The plot follows Amanda and Josh Benson, who move with their parents into a creepy old house located in the strange town of Dark Falls where people are unlike any they have known before.

The original cover illustration by Tim Jacobus features an old house at night, with the front door slightly ajar, and a strange figure illuminated in the window.

The Benson family takes their first trip to Dark Falls to meet with the local real estate agent Compton Dawes, and see their new home.

Despite the fact that it is the middle of July, the entire neighborhood seems covered in an artificial darkness created by the shadows of massive, overhanging tree limbs.

Whilst exploring her new room, Amanda watches with amazement as she catches a glimpse of a boy standing in the doorway, before quickly disappearing down the hall.

The family then drops off Mr. Dawes at his real estate office in Dark Falls, where he mentions to the Bensons that they can come back the following week to finalize the contracts for the house.

[2] The title was known as being grittier and less goofy than most other books in the Goosebumps series, which led to it being frequently challenged by parents, religious groups and school boards since its publication.

Unlike the other books in the series, Welcome to Dead House featured major supporting characters being killed, a deceased domestic pet, a plastics factory accident, and mentions of blood and gore.

Stray Dogs, a horror comic book series by My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic artist Tony Fleecs, featured a limited edition front cover design in a homage of Jacobus's cover art, with the title written as "Welcome to Dog House".

[5] In the 1990s, George A. Romero had written a full screenplay for a movie length adaptation of Welcome To Dead House with a focus on the plastics factory accident and themes of capitalism and greed.

[6] Welcome to Dead House became one of a select number of adapted two-part episodes in Season 2 of Goosebumps, a Canadian TV series produced by Scholastic and Fox Kids in the 1990s.

Stine had planned to release a follow-up to Welcome to Dead House called "Happy Holidays From Dead House", under the brand label "Goosebumps Gold", with publicly released cover art by Tim Jacobus featuring a Christmas wreath with glowing eyes embedded inside.

[7][8] These reviews have since been revealed to be fake, as the manuscript was never completed or released to the public, kept under wraps by Stine himself during a shift in publishing partners.

Welcome to Dead House is notable for inspiring a variety of merchandise items, including a glow-in-the-dark window cling (which came with the TV adaptation's VHS release), trading cards with images from the book, and a board game called "Race to Dead House", produced by Mastermind Toys in 2020.

The toy, called "The House in Dark Falls", continues to appear on internet auction sites and thrift shops.