The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It!

***R. L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It*** is a 2007 American children's horror film based on the children's book of the same name by R. L. Stine. The film was directed by Alex Zamm, written by Dan Angel and Billy Brown, and stars Emily Osment, Cody Linley, Brittany Curran, and Tobin Bell. It was released direct-to-DVD. The plot follows a goth girl named Cassie (Emily Osment) moving into a new town and fascinated by the occult. At a mysterious Halloween store, the store owner (Tobin Bell)
 insists on selling her an old book. Stuck with her brother Max (Alex
Winzenread) on Halloween night, she reads the book to him, despite the
book's warnings not to read it out aloud or think about its monster. The
 monster comes to life and captures Max. Cassie, with help from her
friends, must save Max and defeat the monster before their parents
return from a Halloween party.

The film was a joint production with Universal Studios Home Entertainment Family Productions, The Hatchery, and Steeltown Entertainment. The film was released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on September 4, 2007, and aired on Cartoon Network on September 7, 2007. The film received mostly positive reviews from media critics upon release.

## Plot

Cassie Keller (Emily Osment) is a thirteen-year-old goth
 girl who just moved with her family to a new neighborhood and school.
She loves to trick the popular kids at school and her younger brother
Max (Alex Winzenread).

On the way to a library, Cassie finds a mysterious Halloween store in an alley and goes inside. The store owner (Tobin Bell) insists on selling her an old book titled *The Evil Thing*,
 which contains a warning not to read it aloud or think about its
monster called "The Evil Thing", a two-headed creature that sucks blood
while the other head eats meat. That night, Cassie ignores the warning
in the book and reads it to Max as revenge for him unplugging her
computer in the middle of a report she was writing. Priscilla Wright (Brittany Curran), a school bully who stole *The Evil Thing*
 from Cassie's bag in school, films her jumping in fear, after using a
CD player to play monster sounds outside in order to make the monster
appear to have come to life.

After Cassie's parents leave for a Halloween party and later that
night, The Evil Thing is brought to life by Max's thoughts, and captures
 him, Priscilla and a Papa John's Pizza delivery man. It is up to Cassie and Sean (Cody Linley),
 a popular boy who Cassie likes, to save them. At first, they try to
defeat The Evil Thing on their own, but fail. Cassie then asks the owner
 of the shop, where she bought the book, for help. Cassie discovers that
 the store owner travels around the world each Halloween, searching for a
 person who loves to scare people the most and tricks them into reading
the book aloud, releasing The Evil Thing, possibly in order to teach
them a lesson. He leaves them with the riddle "two heads are better than
 one; that's the way to get the bloody job done" before his shop
disappears. After he disappears, Sean solves the riddle. Together, they
formulate that if they get blood from a roast that Cassie's mother made
and throw it onto The Evil Thing, it will be forced to suck up the
blood. In doing so, it will devour itself. While they plan their attack,
 The Evil Thing's babies hatch and tries to eat the victims. Luckily,
Sean and Cassie make it in time. By using Sean's CD of monster sound effects, they are able to lure the monster to the CD player; however, when the monster nudges it, the music turns into hip hop,
 thus ruining their plan. While fumbling, Sean and Cassie accidentally
drop the blood near Max, who must conquer his fears. When Cassie
encourages him, Max tosses the blood onto The Evil Thing, causing its
heads to begin attacking each other. The monster eats itself, eventually
 exploding in a shower of yellow blood, killing itself and its
offspring.

With The Evil Thing destroyed, Max, Sean and Cassie save Priscilla.
She angrily yells at Cassie and calls her a witch, and Sean rejects
Priscilla in favor of Cassie. After Priscilla leaves, they save the
pizza delivery man, who offers them free pizza in return for releasing
him, then follows Priscilla to hit on her, to her disgust. Cassie and
Sean burn the book and set aside all their thoughts about The Evil
Thing. Sean leaves shortly afterward. Cassie and Max's parents then come
 home and find the book in the fireplace. The father mockingly reads it
out loud, reviving The Evil Thing. The film concludes with Cassie
realizing that The Evil Thing has been brought back to life and that it
is not over yet.

## Cast

* Emily Osment as Cassie Keller
* Cody Linley as Sean
* Alex Winzenread as Max Keller
* Brittany Elizabeth Curran as Priscilla
* Tobin Bell as The Shopkeeper