ManipulativeBastard. It should be noted that, prior to the ending, Greg was somewhat GenreSavvy about Seamus' tricks (when Seamus offers to tell Greg about how he knows Greg's mother and her side of the family, Greg immediately refuses, as he knows it's a trap and demands that Seamus give him the three wishes owed to him).

* GoIntoTheLight: This is what happens to [[spoiler: the spirit of the dead passenger]] in "Flight" when [[spoiler: he decides to follow the GrimReaper]].

* GoodAngelBadAngel and FridgeBrilliance: The twist ending in "My Imaginary Friend" makes more sense when you rethink Dave and Travis as Shawn's conscience trying to help him out, and Shawn's decision to get rid of his imaginary friends is really his decision to TakeAThirdOption and think for himself.

* GoodIsNotNice: The angel in "Goodwill Toward Men" has more in common with Old Testament depictions of angels than the cheerful, more forgiving ones everyone is familiar with, whether or not they're religious. She marks the bedroom doors of the wealthy, obnoxious Mr. and Mrs. Jordan and their son Henry with large swaths of fire, then puts the whole Jordan family (including Missy, who was the only one who showed any semblance of goodness) through hell by trapping them in a reality where they are homeless and poor.
** The end of the episode is something of a subversion, though. After Missy pleads with the angel to make things right, the being [[spoiler: creates a reality where Missy is a member of the Donaldson family--the gardeners in the old time stream. They are wealthy, kind, and generous, while the Jordans are ''their'' hired help, but much nicer and humbler than they were in their previous existence. The angel even lampshades this when she points out that some viewers probably wanted to see the Jordans suffer even more, but "even the rich deserve Christmas cheer too."]]

* GreaterScopeVillain: The Really You Company is not only revealed to be an EvilInc, but they bought the business from a crazy old lady hence why most of the dolls including [[CreepyDoll Lily D]] are LivingToys.

* HeelFaceDoorslam: [[spoiler: The protagonist of "My Old House" suffers a literal one when she reforms too late. She decides to return to her family after realizing how much they love her, only to be ''brutally murdered'' by the house she loved.]]

** "Terrible Love": Maggie finding out too late that Stuart made a deal with Cupid to make her his girlfriend and gets hit with a love arrow.

* ImpossiblyDeliciousFood: Kreamy Kold Ice Cream in "Catching Cold". One taste is enough to cause a boy to become obsessed with intercepting the BadHumorTruck that supplied it. He spits out normal ice cream, claiming it is as hamburger compared to world's best steak compared to Kreamy Kold.

* ItIsDehumanizing: In "The Return of Lily D.", Natalie starts referring to Lily D. as "it" when she starts suspecting the latter of being alive and evil.

* JackassGenie: Seamus the leprechaun in "Lotsa Luck." The episode even references the trope, with Greg's mother pointing out that TheFairFolk are tricksters.

** Jared on "Uncle Howee," if you believe that he's only being a jerk to Cynthia because his mom forced him to babysit which cut into his plans to see a movie with his friends, and not the theory that Jared is a bully who doesn't like his sister because she's annoying and constantly watches ''The Uncle Howee Show''.
** Steffani in "Wrong Number," was a self-centered {{Jerkass}} who acts like [[TheBully a bully]] to everyone else. [[spoiler: Nobody feels sorry when she's killed in the end by the elderly woman she mocked earlier in the story.]]
** Missy's parents and brother in "Goodwill Toward Men," only they're more {{jerkass}} than victim. With Missy herself, it's the other way around (more victim than jerkass).
** "Spores" has a similar breakdown of victims. Melvin and his mother are nice people who end up in a horrible situation, while Jack, Jack Jr., and Jacqueline are more a WellDoneSonGuy and [[BigBrotherBully Big Brother/Sister Bully combo]], respectively (although the latter are somewhat redeemed by their desire to save their parents rather than abandon them).

** A particularly infuriating example occurs in "Lotsa Luck" where [[spoiler: the protagonist Greg's great-grandfather gets no comeuppance for landing Greg in the mess he is in and for Seamus taking Greg's soul to settle his debt as the great-grandfather wished in the episode. Greg was a decent person and his great-grandfather screwed him over without consequence.]]

** "Swarmin' Norman". The [[CreepyChild main character]] is relentlessly picked on by bullies, and when he discovers he has godlike powers over bugs, he uses his new power to get his revenge. Fair enough, but [[spoiler:when Norman now proclaims he could crush the bully "like a bug" whenever he wanted to, he actually ''crushes'' several bugs ''just to make that point''. The other kids seem afraid of him the next day, suggesting that they're afraid he'll sic the bugs on them too, and he becomes verbally abusive to the bugs he once loved. The bugs turn on him in response and swarm him, and it's implied that, because of what the protagonist did to the bugs, the world is going to be overrun by them.]]

** "Dreamcatcher": At summer camp, Meg gets jealous of her former friend, Amelia, befriending another girl, Lisa. She doesn't care about the nightmares Lisa suffers after she cuts her and Amelia's dreamcatchers out of spite. When Amelia gets captured by a dream-lurking monster, Meg leaves Lisa to deal with it, pretends to come help in the dream land only to ditch her out of spite, and then shows up when the rescue fails to gloat a bit, steal their flashlight, and leave them to die at the hands of the spider creature, [[spoiler:before tripping and falling into a trap herself. Karma strikes hard when one of the girls' alarm clock goes off, waking up and saving Lisa and Amelia, leaving Meg to get eaten by the spider creature (she couldn't wake up because she slept by herself in the mess hall and couldn't hear the alarm).]]
** "Terrible Love": [[spoiler:After Cupid grants Maggie's wish to have Brendon leave her alone (resulting in Brendon getting knocked out and having to go to the hospital after falling down the stairs), Maggie meets up with class nerd Stuart, and tells him that she's glad to see him after everything that's happened -- and Stuart reassures her she'll find love again...just as Cupid draws his arrow and hits Maggie, making her fall for Stuart.]] In a way, it is a karmic ending, as [[spoiler:Maggie didn't listen to Cupid's warning about what happens when someone gets hit twice with one of his love arrows, and is now paying the price for what she did to Brendon]].

* KidsAreCruel / TeensAreMonsters: Used throughout the series. Notably played with in ''Swarmin' Norman'': The kids watching Norman get picked on by the school bullies laugh when the latter make fun of Norman's science project; they immediately ''stop'' laughing when the bullies proceed to beat Norman up.

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: Inverted. The titular funhouse in "Funhouse" is shown arriving to town in the ColdOpen but [[spoiler: vanishes, owner and all, without a trace once Chad destroys his pent-up anger.]]
** Played straight with "The Raven's Chest" in "The Red Dress"

* LoveMakesYouCrazy: What happens when Cupid hits the same target twice, as seen in "Terrible Love." See the next entry as to why that happens.

* LovePotion: Played with, as the "potion" Cupid used in "Terrible Love" is a mix of serotonin, adrenaline, and dopamine, which are common hormones in the human body (as opposed to a magical potion with unexplained ingredients, like in so many other Cupid story variations) and associated with strong human emotions, like joy, anger or, in this case, love. Accordingly, getting shot with too much of it has [[{{Yandere}} unpleasant]] [[LoveMakesYouCrazy effects]] on people.

** In the second part of "Really You", [[spoiler:Jill states how she wishes Lilly D was her daughter instead of her real one (who is now the doll at this point) and is about to throw her away. Just as she puts her in the trash bin, she notices that the doll has a mole on the back of her neck, just like her real daughter, and she realizes that no doll -- especially not an evil one -- can take her flesh-and-blood daughter's place]].

** In "Bad Feng Shui," Jessica realizes that the snake demon didn't kidnap her mother because of the [[TitleDrop bad feng shui]] in her bedroom--rather, the monster manifested when Jessica acted cruelly and wished that she didn't have a mother. As Mr. Ming puts it, the demon is "her ghost, eating what she serves."

** Nate, in "Mrs. Worthington," who realizes that his imaginary punishments for her sister and desire to have the titular babysitter enact them are too extreme.
** In "My Old House," Alice overhears her parents talking about how much they love and miss her after she runs away to live in the title building, which makes her see how silly her obsession with the house is. [[spoiler: Too bad the House doesn't agree.]]

* MyLittlePanzer: Mangler the robot teddy bear from "Near Mint Condition." In the 1980s, the Mangler bear was part of a toy line from a MerchandiseDriven action cartoon, but parents complained that the toy was causing accidents and deaths and public pressure led to the toy being recalled. There are seven left in the world and are considered high-priced collector's items.

* NeverMyFault: Melvin's father in "Spores" tries to defend himself for putting the family in a horrible situation and justifies that he wanted to bond with the family on a vacation they didn't want.
* NeverSayDie: Averted in "Stage Fright." Sam tells the witch not to kill them.
** Also averted in "Terrible Love" when Maggie tells Cupid that Brendon (who has been driven mad with a hyper-dose of the hormones associated with feeling love) is going to kill her after her botched attempt at breaking up with him. She probably didn't mean it literally, but considering his {{Yandere}} behavior, it's safe to say that she did mean it literally.
** The show wasn't afraid of showing or mentioning kids dying. To name a few examples, "The Black Mask" had the visions of the three main characters dying allegedly at the hands of the handyman trying to fix the basement, the twist in "Detention" revealed that Audrey killed Kate the homecoming queen and Halftime the star football player by throwing a smoke bomb under a parade float, but [[HoistByHisOwnPetard also killed herself because the float went out of control and she was in its path when it swerved off the road]][[note]]though this might not count, since Audrey and Kate apologizing for their actions led to the entire detention/stay in limbo being erased[[/note]], Alex in "Sick" was obliterated in a house explosion to get rid of the creature that made him sick ([[MindScrew maybe]]), and Will was killed by Jake in "The Dead Body."

** "Nightmare Inn" reveals that everything the protagonist suffered was real.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In "Uncle Howee," the titular character is a LargeHam extraordinaire, making horrible jokes and doing silly accents even when tormenting Jared. That's perfectly understandable for a kiddie show host...but when he gets quiet and serious, ''that's'' when you're in big trouble.
* OurMonstersAreWeird: For starters, Big Yellow from ''Mascot''. [[spoiler: He only looks like someone dressed in a crappy costume and can remove his head just like one]].
** And some of which are based on actual monsters from different world mythologies, such as the Alp (from German folklore) in "Red Eye," the Krampus (from Bavarian German, Austrian, and Eastern European folklore) from "A Creature Was Stirring," the Nanaue (from Hawaiian and Polynesian folklore) in "Pool Shark," La Llorona (from Hispanic folklore, particularly Mexican) in "The Weeping Woman," the Golem (from Jewish folklore) in [[ShapedLikeItself "The Golem,"]] and a leprechaun (from Celtic/Irish folklore) in "Lotsa Luck."

* RaisedByGrandparents: Appears to be Natalie's situation in ''The Return of Lily D.''
* RealityWarper: Corey when he uses Allan Miller's brushes on "Brush with Madness," even though the end of the episode reveals that [[spoiler:the entire story was just an unpublished work Allan Miller did as "therapy" after being hounded by fanboys at a comic book convention]].

** "Terrible Love" is what happens when you mix a toned-down version of ''Film/FatalAttraction'' with ''Be Careful What You Wish For'' from the original Goosebumps book series, a ''Fear Street'' story about unrequited love driving someone into insanity, and add a sarcastic, middle-aged man as Cupid).

* SequelEpisode: "Return of Lily D" ("Really You"), "Dead Bodies" ("The Dead Body"), and "Return of the Pumpkinheads" ("Pumpkinheads").

** The retirment home in ''Grampires'' has a sign saying "For the Literature/{{Twilight}} of your life"

--->[[spoiler: '''Lyria:''']] [[spoiler:"Where's the child?!"]]
--->[[spoiler: '''Eve:''']] [[spoiler: ''(Holding the iron bar in defense)'' "[[DidYouActuallyBelieve You think]] that I would do that to the people who raised me, to the people who love me?! They're my family!"]]
--->[[spoiler: '''Lyria:''']] [[spoiler: "They can never be your family! ''You'' wanted to get away from them, I showed you what you could be!"]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Eve:''']] [[spoiler: "You showed me what really matters: the people who raised me. Now leave me and my family alone!"]]

** Lilly Carbo in "Really You", who makes her father spend exorbitant amounts of money and breaks another girl's doll over a petty insult.

** In Season 1 "Catching Cold", Marty tries to catch the Kreemy Kold ice cream truck so he can eat more of its ice cream and finally stops it using spike strip to pop its tires. After entering the ice cream truck to get the ice cream, [[spoiler:he meets an adult man named Jimmy Jefferies, who was also obsessed with catching the truck when he was a kid and reveals he was trapped inside the truck for 30 years and has been waiting for someone to catch the truck so he can finally leave. After Jimmy leaves the truck, the truck traps Marty inside, reinflates its popped tires, and drives off with Marty trapped inside until the next kid tries to catch it again]].

** Steffani in "Wrong Number". [[spoiler: When the antagonist almost releases her to freedom after getting an obviously fake apology from her, she ''insults her''. She could have just let it go and leave while she still could, but for some reason she just had to throw one more insult toward her anyway. She suffers a KarmicTwistEnding for her trouble.]]

** Both protagonists in "Brush with Madness". They both eventually die because they chose not to ''call the police'' when they're being threatened by a MadArtist.
** Alice's parents in "My Old House." They spend about ''five minutes'' hunting for their daughter in their old house. Then her mom delivers a tearful monologue about how much she loves Alice...and then they go. And they didn't even bother to search the entire building! Alice herself qualifies for not emerging from her hiding place when she hears her parents talking, and then stopping to say goodbye to the house (which at this point has clearly demonstrated sentience), and ''then'' trying the JustFriends route to a [[GeniusLoci living, breathing building]]. Come ''on,'' Alice.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Josh ''and'' Matt in "The Perfect Brother".

* TwinTelepathy: Jack Jr. and Jacqueline claim to possess this in "Spores." At first, it seems like they're just pretending to tease their brother Melvin--but in the end of the episode, [[spoiler: Jacqueline is hit by the mutating spores of the title, and their link is somehow able to begin the process with Jack Jr. as well]].

* UsedToBeASweetKid: Lilly in "Really You." According to her brother, "[she] used to be cute," until her father's constant showering of gifts made her a SpoiledBrat. [[spoiler: The ending, however, implies that she'll get better.]]

** In "Lotsa Luck," Greg captures a leprechaun in secret, wishes for a pot of gold, and tries to hide in the kitchen. His mother comes in and, after he stammers for a few seconds, reveals that she's a lot more aware of the situation than he expected:

--->'''Teenage Boy''': Chill out, kid, it's just a doll!
---> '''Natalie''': (rushes to Lilly D.'s side) It's still not right... You poor thing...

* {{Wishplosion}}: Greg uses the classic "I wish I had never met you" to undo the effect of Seamus the leprechaun's magic in "Lotsa Luck." [[spoiler: Unfortunately, while this does save his parents and undo the magic of the episode, it's not enough to save ''him'', as his soul was forfeited by his great-grandfather's selfish final wish decades ago.]]
* WouldHarmAChild: Many of the villains, especially those from ''Really You'' (Lilly D), ''The Dead Body'' ([[spoiler:Jake Skinner]]), ''Pumpkinhead'' ([[spoiler: Farmer Palmer]])[[note]]the SequelEpisode doesn't have Farmer Palmer around to harm kids, but his influence is strong enough for the pumpkinheaded zombies to claim more victims[[/note]], ''The Girl in the Painting'' ([[spoiler:The mother of the titular girl who is fine with feeding whoever loves their painting enough to go inside their world to a dragon/dinosaur outside their window, as well as the monster itself]]), ''Grampires'' ([[spoiler:the elderly vampires, except for Grampa Montgomery]]), ''Brush With Madness'' ([[spoiler:Allan Miller, if you believe that he trapped his biggest fan and his friend in his comic and shredded it and not that Allan Miller made them up as therapy for being hounded by fans who only like his work because it's "edgy" and "dark" and not because the stories are deeper than that]]), ''Checking Out'' ([[spoiler:the cult of [[ChildHater child-hating adults]] who live in the hotel]]), ''Coat Rack Cowboy'' ([[spoiler:Mad Dog [=McCoy=] challenging Ethan -- who doesn't know how to handle a gun -- to a shoot-out at high noon]]), and ''Mrs. Worthington'' (the title character).

* {{Yandere}}: Brendon from "Terrible Love" is turned into one when dosed with love potion twice.

* YourSoulIsMine: [[spoiler: The CruelTwistEnding has Greg lose his soul to the leprechaun after it's revealed that his [[SinsOfOurFathers grandfather]] exchanged it to Sheamus the leprechaun in order to keep his own.]]

** "The Dead Body": Will is tricked into dying in the boiler room explosion that claimed Jake's life.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/haunting_5106.png]]''R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series'' is a horror series that aired on The Hub (now called Creator/DiscoveryFamily). Like the TV adaptation of ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'' and the short-lived series, ''Literature/TheNightmareRoom'', it is a horror GenreAnthology series featuring a different story every week filled with [[WeirdnessMagnet kids facing off against ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings...]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** In "Really You", Lily's older brother remarks that he wants his own life-sized rubber doll, but that he wants his doll to look like actress Meghan Fox.
** In "Alien Candy", an older bully looks at the protagonist in the school locker room and remarks, "you really grew a pair!" - meant to refer to the protagonist being ballsy and brave in this case.

* DaylightHorror: Many intense scenes are set in broad daylight, a notable example being both endings of ''Scarecrow''.

* AdoringThePests: In the "Best Friends Forever" episode, Jack adopts a zombie as a pet.