#goosebumpsrewatch

When we last saw Margaret and Casey, they were concerned about how much time their father was spending working on his science experiments in the basement, and how his behavior was getting weirder and weirder.  While playing frisbee outside with Margaret, Casey was able to overhear his father’s conversation with another professor from the university in the basement.  But as he was listening, a giant vine loomed above him, ready to strike...

The vine swoops down and wraps around Casey’s middle, trying to crush him.  He screams for help.  At first, Margaret thinks he is playing a trick, but then she sees the vine and runs over.  Together, they get the vine off and it slithers back into the basement.

Once he’s free, Casey fills Margaret in what he heard in the basement - their dad and the professor fighting.  He didn’t know what the fight was about, though.  Just then, their father appears behind them.  He asks them what they are doing near the basement window.  They ask about the fight they overheard, but their father says there was no fight.  He accuses Margaret of spying on him again, and says that the plant that grabbed Casey was part of his work, that the kids have interrupted.  He sends them up to their rooms.

In the basement, the dad opens a closet door and feeds something, then locks up the door again.

The kids are awoken in the middle of the night by a drilling noise.  They come downstairs to see their father putting a lock on the basement door.  He sees them, and tells them he has put locks on the basement windows, too - so they can’t sneak in that way, either.  He tells them he’s going out for a couple of hours.

Margaret determines to call their mother.  When she goes to search for their aunt’s phone number, however, she can’t find it.  She thinks that their father took the number and hid it, so they can’t call their mom.  Margaret is worried about the professor that visited, too; she never saw him leave and thinks he might be held captive.

Margaret and Casey go into their parents’ bedroom to search for the phone number.  While they’re looking, the phone rings, and they let it go to voicemail.  It’s the professor’s wife, calling to say her husband never came home!

Just then, they hear the front door.  Their father is back!  Margaret accidentally hits the answering machine and it starts playing again.  She frantically tries to stop it, but by the time she does, her father is right outside the room.  Casey stops him in the hallway to buy Margaret time.  His father asks why he is out of bed, then asks if Casey has been in his room.  Casey denies it, but his father is suspicious and demands Casey go back to bed and stay there.

The father goes into his bedroom and looks around.  He notices the answering machine and the papers strewn on the floor.  He sits on the edge of the bed - while Margaret is hiding under the bed!

Suddenly, worms start falling on the floor, right in front on Margaret’s face.  She stifles a scream.  Then, a wallet falls onto the floor - the professor’s!  He reaches down and feels around for it, coming within inches of Margaret’s face.  Luckily, he finds the wallet - and picks up the worms while he’s at it.  He leaves again, telling the kids that they will be home in an hour.

Margaret crawls out from under the bed and Casey joins her in the room.  She tells Casey about their dad having the professor’s wallet.  Then, she looks at the bed and realizes there’s something under the covers.  She rips off the top sheet and sees that the whole bed is covered in worms!

Margaret decides she has to know the truth about what’s going on.  She and Casey arm themselves with a crowbar and weed killer.  They pry off the basement lock and venture into the basement.  It is glowing green, and the plants are moving and making noises.  “They’re bigger, right?  Don’t they all look bigger?” asks Casey.  Margaret finds a plant that is in the shape of a human hand.  They see the plant that Margaret had cut her finger on during their first trip to the basement, and it has a human face in it.

They hear a knocking coming from a closet, and they open up the door.  At first, they think there are just more plants in the closet, but then a man comes staggering out.  It’s their father!

Casey is wary and says their father just left.  Margaret takes the tape off the man’s mouth.  He explains that he is their real father.  The man who just went out, who has been with them for days, is a plant copy of him!  He begs them to untie him.  Margaret worries that he might not be telling the truth, but their father says there’s no time to explain, and they have to untie him right away.  Margaret does.

Then, he picks up the crowbar and wields it at them.  Margaret and Casey argue whether the man is actually their real father.  “He is our real father!  Aren’t you?” asks Margaret.  A voice from the stairs answers: “No he’s not.  I am.”  It’s the father they’re used to, wearing the baseball cap.  Baseball-cap-father explains that this man is the plant copy, and he locked him up because he was dangerous.  Newly-freed-father protests that the other one is the plant copy, and he locked the professor up in another closet.

Margaret grabs the weed killer and waves the wand at both of them.  Both fathers make arguments to attack the other.  But then the newly-released father calls Margaret “Princess” - her childhood nickname.  Margaret fires the weed killer at the baseball-cap-father and he screams and melts to the ground.

The next morning, the father gives all of his plants to the professor, and accepts his offer to return to teaching, once the side-effects die down.  He explains to everyone that it all started as a mistake, when he cut his hand on a slide and his blood mixed with plant molecules.  Everything got out of hand, until it was too late.  He speculates that the plant clone father wanted to make plant clone versions of everyone in the family!

Everyone heads inside for a hearty lunch of hamburgers.  Margaret stops to tie her shoe... and all of the flowers in the yard start begging for her help, saying they are her real father...

“Stay Out of the Basement” starts with a mother packing up her car to go see her sister, who is sick.  Her daughter, Margaret, doesn’t want her mother to go, because she’s worried about her father.  He’s been acting weird lately, and ever since he lost his job, he’s always in the basement doing experiments.  Her mother just explains that he’s under a lot of pressure.  He wants to prove to the University that they made a mistake by firing him.

Margaret thinks something else is wrong, but she can’t really explain it.  Her mother insists that everything is going to be fine.  Margaret promises to take care of her dad.  She goes into the house to fetch her father so he can drive his mother to the airport.  Margaret and her brother, Casey, knock on the basement door, but there’s no answer.  “He never hears stuff when he’s working,” says Casey, and they open the door and head downstairs.  Halfway down the stairs, their father appears at the top and screams down at them, “STAY OUT OF THE BASEMENT!”

When they come up, he apologizes for raising his voice, but stresses that he really doesn’t want them in the basement.  “Why is he so freaked about the basement?” Margaret asks Casey.  “Because he doesn't want us messing with his work,” Casey reasons.

Their parents head off to the airport, and Margaret and Casey hang out at home.  Suddenly, Margaret jumps off the couch.  She hears a weird noise... coming from the basement!  It sounds like a hurt animal, and Margaret wants to make sure it’s not a suffering stray cat or something.  The two sneak down the stairs.

The basement is hot and looks like a jungle.  Margaret says it sounds like the plants are breathing.  Casey wonders if their father is making a rainforest.  In the corner, there is an ivy-like plant that is moving up and down like it’s breathing.  Margaret reaches for it, and the plant grabs her arm!

She wrestles free, but her finger is bleeding because she pricked it on a thorn.  Casey comes over, but he doesn’t believe that the plant really grabbed Margaret.  Just then, they hear their father honking his horn that he’s home.  They run up the stairs.  Then, Casey realizes that he left his sweater in the basement!  He has to get it to hide the evidence of their tresspassing.  Casey runs back down.  The swinging plants intimidate him, making him move slowly, but he finally grabs his sweater and runs back up just as their father enters the house.

He looks at them as asks if they went into the basement.  Margaret makes excuses about the noises, but her father persists.  Finally, she admits they did.  They’re scared about what he’ll say, but he just asks if they’re ok.  He escorts them to the kitchen table and says he’ll explain to them what he’s doing in the basement if that will stop them from going down there.

Their father says that one thing botanists do is try and take positive qualities from one plant and put them into another plant.  He’s doing something like that, just a little more unusual.  He can’t tell them exactly what it is.  He starts to head back into the basement, and Margaret suggests that they can watch some movies and eat popcorn together.  But he says he has a lot of work to do and goes downstairs.  Margaret sighs.  “Something’s not right.”

That night, while the kids are sleeping, a strange green light emanates from the basement...

The next morning, Margaret sets out a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon for her father.  She knocks on the basement door to tell him that breakfast is ready, but gets no response.  She leaves the breakfast on the table for hours, but her father does not come up to eat it.  Finally, he stomps up the stairs and into the kitchen.  Margaret enters with a smile, ready to show him the breakfast she made him, only to find him eating some green powdery substance from a jar.

Then, he fills a huge pitcher with water and drinks the whole thing.  Margaret clears her throat and announces that she made him breakfast, but he says he’s not hungry.  He goes back downstairs.  Margaret goes over to the sink to see what jar her father was eating from... and it’s plant food!

Margaret runs to call her mother, and she insists that something is wrong with her father, and that he was eating plant food.  Then, someone grabs the phone from her - it’s her dad!  He talks to their mother, insisting everything is fine, without taking his eyes off of Margaret.  After hanging up, he goes back to the basement.

In the middle of the night, Margaret is awakened by strange noises, gagging and groaning.  She hears water running in her parents’ bathroom and peeks through the slats.  Her father takes a bandage off of his arm and reveals a huge gash with a green goop coming out of it!

Then, he ducks down and she sees his head - covered in leaves!

Before she has time to think, her father turns his head and sees her eyes through the slats.  She runs back to her room and pretends to be asleep.  Her father comes in and calls her name, but she doesn’t respond.  He looks over her for a while, but then leaves.

In the morning, Margaret sneaks into Casey’s room to tell him what she saw during the night.  Casey doesn’t believe her.  She tells him that she thinks their father is a mad scientist.  Then, their father calls them from downstairs.  He’s making them breakfast, wearing an apron and a baseball cap.  Casey asks what’s up with the baseball cap.

Their father puts down the breakfast bowl.  “So I guess you kids think your old dad is acting pretty darn weird,” he says.  He confronts Margaret, who admits she saw him the night before, and asks why he has leaves growing out of his head.  He explains that that’s just a temporary side-effect, and soon his hair will grow back, but that’s why he is wearing the cap.  Then, she asks about the green fluid coming out of his cut, which he says wasn’t coming from his cut, it’s just liquid from the leaves.

He tells them he’s working on something “very unusual.”  He’s trying to build a plant that is part animal.  “You mean you’re taking animal cells and putting them in a plant?: asks Margaret.  Her father looks cagey.  “I can’t say any more.”  He picks up the bowl to serve them breakfast... which is a weird green goop that he says is his “special recipe.”  They complain it doesn’t smell very good, but he demands that they eat it.

Just then, the doorbell rings.  Their father says he expects the bowls to be empty when he gets back from answering the door.  As soon as he leaves the room, they dump their bowls in the trash.

The man at the door is a professor from the university coming by to check on the father and his progress.  The two head downstairs, and the father orders his kids to go play outside.

While playing frisbee, one of Margaret’s throws lands near the basement windows.  When Casey retrieves it, he overhears part of his father’s conversation with the professor.  As he is listening in, a giant vine creeps up into the air over him...

“Stay Out of the Basement” originally aired on 1/26/96!

Rewatch the episode now, and follow along with the summary and discussion here.

“My Hairiest Adventure” starts with a boy, Larry, being chased by a pack of dogs.  “I’d like to meet the guy who said, ‘Dogs are a man’s best friend,’” he muses.  

Larrysays the pack always chases him around town like he has “a pocket full of liver.”  He’s not supposed to run because he has allergies - but no one told the dogs that!  He climbs up a tree and relishes in the fact that dogs can’t climb trees - until the tree limb breaks!

When he falls, all the dogs stop barking and stare at him.  Then, a girl comes up and orders the dogs, “Get outta here!”  Her name is Lilly, and she is Larry’s best friend.  She has a gold coin that she wears around her neck, and her eyes are two different colors.

Lilly helps Larry up, and they head to practice with their band.  Their band plays in the garage of a house that used to belong to the Duncan family - but the Duncans moved out so quickly they even left their electricity on.  A lot of families have been moving out of town, recently, Larry notes.

Their band is pretty terrible, and they know it, but they have an audition coming up for a kid’s birthday party, so they need to practice.

During a break in the practice session, one of the boys finds an old bottle of tanning lotion left behind by the Duncans.

The boys and Lilly slather the cream on, saying they’ll be “bronze gods” for the audition.  Larry, however, refuses.  “You don’t know where that stuff’s been,” he says.  The boys tease him: “Hairy Larry: king of the wimps!”  But Lilly says he’d look great with a tan, so he decides to go for it.  As Larry is rubbing it in, one of the boys realizes that the expiration date on the bottle is 1991!  (A reminder that this episode aired in 1996)

Suddenly, Larry starts yelling, “My skin!”  Everyone looks over in horror - but Larry just rubbed a paper towel on his skin to prank them.  The boys grab some leftover spray paint cans to get Larry back.  As he’s backing away from them, Larry suddenly has trouble breathing, and he passes out.

He wakes up in his bed with the doctor over him, giving him an injection.  The doctor explains that when Larry gets overheated, it aggravates his allergies.  His parents are concerned that the allergies are getting worse, since Larry’s next injection wasn’t due for another week.

Later, Larry is petting the family cat and he tells the cat that he thinks it was the expired tanning lotion that made him sick - but he can’t tell his parents because they would freak out if they knew he used some old expired lotion he found in a garage.  The cat hisses and runs away.  Larry looks down - and notices that his hand is covered in hair!

Larry is freaking out.  He searches the bathroom - and when his mom knocks at the door he asks if they have any hair remover.  “Hair remover?!” his mom asks.  Larry finds an electric razor and uses it to shave the back of his hands.  His parents are outside the bathroom door, knocking to make sure he’s ok.  His dad asks if Larry could hand him out his razor.  Larry yells, “Can’t a guy get some privacy?”

The next morning, Larry catches up to Lilly walking down the street.  Lilly invites him over for dinner.  Lilly also says she tried to call their friend Manny to ask about band practice, but he didn’t answer.  They decide to stop by his house.

On the way, Larry asks Lilly if anything happened to her last night where she had rubbed the tanning lotion.  Anything involving hair.  “Are you growing some unexpected hair?” Lilly asks.

"No, are you?” asks Larry.  “No, are you?” asks Lilly.  They continue to be awkward, then Lilly says, “Hairy Larry - hair on his head, hair on his mind!”  “Don’t call me Hairy Larry - I hate that!”  Larry thinks to himself that it’s uncomfortable to talk to a girl about body hair; maybe he can ask Manny about it.

But when they get to Manny’s house, it’s empty!  Well, except for Manny’s bedroom, which is just as Manny left it.  They go to see if Manny’s clothes are still in the closet - but they find a man in a suit in there!  Larry and Lilly explain that they’re looking for Manny.  The man says that Manny doesn’t live there anymore; the house is for sale.  

Later at dinner, they discuss Manny’s disappearance, but Lilly’s parents blow it off as not that big of a deal.  Lilly’s mother asks Larry to pass a plate, and when he goes to do so, he sees the hair has grown back on his hand!  He hides his hand under the table.  Then, he notices Lilly’s dad is eating a piece of corn that has a tuft of shed hair on it.  Larry jumps up and bats the corn out of Lilly’s dad’s mouth.  He tries to explain that he saw corn worms on it, then runs to the bathroom.

Larry’s whole arms are covered in hair!  He searches the vanity for a razor, but cannot find one.  Lilly knocks on the door, asking what’s wrong.  Larry tries to sneak out the window, but the pack of dogs is waiting below!  He is too embarrassed to go back inside, so he faces the dogs, and manages to outrun them.  At home, he checks the rest of his body for hair, and finds hair all over his legs, too!

Larry screams, and his parents rush in.  They see the hair on his legs and call the doctor.  The doctor gives Larry another injection.  Larry explains about the tanning lotion, but the doctor says he doubts it’s the tanning lotion that’s doing it.  He tells Larry it’s probably just a skin irritation.  His parents suggests it might be nerves because of the band audition, and they encourage him to relax.  Larry recognizes that there’s something weird going on.

In the morning, all the hair is gone from Larry’s arms, and he’s relieved.  He walks to band practice, and spots a dog on the side of the road.  He calls the dog closer and notices a gold coin around its neck, and two differently colored eyes.  “Lilly?” he asks.  The dog runs away.

Larry runs to Lilly’s house and finds her parents packing up the car.  He asks if Lilly is around, but her mother says he must have the wrong house; no one named Lilly lives there.  “There is no Lilly.  Forget about her.”  The parents drive off.

Larry races back to his house and tells his parents that something weird is going on.  He says he saw a dog that he thinks is Lilly, that it’s wearing her necklace.  “That’s silly,” says his mother.  Larry says he knows it’s her and thinks it must be the Insta Tan and that the doctor is hiding something.  His mother offers him some roast beef.  Larry cries, “I don’t want food; I want answers!” and runs off.  He wonders what his parents are hiding.

Larry runs back to the garage where the band practiced to investigate the Insta Tan more.  In the garage, he finds a man and his son - they’re there to hear the band’s audition.  There’s a dog there, too, and Larry realizes the dog looks and sounds kind of like Jared.

Suddenly, Larry notices the hair is back on his arms and he runs off.  By the time he gets home, he has hair all around his face!

Larry’s parents are undisturbed, later that evening, as they sit on the couch reading.  They are talking to Larry, telling him they wish it could have worked out.  Then they offer him a cookie.  The camera pans around.  Larry is a dog!

Larry’s parents are a couple who came to town to be a part of the doctor’s project.  He invented a way to turn dogs into humans, which was why Larry got injections every two weeks.  But the project failed, and now the friends all hang out as their dog-selves.

Then, the doctor pulls up in his car, and gets out with a bundle.  It’s a baby, and Larry’s mom calls her Jasper - like the family cat!

“My Hairiest Adventure” originally aired on 1/19/96!

Rewatch the episode now, and follow along with the summary and discussion here.

“Night of the Living Dummy II” is the episode that introduced the world to Slappy and likely instilled ‘90s kids with a fear of ventriloquist dummies that they still have to this day.

The episode opens on a peaceful suburban home with piano music playing in the background.  A young teen, Sarah, is showing her family a picture she painted of their house, entitled “Home Sweet Home.”  She is going to enter it into the city art show.  Her parents love it, but her sister Amy quips, “She showed us the exact same picture last family night.”  Amy starts to get up, but her father tells her to wait her turn.  Their brother Jed gets up instead, and announces that he’s made a movie all about the family.  He presses play, and the video is full of embarrassing videos that he combines with snarky commentary, like a shot of their mom eating ice cream right from the container and Jed says, “There’s Mom sticking to her diet again!”  Everyone in the family is angry, and their mother says that he has to ask to use the camera next time.

Finally, it’s Amy’s turn, and she sets herself up with her ventriloquist dummy, Dennis.  She tells a joke, but when she’s making him laugh, his head falls off.  “That’s the best part!” quips Jed.  Amy is embarrassed and whines to her father that he said she could get a new dummy.  “Look behind the couch!” says her father.  Amy excitedly opens the giant box.  Her father explains that he found the dummy just sitting in the window of a second-hand shop near his work.

Amy opens the box and sees her new dummy, named Slappy.  She takes Slappy out of the box and finds a piece of paper in his pocket.

Amy reads the card out loud and says it sounds like a foreign language.  She hugs Slappy and says, “You and I are gonna make a great team.”

That night, Amy is practicing with Slappy.  Sarah comes in and warns Amy not to go in her room ever again (the video that Jed made showed Amy secretly trying on Sarah’s sweater).  Sarah tells Amy to go to bed.  “Don’t have to,” says Amy.  “Yeah, we don’t have to,” agreed Slappy.  Amy gasps and whips her head around, but Sarah doesn’t seem to notice.  Amy decides to go to bed after all.  She puts Slappy on a bench with Dennis on the side of her room, and wishes them both good night.  Just as she’s going to turn off her light, she hears a thud.  She gets up and finds Dennis on the floor.  She thinks it’s just the old toy falling apart again, and shakes her head.

In the middle of the night, something creeps through the house and into Sarah’s room.  It runs up to Sarah’s prized painting...

The next morning, Sarah is in tears.  “It’s ruined!” she cries.  Amy comes in carrying a paint brush.  Her sister blames her for ruining the painting, but she says she didn’t do it; she just found the paint brush out in the hall.  “I’m always blamed for everything around here!” she says.  On her way out the door to school, she grabs Slappy’s hands and says, “Sorry you had to end up with such a bizarre family.”  Pulling her hands away, she sees red paint on her hands.  She checks Slappy’s hands and finds red paint there, too.  “How did this get here?” she asks.

At the next family game night, Amy brings Slappy out for a show.  Amy tells some jokes, but then Slappy takes over, making offensive comments about her family.  “And how about that mother of yours!  She went to the store and asked the clerk if he had something her size and he told her to try the freight elevator!”

Her family gets very upset, but Amy says it’s not her saying it - it’s Slappy!  Amy tries to get Slappy off of her hand, but he’s stuck.  She finally gets him off with the help of Sarah.  Her father sends her and Slappy up to bed.  Amy is frustrated, and closes Slappy back in his box.

The next day, Amy’s friend is over to help color posters for school.  She brought her younger sister because she’s babysitting.  The two girls complain about being the middle child and always being stuck doing everything.  “Sometimes, I wish I didn’t have any brothers or sisters,” says Amy.  In his box, Slappy hears.

Sarah stomps into the room, mad that Amy is using Sarah’s markers to do the poster.  Sarah and Amy get into a fight.  When Sarah leaves, the girls see Amy’s friend’s baby sister holding Slappy.  “Don’t touch that!” cries Amy.  “He said he couldn’t breathe in there,” says the little girl.  Slappy says something mean about Amy’s friend.  “I think he’s funny,” the little girl says, holding Slappy’s hand.  

Then, Slappy grabs the girl’s finger and won’t let go!  Amy begs Slappy to stop it.  The girl screams.  Slappy just laughs.  Amy’s mother comes into the room, and Slappy shuts down.  “What in the world is going on?” she asks.  Amy tries to explain that Slappy grabbed the girl’s finger, but her friend accuses her of being a liar and tells her she never wants to see her again.  She storms out.  Furious, her mother locks Amy in her room... alone with Slappy.

When Amy’s father comes home, he tells Amy she can’t keep blaming the doll for bad things she doesn’t want to take responsibility for.  Her brother and sister agree that it’s getting weird.  Her father says he understands how she feels, being caught in the middle of her siblings.  “Nobody’s listening to me! It’s all Slappy’s fault!” screams Amy.  Her mother suggests that maybe Amy needs to go to a therapist.  Amy maintains that she isn't making this up, and storms out.

That night, while Amy is asleep, Slappy sneaks out of the room again.  Amy’s parents are in the living room, having fallen asleep watching TV.  Amy wakes up and realizes that Slappy’s gone.  She runs to the living room and catches Slappy about to smash her father’s guitar.

Amy tackles Slappy, but ends up smashing the guitar anyway and waking up her parents.  “Amy, how could you?” asks her mother.  Amy explains that Slappy was going to hit Dad, and she had to stop him.  Her father does not believe her, and is furious.  He tells her to go to bed, and they will talk to her in the morning.

At breakfast, they tell her they just cannot understand what’s going on with her, and she cannot keep blaming Slappy for everything.  “When you’re ready to tell us what’s really bothering you, then we’ll talk,” says her father.

Amy heads out to a large road and throws Slappy down the sewer, saying, “You’re never going to hurt me again.”  But that night, Sarah is wiping up some footprints that look suspiciously small...

Amy goes into her bedroom and sees tiny footprints leading under her bed.  She peeks under it, and hears a voice from behind her saying her name.  It’s Slappy!  “We’re partners, remember?” says Slappy.  He explains that Amy can’t get rid of him, because she spoke the magic words in his pocket.  “You and I are one now.  Inseparable.  My slave.”  Amy says she won’t be Slappy’s slave, but he reminds her that he already controls her, and that her whole family thinks she’s crazy.

Sarah comes into the room, and Slappy turns to face her, showing her that he is real.  “Wanna play?” he asks her.  The girls scream and run.  The lock themselves in the bathroom.  Slappy tries to get in, but can’t.  The girls realize he must be going after Jed.

All the lights are off in the house, so the girls arm themselves with flashlights and mops to try and find Jed.  In the kitchen, Slappy runs all around them, so fast they can’t keep up.  He runs off and the girls chase him into the living room.  Slappy trips Amy and she falls to the floor.  She tries to reach the mop to defend herself with while Slappy climbs up onto the table and announces, “From now on, this family belongs to me!”

Suddenly, something jumps out at Slappy and knocks him to the floor.  His head hits the ground and cracks open, and a green evil spirit comes out.

The girls’ parents come home right then, and the girls run into their arms.  Sarah explains that Amy was telling the truth and Slappy was after them, but Jed saved their lives.  But then, Jed appears on the stairs and says, “What’s going on?  What’d I do?”  “if you didn’t do it, then who...?”  They turn around and see Dennis standing on the table.

“It’s good to be back in the family again,” he says.

“Night of the Living Dummy II” originally aired on 1/12/96!

Rewatch the episode now, and follow along with the summary and discussion here.

“Return of the Mummy” opens with a shot of the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx, and a voiceover from the narrator providing setting: “I’m here in Egypt visiting my Uncle Ben and cousin Sari. My Uncle Ben’s an archaeologist. He’s really cool; he knows all about ancient civilizations.” Uncle Ben has discovered a new pyramid that they believe contains the tomb of an ancient Egyptian prince, and they are on a secret dig. Gabe, the narrator, is psyched to be one of the first people inside. 

Uncle Ben, Sari, and Gabe explore the pyramid. Sari makes fun of Gabe’s “summoner,” a mummified hand that he bought that the airport that he claims can call the dead. His archaeologist family tells him it’s a scam. Gabe is an aspiring photographer, and wants to get a picture of his uncle and cousin in front of the hieroglyphics on the wall. While he is setting up the shot, he drops his summoner and it starts to crawl away! When he looks for it after the photo, it has crawled all the way to the wall. 

There are hieroglyphics on the wall, and Gabe asks Sari what they mean. She explains that they tell the story of what happens to the soul in their afterlife. “Creepy,” says Gabe, admitting he wouldn’t want to be stuck there alone. He turns around and Sari is gone! He is stuck there alone! 

Gabe calls for Sari and Uncle Ben. He hears her voice from down a hall and tries to follow. “Gabe, down here,” calls Uncle Ben. Gabe follows the voices to a room with multiple pathways out of it. Gabe chooses one of the paths that leads to a dark, cluttered room. Suddenly, he falls through a trap hole in the floor! 

He shines his flashlight around the room and discovers a mask with an Egyptian headdress and a lion’s face. He takes a photo of the mask, and then a snake pops out of it’s mouth! Right then, Sari and Uncle Ben appear above and drop a rope down for Gabe to climb up. He does so, but accidentally leaves his summoner behind. 

Back in the camp, Uncle Ben looks at the photo Gabe took of the mask and is shocked. "This lion's head is Prince Khor-Ru's sacred seal. This is the entrance to the Prince's tomb!" They plan to go into the tomb the next day. Gabe realizes that his summoner is missing. Uncle Ben assures him that the work crew will find it for him when they prepare for the tomb entry. In its place, Ben gives Gabe a piece of petrified tree sap - amber. Ben looks inside the amber and sees an ancient scarab beetle trapped inside. 

"Scarabs were very important to the ancient Egyptians," explains Uncle Ben. "They believed that to keep a scarab meant that you would live forever." Gabe asks if the scarab is really 4,000 years old. A woman enters the camp tent and says, "It's true." 

She introduces herself as Nila, a reporter with the Cairo Sun. She says her newspaper heard that he had discovered the tomb of Prince Khor-Ru, and she wants to join the expedition and get the exclusive article.  Uncle Ben says that she should interview Gabe, then, since he is the one who discovered the tomb entrance.  Nila asks if Gabe is an archaeologist.  Sari rolls her eyes, maintaining that Gabe is just clumsy.

Then, Nila notices Gabe’s amber scarab necklace, and pulls out her own amber necklace.  “We are twins,” she says.  Hers doesn’t have the scarab beetle inside, though. “I like it better without the dead bug,” says Sari.

Uncle Ben shows Nila the photo that Gabe took of the tomb entrance. She seems amazed that it is really the entrance to the tomb.  Her driver appears outside the tent and asks what to do with her bags.  She shows him the photo of the tomb and he drops his bags in shock.  “No one must enter the tomb.  It is cursed.  Someone will die!”  Nila tells him not to worry about it.  The driver says, “I cannot stay,” and runs off.

Nila comes back into the tent reading the hieroglyphs on the tomb in the photo.  “Let me rent in peace,” she reads.  Gabe is impressed that the can read “that stuff” and asks what it means.  Uncle Ben explains it’s a warning to grave robbers.  He also says that there are still some people who believe in the silly superstition that the tomb is cursed.  “Like you, Gabe!” pipes up Sari.  Gabe rolls his eyes.  Uncle Ben says that, according to legend, if you say the sacred words three times - haru, hara, haree - the mummy will be awakened from his sleep to seek his vengeance.  “Of course, that is just a superstition,” says Nila.

The next morning, the four of them head to the tomb to open the entrance.  Gabe is jumpy - he heard what the driver said about a curse and worries that it’s true.  Uncle Ben tells them to prepare themselves - they’re about to enter a room no one has seen for 4,000 years!  He knocks the lion crest off of the door, and the door slides open.

They enter the tomb and... there’s no sarcophagus inside!  It’s a false tomb, made to confuse grave robbers.  Sari says maybe they just need to say the sacred words and the mummy will come to them.  “Haru, hara, haree,” she says.  “I wouldn’t do that,” warns Gabe.  “What’s the matter?  You afraid the mummy’s really gonna come to life?” scoffs Sari.  She says the words again, daring Gabe to say it the third time.  Gabe gives in, and says the words.  A wind whistles through the tomb and the lights flicker.  “Maybe Khor-Ru was listening,” says Nila, but Uncle Ben says it was probably just the wind.

Then, Sari notices Gabe’s summoner in a crack in the wall.  Gabe runs over to grab it - and the hand comes to life and grabs him!  He screams for help, but everyone thinks he’s just faking it.  “Give me a break,” Sari says.  Gabe grabs her arm for help, and suddenly the wall spins and the two are pulled behind the trick door.  Uncle Ben tries to run after them, but the wall closes too quickly.  He slams into it and falls down.

Gabe and Sari bang on the wall, shouting for help.  Gabe discovers a skeleton in the room.  They’re done for!  They decide to try and find an exit.  Going around a corner, they discover an ornate room, full of treasure and containing a sarcophagus and the lion’s head seal of Prince Khor-Ru.

Sari decides that they should open the sarcophagus, so they can be the first people to see the mummy.  They push on the stone cover with all their might, and slide it off.  But there’s nothing inside!  

They hear a roar, and the eyes of the lion’s head seal glow.  “What was that?” asks Sari.  “I don’t think we want to know,” says Gabe.  They turn around and see the mummy!!

The two creep around the edge of the room, trying to get to the exit and avoid the mummy, who is stalking towards them.  They cower in the corner.

Then, Nila comes around the corner, dressed in an ornate red outfit.  “Come to me, brother,” she says to the mummy, and holds out the summoner.  “It’s Princess Nila, your sister.  I have waited so long for this day that we may be reunited once again.”

Gabe recognizes the summoner, and says, “Hey, that’s my summoner!”  “Silence, foolish peasant.  The summoner is mine,” says Nila.  She turns back to Prince Khor-Ru.  “Now, we shall rule again.  Destroy them, my brother; there can be no witnesses.”

The mummy flails and groans.  “No!” Sari screams.  Then, the mummy lunges forward and rips the amber necklace off of Nila’s neck.  “Let me rest in piece!” he cries.  Nila says, “Khor-Ru, remember.  You were weak, I was strong.  I was the one who ruled.  Do you remember, Khor-Ru?  Do you remember, my brother?”

“I remember!” cries the mummy, and throws the amber necklace on the ground.  It shatters into a thousand pieces.  “My life!” screams Nila.  “I lived inside this stone every night for 4,000 years!  And now, I will never -” She is cut off and a bright light appears, and she vanishes.  Her clothes fall into an empty pile on the floor.  From under them crawls a scarab beetle.

The mummy continues groaning and shuffling around.  Gabe jumps up and tries to get him to stop.  Finally, Gabe throws the summoner into the fire.  The mummy screams.  The walls start shaking.  Gabe and Sari run from the room, and end up in the room where Uncle Ben is still passed out on the floor.  They wake him up and run with him out of the pyramid.  The walls begin to collapse, and the mummy groans and his hand flails limply.

Days later, Gabe is packing up to head home.  He tries to give his scarab beetle necklace to Sari, but she refuses.  Uncle Ben comes into the tent and asks what they should tell the reporters.  Gabe and Sari recommend the truth.  “Tell them the mummy walked, and his sister’s a 4,000 year old beetle, and they almost got together to rule Egypt again!”  The three laugh.

While they’re talking, the summoner crawls into the tent and creeps into Gabe’s suitcase.  It wraps itself around the scarab beetle necklace.  Gabe doesn’t notice, and closes the suitcase, and heads out the airport.