''R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series'' is a

children's A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

television series based on the 2007 movie '' R.L Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It'' and the anthologies ''The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night'' and ''

Nightmare Hour ''Nightmare Hour'' is a 1999 children's horror collection by R. L. Stine. It is composed of 10 different short stories, ranging from "Pumpkinhead" to "The Ghostly Stare", and was a ''New York Times'' bestseller from the year 1999 to 2000.(March ...

'' by

R.L. Stine Robert Lawrence Stine (; born October 8, 1943) is an American novelist. He is the writer of '' Goosebumps,'' a horror fiction novel series which has sold over 400 million copies globally in 35 languages, becoming the second- best-selling book ...

,Clark, Noelene (December 19, 2010)
"‘The Haunting Hour’: R. L. Stine promises ‘shivers but not nightmares’ with new show"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. Retrieved on December 19, 2010. which originally aired on The Hub Network (now Discovery Family) from October 29, 2010, to October 11, 2014. The only story taken from ''The Haunting Hour'' anthology was ''My Imaginary Friend'', and the only story unused from ''The Nightmare Hour'' was ''Make Me a Witch''. The fourth season's seven remaining episodes ran on Discovery Family from October 18, 2014, to November 29, 2014. The series was produced by Front Street Pictures, The Hatchery, Incendo Films, and

Endemol Endemol B.V. (stylized in all lowercase) was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted gen ...

. On July 9, 2012, it was announced that ''R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour'' was one of four original series from The Hub that won the CINE Golden Eagle Award for high quality production and storytelling. The series received critical acclaim throughout its run and is considered to be the best children's horror anthology show as well as one of the best horror anthologies in general with praise given to the acting (from both the child and adult actors), production value, dark tone, direction, storytelling, gothic atmosphere and style, scares and effects. On December 8, 2014, it was confirmed by Stine via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that Discovery Family cancelled the show after its run of four seasons.

Production

Prior to the broadcast of the series, series creator

reported via Twitter saying ''The Haunting Hour: The Series'' was similar to his previous series ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror novels written by American author R. L. Stine. The protagonists in these stories are teens or pre-teens who find themselves in frightening circumstances, often involving the supernatural, the p ...

''. The series was filmed in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. In Canada, the show aired on

Teletoon Cartoon Network (formerly Teletoon) is a Canadian English-language discretionary specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel primarily broadcasts animated series aimed at children and teenagers. It was launched on October 17 ...

from 2011–2014 when the show was moved to YTV, which aired reruns until 2017.

Premise

Like ''

'', every episode features a different cast in a scary situation that would involve

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

witches Witchcraft is the use of magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Enc ...

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

s, and

monster A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...

s. However, the storylines are much darker than its aforementioned predecessor and some episodes serve as very dark morality tales. Unlike the ''Goosebumps'' series, the threat of death is not implied, being both clear and permanent. In addition, death in the show is not limited to antagonists and minor characters with some stories even ending with the main protagonist(s) being killed. There are some episodes that have twist endings. However, there are some episodes that have happy endings similar to most of the episodes of ''

Are You Afraid of the Dark? ''Are You Afraid of the Dark?'' is a children's horror anthology television series created by D. J. MacHale and Ned Kandel. The original series aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from August 15, 1992 to February 3, 1996, and also o ...

'' which had this formula.

Episodes

Home media

Accolades

Music

American actress

Debby Ryan Deborah Ann Ryan (born May 13, 1993) is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She started acting professionally onstage at the age of seven, and was later discovered during Disney Channel's nationwide search for new talent. She had starrin ...

recorded the song "Made Of Matches" to the episode "Wrong Number", that Ryan appears as a singer. The song was written and produced Ryan. A music video was premiered on The Hub on February 4, 2011, directed by Neill Fearnley with scenes from the episode.

Books

In 2001, Stine released ''The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night'', a collection of 10 short stories featuring illustrations by various artists. A reviewer for the ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute ...

'' wrote favorably of the collection and stated that it would be best for children over the age of eight. ''

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is ...

'' was also favorable. This, along with the 2007 film and the 1999 horror collection ''

'', helped form the basis of the television series. Of ''The Haunting Hour'', only "My Imaginary Friend" was adapted into an episode.

References

External links