SpineChillers Mysteries: Attack of the Killer House [Review]
Attack of the Killer House is the second book in the SpineChillers book series. I’d never heard of the SpineChillers Mysteries books growing up in the UK, and I imagine most British readers will be in the same boat. In the US, the ’90s were a different story—Goosebumps and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark weren’t just popular, they were controversial, with certain parent groups accusing them of promoting satanic themes. (Utter nonsense, of course.)
At the same time, plenty of authors spent the ’90s chasing the Goosebumps formula. But none of these so-called ‘knockoffs’ tackled the complaints from overzealous parents. Enter SpineChillers Mysteries. Imagine a Goosebumps-style series where the only supernatural forces are the Holy Trinity. The kids rely only on ‘Christian values’ and prayer to overcome the challenges they face. All whilst also showing a love for their parents and friends.
Will shoehorning religion into a middle-grade horror put a dampener on the scares and fun? Stick with us to find out – but first, let’s look at what Attack of the Killer House is all about.
Attack of the Killer House Plot
The “smart home gone wrong” plot isn’t new. The Twilight Zone tackled it in 1960’s The Lateness of the Hour. Dean Koontz’s Demon Seed (and its 1977 film adaptation) took the concept into darker territory. After a spattering of similar films over the next four decades, the subgenre has seen a resurgence with films like Smart Home Killer (2023), Hard Home (2024), and AFRAID (2024)—unsurprising, given the current GenAI boom.
As a kid growing up in the ’90s, I don’t remember Dream House (1998) or Homewrecker (1992). But I do remember the Treehouse of Horror XII episode. The one where Pierce Brosnan voices the murderously jealous UltraHouse 3000. That segment was itself a parody of Demon Seed and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Demon Seed has dark connotations, though its plot is bizarre. Thankfully, such themes are not explored in this SpineChillers Mysteries book.
Here’s the setup: Mum and Dad head out for the evening. The kids, Anna and Johnny Greger, are left at home. But they do not live in just any ordinary house. Mr. Greger is an engineer who has kitted out the Gregor family home into a ‘smart home’ – before smart homes were a thing. Everything electronic has some sort of home automation functionality built into it.
As night comes, the weather takes a turn for the worse. A storm hits. But inside the house is as chaotic as the storm outside – all the electronics go haywire! Johnny’s science project robot goes mad. Toys come to life in Small Soldiers (1998) fashion. Even the appliances, both big and small, seem to get a homicidal streak.
The kids have no idea what could have caused their home to become a deathtrap! Will they find out what is causing everything electrical in the house to ‘come to life’? Is it something supernatural at play (probably not)? And will the kids survive until their parents come home?
SpineChillers: Attack of the Killer House Review
Attack of the Killer House opens on an almost cozy note. You can hear the pitter-patter of rain from a passing storm. The sense that nothing too dangerous is lurking. That is, until Anna spots a sinister-looking man on the computer monitor, paired with a cryptic Bible verse. It’s a genuinely eerie image, followed by a disturbing nightmare sequence. Unfortunately, those two moments turn out to be the book’s horror high points. From there, the story bogs down in repetition. The ultimate solution to all the “techno-terror” boils down to… waiting for Mum and Dad to get home.
Misbehaving gadgets and appliances crop up constantly, each one dispatched by switching the power off. What could have been a tense scene—Anna desperately trying to stop Johnny from opening a door, fearing stranger danger—quickly grates as Johnny keeps pushing, and pushing, and pushing. The suspense fizzles. It is replaced by sheer irritation, and the scene drags far longer than it should.
Like the haywire tech it features, the book’s pacing is all over the place. I wanted to like it—there are flashes of genuine creepiness and fleeting moments of real peril. But those sparks are drowned out by endless reruns of the same setup. The preachy dialogue and prayer scenes also did nothing to resurrect the plot!
