Goosebumps Horrorland #4: The Scream of the Haunted Mask

Blurb

After the worst Halloween ever, Carly Beth assumed that nothing could be scarier than a drooling rubber mask with a mind of its own. The Haunted Mask is its name. Don't wear it out.

One year later, the ugly, green mask mysteriously calls out to her again, and ugly, green masks don't like to be ignored.
If Carly Beth can survive the night, even a terrifying amusement park like HorrorLand might seem like a vacation. Then again, maybe not . . .

Plot
Our heroine, Carly Beth Caldwell, wakes up in the middle of the night and uncontrollably walks to the basement, hearing her name being called. This is a really good opening, which is commendable, considering what this series has graced us with so far. She walks over to the back of the basement, and retrieves... the haunted mask. While this book is more enjoyable than the rest of the series so far, there is one glaring problem: it relies a lot on you having read the first haunted mask, because anyone who hasn't will just be confused as to how Carly Beth knows about the haunted mask. She is about to put it on, but manages to will herself to put it down, kind of like when you want to continue the arc of Horrorland, but the next book is Monster Blood for Breakfast.


The next morning, Carly Beth goes to the daycare with her friend, Sabrina Mason, who doesn't know what Catwoman is (more on that next week). They apparently work there, meaning these girls are amazingly strong willed to have not gone insane. Masks possessing your body? Yeah, Carly Beth has encountered something even more sanity-twisting: 2 year olds! They meet up with their friend Laura, who was never in the series at this point, meaning that she's probably not a human. At the daycare, they are told to get the children to pick apples, because of course children in nurseries can reach high enough to achieve such a task. Carly Beth and Sabrina spy a stable, and thank god Laura is there, because they just leave to go and investigate. Carly Beth thinks she hears a horse's whinny coming from the empty stable, meaning either the 2 year olds have got to her or it's ghosts. Probably 2 year olds. Laura pulls them aside, leaving us wondering who's looking after the kids, and explains that one night all the horses died of fright. Apparently, one of the stable boys had scared them by wearing a mask, and was promptly trampled by said horses. Good prank, kid. The person in charge of the daycare, Mrs Lange, interjects, saying that the boy allegedly roams the earth as a ghost, looking for the mask, which is something she knows apparently. Also, like I just said, who's looking after the kids?

Carly Beth goes home, and before going to bed, she checks on the haunted mask. Question, how did it get in her basement? Did she just manage to *removed for spoiler alert reasons for the first Haunted Mask* and then stick the mask in her basement? It seems to be writhing around (or at least as much as a mask can) and whispering, "Almost halloween..." Look, mate, the nostalgia critic's first halloween episode will be up tonight, be a bit more patient.

The next day, Carly Beth calls up Sabrina, and they remember about a report they have to do on urban legends. They decide to do it on the stables at the daycare, so there they head. Carly Beth dumps some carrots outside, for the ghost horses, meaning the kids have probably gotten to her completely by now. She hears a horse whinny, but Sabrina reasons that it was probably just Chuck and Steve, 2 supporting characters from the first haunted mask, who were always pranking Carly Beth and Sabrina. Unfortunately, Chuck and Steve, like good monster blood sequels, are nowhere to be found. Carly Beth then finds..... the carrots are gone. Oh my god I'm going to wet myself. Carly Beth and Sabrina, in an uncharacteristic move for people in horror, understandably leg it ,though CB looks back and sees a boy near the stable.

The next day, Carly Beth and Sabrina are once again at the daycare, (because they have nowhere else to go. Seriously, why aren't they at school?) Mrs Lange asks them to help supervise a kids party on halloween night, a night that should probably traumatise Carly Beth and make her want to go to bed all night until it's over. But, nope, Carly Beth and Sabrina agree, and leave. Carly Beth decides to investigate the stable, because that's what I'd do when everything pointed to it being haunted. There will not be a joke about 2 year olds here, because I'm getting sick of them. But there is a kid named Clark in the stable, who claims that he lives nearby, and since it's obvious that he's the ghost, he can't be the ghost. Carly Beth decides to confide in Clark about her encounter with the haunted mask the previous year, but he logically doesn't believe her. Wow, judging by what I've seen from these books so far, "logically" isn't a word I thought I'd be using this much. Carly Beth suspects that he's hiding something, and leaves, hearing a horse's whinny when she departs.

On the way home, Carly Beth passes the shop where she bought the haunted mask, and decides to drop in. She asks the shopkeeper to take back the haunted mask, but because it's been well over 28 days since she bought it, he declines her request. He also explains that the mask will destroy anyone who wears it, so Carly Beth's life has probably worn it, seeing as she's spending most her time at the daycare. He also says that it will go after her again on halloween night, because apparently that's the only time it decides to do anything if the other books are anything to go by, before he promptly kicks Carly Beth out of the shop. She goes home and decides to check on the haunted mask, but it's gone. It probably realised it was in a Horrorland book, and didn't want to meet Matt Daniels or Billy Deep, so it left.

It's halloween night, and, presumably to escape from Tumblr's skeleton war, Carly Beth and Sabrina go to the daycare to supervise a kid's halloween party. Wow, sounds thrilling. In the most ridiculous moment in this book, Carly Beth finds a book on the history of the daycare, because daycares usually have history books about themselves. She finds a picture of the stable boy who allegedly scared the horses and he looks like Clark, and yet I'm still not convinced he did it because this is goosebumps, where we have to have about 2 fakeouts a week. She goes to tell Sabrina, but runs into Clark, who she accuses of being a ghost. He of course denies it, because it's not true, as it turns out the boy in the picture was his grandfather. But then, all of the masks the kids were wearing (which were made of paper bags, showcasing this place's adeptness at safety) suddenly become attatched to their heads. I thought this was "The Scream of the Haunted Mask," not "The Scream of the Haunted Masks." Wow, I'm running out of ideas here. In comes Laura, who reveals that she was the ghost the whole time! Good lord, I'm so surprised. She tells Carly Beth that the only way to save the kids is to return the haunted mask, because Laura was the one who had come up with the terrible idea of scaring the horses with the mask and getting trampled. Wait, how does this work? I thought the shopkeeper had made the haunted mask as a failed experiment (more on that next week). Laura claims that she'll only rest once she has the mask. And then, because we haven't had enough revelations yet, Sabrina shows up and reveals that she buried the mask near the stable to protect Carly Beth. Carly Beth digs it up, but realises that Laura will probably double cross her, because apparently she's the main villain, and not the haunted mask. Man, I don't know where I would've got that idea from a book called "The Scream of the Haunted Mask!" So, Carly Beth dons the haunted mask, because that is what I would do: put on the mask that caused me so much trauma the last time I wore it!

Laura redirects her attention to Carly Beth when she shows up wearing the mask, and thus allows the kids to take off their masks and not suffocate, which is good, seeing as we've already had one child murdered in this book, we don't need 12-ish more. Carly Beth and Laura fight, causing them to end up in a field, where a stampede of ghost horses stampede Laura, killing her, but not really? I don't know, it's really confusing. The horses return to Carly Beth, and just stand there, I guess. She, unlike the rest of us who didn't really care about it, remembers the carrots she gave the horses, and pets them. Because the haunted mask can be removed by anything to do with love, since it was originally created for a care bears movie apparently, Carly Beth takes off the mask. And now it's time for our regularly scheduled mediocre twist. OK, what're you gonna throw at us this time? Well, while Carly Beth is holding it, the haunted mask says, "You're my favourite, Carly Beth. See you next halloween." Wow, does that even count as a twist ending?  

Enter Horrorland
Presumably before the events of the main story, because otherwise this takes place almost a year after that, Carly Beth gets an invite to, you guessed it, Disneyland. She decides to bring Sabrina along for the ride, because of course she does. While they attend the thankfully-not-pun-named Mondo's magic show, they bump into Billy Deep and Matt Daniels. Yaaaaay. The 2 boys reveal that they are in search of Billy's sister, Sheena, as well as Britney Crosby and Molly Molloy (admit it, you would've forgotten they even existed if it wasn't for me just bringing them up and also how much I love typing Molly Molloy's name), as well as a horror called Byron, who unfortunately has nothing to do with the burger establishment of the same name.


At the start of the show, Mondo the Magician makes Sheena appear onstage, because magic. She reveals that she saw Britney and Molly Molloy riding a flaming carousel covered in flames in a dream. Wow, that wasn't a goosebumps dream at all - they were supposed to pull a ridiculous fake out on us that made the entire sequence entirely obsolete! Matt warns Carly Beth that, since she is one of the very special guests, the pants wetting name given to all of our protagonists for the first 10 books of the series, she is probably in grave danger. Billy, Sheena, Matt, Carly Beth, and Sabrina (who is still there, apparently) sneak backstage, and find Byron's name tag, next to a flyer for a ride called "The Wheel of Fire." Shame they didn't call it the ring of fire, they could've picked up another lawsuit from Johnny Cash!

The gang sets off in search of the ride, but Carly Beth spies the haunted mask in a mask shop window, probably taking a holiday there. She and Sabrina decide to pay the shop a visit to escape from Billy, Sheena, and Matt, and within, they find masks that look like Britney and Molly Molloy (those things which no-one remembers from the first part of this story). They seem to whisper vague warnings to Carly Beth, such as "Don't make assumptions, the story's starting to improve." Carly Beth screams, but the horror at the counter says that the wind was just making the mouths on the masks move, because that is completely believable. Carly Beth and Sabrina leave the shop so that the story can move quicker and we can get to the good parts more quickly. They overhear 2 of the monster police, the law enforcers in Horrorland, saying that 2 of the very special guests have already been dealt with.

Our heroines set out to look for Matt, Billy and Sheena. Trust me, ladies, it's not worth it. As night falls, they decide to head into Wolfsbane Forest. Because the place full of werewolves would be the most suitable idea when night falls. Also, where are Carly Beth's parents? Did they just go off with Britney's parents in the 1st book? Actually, where are everyone's parents? Anyhoo, Carly Beth and Sabrina realise that they're lost, in that they have no idea where this story is going and also because they cannot find their way out. They start hearing wolves howling, in a display of a chilling atmosphere. Wow, this story is getting really good. I'm actually looking forward to the rest of the series! We just need to check the final box in this book, however: a really lame cliffhanger. OK, what've you got for us? A dark figure jumps out in front of them, but it's probably not a werewolf, this is goosebumps, after all.

Ridiculous name of the week
The daycare Carly Beth, Sabrina and Laura work at is called Tumbledown Farm. Yeah, sounds fun and cheery for all the kiddies!


The obvious fake out duo
Clark, the kid who is not a ghost, and Laura, the girl who actually is a ghost.

Extra Toppings
Who's idea was it to build a daycare right next to the supposedly haunted stable? Won't it scare the kiddies; and also, there's, y'know, ghosts?


Conclusion
The Scream of the Haunted Mask is a fantastic book; probably the best one I've covered so far. The pacing and the way it builds tension is great, and even the Horrorland bit is enjoyable. That's no small feat for this series (at least up to this point), and I genuinely look forward to covering the other books in the 1st arc (except Say Cheese and Die Screaming). The only problem is that it relies quite a bit on you having read the first book, but that can be easily overlooked. Overall, a definite recommendation from me.