Escape from Horrorland

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"Ya know, Horrorland may SEEM like a scary foreboding place... because it IS."

Escape From Horrorland is a 1996 computer game based on the Goosebumps book "One Day at Horrorland". It was one of the first games made by Dreamworks Interactive. Set as a sort-of sequel to the book, you are the friend of Lizzie, a bossy young girl who was babysitting her brother, Luke, and his friend, Clay, for the night. Suddenly cosmic forces transport all of you into a bizarre place called Horrorland. You need to rescue Luke and Clay and then escape from Horrorland.

Rather infamous among children of the 1990s for being scary in a variety of ways. It used a combination of 3D graphics, miniature sets, live-action video, and animated puppets to create a pretty impressive setting.

Not to be confused with the 2008 Goosebumps game Horrorland for the Nintendo DS and Wii.

Tropes used in Escape from Horrorland include:


  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Luke
  • Badass Damsel: Lizzie gets captured twice, but is still one of the bravest of the characters and is the one devising and setting all the traps and leading the way in the game.
  • Baleful Polymorph: Lizzie, who is captured and transformed into some kind of creepy worm-thing. In the process of curing her, you can accidentally give her a worse form.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Luke and Clay, and Lizzie to an extent.
  • Circus of Fear: the whole place is a messed up amusement park.
  • Claustrophobia: Two unavoidable instances of this. One is where you are crawling through incredibly cramped wooden tunnels while being chased by a mummy at high speed directly behind you, and it is very easy to get lost in the tunnels. The other time is when you have to shut yourself inside a coffin and use it as a boat down a sewer, while spiders enter the coffin and try to bite you.
  • Combat Tentacles: The giant evil octopus that grabs Clay and tries to strangle him.
  • Downer Ending: Inevitable. Either you defeat the big bad but let Lizzie and Luke's parents turn into monsters, or you save the parents but the big bad survives and moves into Lizzie and Luke's house.
  • Gotta Catch Them All: The coins and the cards. What do they accomplish? Nothing, really.
  • Here We Go Again: Considering this is considered a sequel of the book, its not surprising. Lizzie even outright says it once you arrive in Horrorland.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Jeff Goldblum, what are you doing here acting like Dracula?
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: After Lizzie is unknowingly turned into a jack o'lantern, "Um.. let me put it this way, you know how Dad always likes to call you pumpkin?
  • Large Ham: Madison Storm "WHO STOLE ALL MY CHOCOLATE?!" Along with the video tour guide lady.
  • Let's Play: Done here. And here.
  • Locked in a Freezer: After Lizzie suddenly goes missing soon after the two of you land in Werewolf Village, you find her in the butcher shop, locked inside the freezer, covered in frost and too numb with cold and fear to panic.
  • Madness Mantra: The scarecrow.
  • Monster Town: Horrorland. Werewolf Village and Vampire Village in particular.
  • Mummy: The mummy that attacks/stalks you in the valley of the lost kings.
  • Nice Hat: When you are in Dracula's castle, you wear a jester costume as a disguise, complete with the stupid hat, Luke enjoys laughing at it and playing with the bells. You can even click on the bells to make them jingle.
  • Parents in Distress: Revealed when you enter the final level.
  • Shout-Out: Two-Socks the wolf from Dances with Wolves is seen as a full wolf form.
  • Third Person Person: Stump
  • Unwinnable by Design: Averted. There's really no way you can lose. The only thing that happens when you get damaged is that you lose coins, and those aren't really used for anything.
  • Urban Legend of Zelda: For years kids theorized that there is someway to unlock an alternate ending. There isn't.
  • Wolf Man