R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series is a children's horror anthology 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 by R.L. Stine, 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. 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 that Discovery Family cancelled the show after its run of four seasons.

Production

Prior to the broadcast of the series, series creator R.L. Stine reported via Twitter saying The Haunting Hour: The Series was similar to his previous series Goosebumps. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. In Canada, the show aired on Teletoon from 2011–2014 when the show was moved to YTV, which aired reruns until 2017.

Premise

Like Goosebumps, every episode features a different cast in a scary situation that would involve ghosts, aliens, witches, zombies, and monsters. 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? which had this formula.

Episodes

Home media

Accolades

Music

American actress Debby Ryan 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 wrote favorably of the collection and stated that it would be best for children over the age of eight. Booklist was also favorable. This, along with the 2007 film and the 1999 horror collection Nightmare Hour, helped form the basis of the television series. Of The Haunting Hour, only "My Imaginary Friend" was adapted into an episode.