Mr. Mumler Chameleon is a major villain in the Goosebumps franchise, being the main villain of The Haunted School, the fifty-ninth book in the original series, and the HorrorTown event based on it.
Biography[]
Original Book[]
Mr. Chameleon was a photographer assigned to take a picture of the Bell Valley School students in 1947. However, Mr. Chameleon hated children, and the children hated him, so they messed around while he was taking their picture. In anger, he snapped their picture and banished them all to Grayworld. The school was boarded up, and statues of the missing students were put in their memory.
Grayworld is an otherworldly dimension that (as its name indicates) is completely bereft of any color, with a thick layer of fog, empty houses, and a moonless and starless sky. Anyone sent there slowly loses his or her color, becoming only black or white. In addition, it appears that no one in Grayworld can age physically or mentally, as the Class of 1947 are still 12 years old after half a century.
The children in Grayworld go insane after years of isolation, becoming too broken not to obey every command Mr. Chameleon gives them. One child, Thalia, manages to escape, and helps Dustin and Marty escape as well but Mr. Chameleon appears in the end, about to send another class to Grayworld.
HorrorTown[]
Mr. Chameleon serves basically the same role as in the original book, but his role is now expanded. One child, Thalia, escapes Grayworld, but he chases her to HorrorTown, planning to banish more children to Grayworld, succeeding in banishing the entire staff, along with two more students, Dustin and Marty.
Thalia comes in to rescue Dustin and Marty. Mr. Chameleon orders the Grayworld Kids to attack them, but Thalia, Dustin and Marty escape and trap him in Grayworld for all eternity along with all of the kids he enslaved (with the kids being far too broken to be saved).
Trivia[]
- Mr. Chameleon's (last) name is rather ironic, as chameleons are known for being colorful (and often portrayed in fiction as changing color to match their surroundings), but Mr. Chameleon is completely colorless.
- The fact that Mr. Chameleon's first name is Mumler is a reference to William H. Mumler, who invented spirit photography.
External Links[]
- Mr. Chameleon on the Goosebumps Wiki