Image Credit: Discovery Family
'The Haunting Hour' recap: Helluva road trip
by Mike Sorce, Community Contributor	 @mikevsorce
Nov 8, 2014 | 5:00PM
Season 4 | Episode 7 | "Argh V" | Aired Nov 8, 2014
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Do your parents just not get it? Are they focused too much on having fun? Do they not understand why you're always doing your pesky schoolwork? Are they being manipulated and possessed by the new RV they just bought? If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you just might be starring in today's episode of The Haunting Hour (complete with a punny title for the first time this season).
Sam (China Anne McClain of Disney Channel's A.N.T. Farm) is focused on studying for the trig test she has the next day. Her hippie parents arrive home, flaunting the new RV they've purchased. They wish she could relax and have more fun like they do. They can't comprehend her initiative to learn; they just want to hang out out all day. Sam counts the days until college when she can get away from her eccentric, lazy parents.
Can't you tell they're hippies? Look at their shirts.
She looks into the windshield of the RV and suddenly sees another family inside about to crash. She jumps back, but the family is gone. The next day, her parents decide to skip work and work on the RV all day. They ask her to skip school and help them, but she's got to take that trig test. They tell Sam they want to travel the world in the RV, and she reminds them of the abandoned boat in their yard which they were also going to travel the world in. They shrug and head inside.
At the head of the driveway, Sam leans down to tie her shoe. The RV rolls toward her, and by the time she notices, all she can do is fall to the ground and let it roll over her. It stops with her underneath, and she moves to crawl out. The RV backs up and blocks her escape! She screams for help, and her dad comes to pull her out.
Later that day, she walks by the RV and hears children's voices coming from it: "Come with us. Take a trip." She gets in the RV and looks around, but no one's in there. Her friend, Tully (Samuel Patrick Chu of Discovery Family's Spooksville), shows up and eases her anxiety a little. He turns the radio on, and suddenly Sam sees blinding lights coming from the windshield. Something's going to crash into them!
Look out!
The blinding lights disappear, and nothing has changed. Tully didn't even see them. They look around and find a map in the glove box. It has writing on it that details a family trip taken by the Applebaums in 1999. Sam Googles the family and finds out they died in an RV crash during that vacation. She tells her parents, but they're not superstitious, so they don't care.
That night, she decides to take action herself. She and Tully drive the RV to a junkyard and leave it there with a note that says, "It's all yours." They walk home, and Sam hears the children's voices she heard earlier again. She looks behind her, spooked, and there's the RV driving by! She points it out, but it's gone before Tully sees it. When she arrives home, the RV is back in her driveway.
In the morning, her parents decide they're going on a road trip right that minute. They tell Sam she's welcome to come, but they know she's been opposed to the RV, so she doesn't have to. She tries to stop them, but they are adamant. Resigned to her fate, she agrees to come with them if only so they're not left alone with the RV. Sam's mom notes that they're starting on the same journey the Applebaums took!
That night, as they're driving, blinding lights fill the windshield, and a truck nearly crashes into them. They avoid the crash, and Sam can't believe they're safe. They come upon some hitchhikers, who introduce themselves as the Applebaums. Sam is convinced they are the same family that died in the RV. The Applebaums tell them that they were in a crash, but they walked away from it just fine. Sam's dad invites them on board.
Once the children talk for the first time, Sam realizes they were the voices she heard! Suddenly, the Applebaums all look like corpses, but they still move and talk. The children keep saying, "Come with us. Take a trip." Sam looks to her parents, but they look dead now, too! Sam realizes they didn't survive their crash either. The RV drives off into the foggy night.
R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour airs Saturdays 4/3C on Discovery Family.