R.L Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series - Volume 2
Directors: J.B. Sugar, Neill Fearnley, Michael Scott, Terry Ingram, 
Starring: Thomas Robinson, Bobby Coleman, and Grayson Russell
Studio: Shout! Factory
ASIN: B0089BSLIK
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Running Time: 140 minutes
Rated: NR
Bonus Features: A Look Behind The Screams; Original Promos

Shout! Factory is on a roll by releasing not one but two volumes of R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series - Volume 2 to DVD this month. I grew up reading R.L. Stine's books and over the years I have collected almost every DVD of Goosebumps the series that aired during the mid to late 90s on Fox Kids. Goosebumps had a low-budget that resulted in bad acting, cut-down scripts based on the books, and cheap special effects. In other words the series was campy! Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the Goosebumps series for what it was - pure fun.

The Haunting Hour seems to be avoiding the flaws in the Goosebumps series by having better actors and directors, higher quality special effects, and complete scripts. Each episode is not based on an entire book but on short stories that appeared in the two anthologies, The Haunting Hour and The Nightmare Hour.

R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: The Series: Volume One
Director: Neil Feranley
Starring: Bailee Madison, Neil Fearnley
Studio: Shout! Factory
ASIN: B0089BSODC
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Running Time: 140 minutes
Rated: NR 
Bonus: A Look Behind the Screams and Original Promos

Do you remember the Goosebumps books and TV series from the 1990s from horror mastermind R.L. Stine? Well, his new series The Haunting Hour debuted in 2010 on The Hub cable channel based upon his The Haunting Hour book, a collection of short stories.

I've been a die-hard R.L. Stine fan since I was a kid, but I don't get The Hub channel, so I patiently waited for the DVDs to be released! The Haunting Hour follows the typical 22 minutes length per episode, but unlike the Goosebumps series, this series has a bigger budget and better acting. The special effects are much better this time around and the stories are much darker.

In the two-part premiere Really You, Lilly (played by Bailee Madison) is a spoiled girl, always getting what she wants from her parents, especially from her dear old dad. What she wants now is the Really You life-size doll, in which her parents give in and get it for her. Strange things begin happening and Lilly suspects her doll is responsible. Her mother starts acting strange and becomes obsessed with the doll. Lilly realizes that this doll may want to actually become her.