Publisher's Synopsis
A four-volume set of spooky features aimed at young people. In the animated fantasy 'Coraline' (2009), after moving into her new home with her work-fixated parents, Coraline Jones (voice of Dakota Fanning) teams up with new friend Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.) to explore the neighbourhood. Deciding it's just as dull as she thought, she turns her attentions to her own house, where, after following a button-eyed mouse, she stumbles upon a hidden door. Crawling through the passage beyond, Coraline emerges into an eerie, parallel version of her own world. In the animated feature, 'Casper' (1995), a ghost therapist has been hired by the greedy owner of Whipstaff Manor to exorcise the house of its spirits, including the friendly, but lonely, Casper (voice of Malachi Pearson). He inhabits the house with his three crazy uncles Stretch (Joe Nipote), Stinkie (Joe Alaskey) and Fatso (Brad Garrett), who do everything in their power to prevent their own eviction. In 'Cirque du Freak' (2009), Chris Massoglia stars as Darren, a 14-year-old boy who unintentionally disrupts a 200-year ceasefire between two rival vampire gangs. Darren is then drawn into a world of sideshow freaks and creatures of the night, disappearing from his ordinary life into a place of nightmares where he must face his fate - a fate which leads him to a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) who turns him into a half-human, half-vampire. Finally, in the animated post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure '9' (2009) the human race has been destroyed by machines which they themselves created. All that exists, aside from a number of the machines, is a group of sapient rag dolls brought to life by a scientist in the final days of humanity who stumble upon 9 (voiced by Elijah Wood), another of their own kind. The group, consisting of war veteran and leader 1 (Christopher Plummer), frail inventor 2 (Martin Landau), non-verbal twins 3 and 4, engineer 5 (John C Reilly), vision-plagued artist 6 (Crispin Glover), brave fighter 7 (Jennifer Connelly), and dim but strong 8 (Fred Tatasciore), welcome 9 in the hope that he can help them muster the courage to battle the remaining machines and save what is left of the world.