当少年扎克·库珀（迪伦·明奈特饰）跟随母亲盖尔（艾米·瑞恩饰）搬进特拉华州麦迪逊镇的新家时，他并不知道这座看似平静的小镇藏着怎样的秘密。月光下的废弃游乐场、邻居家紧闭的窗帘，以及那个名叫汉娜（奥黛娅·拉什饰）的神秘女孩——所有线索都指向一个令人毛骨悚然的真相。
开学第一天，扎克结识了胆小却忠诚的校园怪胎钱普（瑞恩·李饰）。当两人在生物课上解剖青蛙时，窗外突然闪过汉娜的身影。这个声称"在家上学"的女孩总在黄昏时分出现，带着扎克穿过幽暗的松树林，来到那座锈迹斑斑的摩天轮顶端。整个小镇在暮色中如同微缩模型，而汉娜眼中闪烁的光芒比星光更难以捉摸。
某个深夜，扎克听见隔壁传来撕心裂肺的尖叫。警察破门而入时，自称"夏皮罗先生"的古怪邻居（杰克·布莱克饰）却展示着一部恐怖电影光碟。但扎克分明看见书房地板上有本烫金封面的旧书，书脊上用血红色墨水写着《帕萨迪纳的雪怪》——这正是著名惊悚作家R.L.斯坦的绝版作品。
当扎克和钱普意外释放书中怪物时，整个小镇瞬间沦为噩梦剧场。会走动的花园地精用铲子凿穿警局大门，透明男孩在图书馆书架间窃笑，而最危险的莫过于从《活木偶之夜》逃出来的木偶斯拉皮。这个戴着圆顶礼帽的恶魔指挥着怪物军团，将斯坦的打字机扔进熊熊烈火。
高潮在游乐园的镜屋爆发。数百个斯拉皮的倒影将幸存者逼入绝境，汉娜的围巾突然被月光照得透明——原来她也是从《隔壁的幽灵》中走出的角色。当扎克颤抖着手指在打字机上写下结局时，他必须做出比对抗怪物更艰难的选择：是拯救小镇，还是留住这个由墨水与孤独创造的灵魂。
最终在中学毕业舞会上，重新现身的汉娜裙摆还沾着故事书的纸屑。但斯坦书房里突然自动书写的打字机提醒着我们：有些噩梦永远不会真正结束。
---When teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) moved to the quiet town of Madison, Delaware with his mother Gale (Amy Ryan), he never expected the ordinary-looking neighborhood to hide such dark secrets. The abandoned amusement park glowing under moonlight, the perpetually drawn curtains at the neighbor's house, and the enigmatic girl named Hannah (Odeya Rush)—all clues pointed toward a terrifying truth.
On his first day at school, Zach befriended Champ (Ryan Lee), the school's resident oddball. As they dissected frogs in biology class, Hannah's silhouette flickered past the window. This self-proclaimed "homeschooled" girl always appeared at dusk, leading Zach through shadowy pine forests to the rusted Ferris wheel's apex. The whole town sprawled below like a miniature model, but the glint in Hannah's eyes was more elusive than starlight.
One midnight, Zach heard bloodcurdling screams next door. When police barged in, the eccentric neighbor calling himself "Mr. Shivers" (Jack Black) played a horror movie clip. Yet Zach distinctly spotted an antique book on the study floor, its spine stamped in blood-red ink with "The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena"—an out-of-print work by famed horror writer R.L. Stine.
As Zach and Champ accidentally unleashed the book's monsters, the town transformed into a nightmare theater. Living garden gnomes hacked through police station doors with shovels, the Invisible Boy giggled between library shelves, and the most dangerous of all was Slappy the Dummy escaped from "Night of the Living Dummy". This top-hatted demon commanded a monster army while tossing Stine's typewriter into roaring flames.
The climax erupted in the amusement park's hall of mirrors. Hundreds of Slappy's reflections cornered the survivors when Hannah's scarf suddenly turned translucent under moonlight—revealing her true nature as a character from "The Ghost Next Door." As Zach's trembling fingers hovered over the typewriter keys, he faced a choice harder than battling monsters: save the town or keep this soul born from ink and loneliness.
When Hannah reappeared at the high school prom, paper fragments from storybooks still clung to her dress. But the suddenly self-typing manuscript in Stine's study reminded everyone: some nightmares never truly end.