"Your" house is being mysteriously vandalized and your parents think you did it, so they ground you. Your friend convinces you that it must be the work of poltergeists. When your parents go out, you're left alone in the house with the poltergeists. You must decide whether to defeat them with the help of your friends, or one of two people who shows up at the door.
Escape from Horror House provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Averted in one ending, where your teacher helps you to defeat the poltergeists using magnets.
- Almighty Mom: It is possible to get a good ending where the poltergeists' mother shows up, scolds them, and drags them back to their own world.
- And I Must Scream: One storyline has you discover the walls of your basement are covered in sentient faces that are stuck that way forever. Depending on your choices, they're either victims of the poltergeists, or they are the poltergeists.
- Ant Assault: Happens in one bad ending where the poltergeists possess your ant farm.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover of the book shows the reader’s house has twisted to form a scary face. This does not actually happen.
- Creepy Doll: Several endings feature these, since your sister collects dolls.
- Darker and Edgier: This book is known for having less comedy, and gorier endings, than other installments in the series.
- Enemy Mine:
- One storyline involves you deciding whether to work with a medium or a ghostbuster in order to defeat poltergeists. The two hate each other and each accuses the other of being a fraud, but you have the option of making them work together just this once.
- The poltergeists do this for you in one ending, where they are so disgusted by Matilda that they scare her into confessing she's a con artist and handing herself over to the police.
- Good All Along: The poltergeists are this in some of the good endings. Trusting the medium even though she seems shaky at first will lead to a good ending
- Hate Plague: In one bad ending, your mother's anger makes the poltergeists grow stronger. They possess her, and then you - causing you to "infect" others and make them just as evil as the poltergeists.
- Haunted House: The plot of the book is you trying to get rid of poltergeists that are making your house haunted.
- * Karmic Twist Ending: The story starts poltergeist gets you grounded by playing pranks and having your mom blame you. In one ending A medium will summon the poltergeist's mother who will ground him for his misbehavior
- Mind over Matter: A possible outcome is that there is no poltergeist — the mysterious events in your house are caused by you, or your sister, being telekinetic and not knowing about it.
- Never Trust a Title: Nowhere in the story are you required to escape from a house — the story is based around you getting rid of poltergeists that have invaded a house.
- Poltergeist: They serve as the main enemies of this particular book.
- Your Head Asplode: One of the bad endings causes this to happen to you.
